Vengeance

Psalm 5:10 Declare them guilty, O God!
       Let their intrigues be their downfall.
     Banish them for their many sins,
       for they have rebelled against you.

Don’t you just want to get even sometimes? Maybe just a little bit, for a brief moment? Well, I know I do. Sometimes I just want justice to happen NOW! I don’t want to wait for the slow wheels to turn.

I heard in the news about another confessed murderer who has been on death row for over twenty years. They confessed. They were willing to die for their crimes. And yet they sit on death row wasting tax payer money, my money, your money. And the family of the victim waits for the sentence declared all those years ago to be carried out. Justice?

So what do we do with this real and perhaps even justified feeling? How do we handle it in a manner that brings glory to the LORD? How do we become someone in step with the justice of God?

Our text in one of many individual lament songs in the Scriptures. These laments bring these types of troubling emotions right into the presence of the faith community and into the presence of the LORD. No use in trying to hide these emotions. They will just eat you up from the inside out.

All those emotions become part of the worship experience. For most of us, these emotions are not present in our worship services. We tend, these days, to focus on the upbeat emotions during our times of corporate worship experiences. Happiness is good; sadness is bad.

So I am thankful that the Psalms give voice to these neglected emotions. Anger, revenge, frustration, hatred, despair, hopelessness. These emotions get a voice in the Psalms, and thus as we read them, we can express them to the LORD and to each other. The silent is brought into God’s presence and said out loud.

It is not that these neglected emotions aren’t expressed other places. Just drive along any interstate highway around a city during rush hour and you will see and hear them. Watch the videos of people expressing their frustration toward people in stores, or random strangers on the street. It gets expressed, just not in a healthy manner.

We are invited to bring all those messy emotions right into the middle of the faith community in worship. And if you read the rest of these psalms, even the verses right before and right after these neglected emotions, you will see the balancing side also. Positive, uplifting emotions are expressed right next to the messy ones. In the same song!

One of the songs I sing at church talks about gardens and deserts, both being a place where the LORD walks with me. He is present in every situation in my life, not just the pleasant ones, the easy ones, the neat and tidy ones. He wants to be acknowledged always, in every circumstance, in every season in our lives.