Who is on Trial?
Psalm 58: 1-12
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A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
In the south-eastern pacific ocean there is a small island named Easter Island. The peculiarity of this island is its vast collection of large carved faces, scattered in groups around the island. It would appear that when a Dutch sea captain discovered the islands on Easter Sunday in 1722, the natives worshiped the carved heads which had been modeled somewhat on the features of their ancestors. These great ones today stand silent even as they did when they were worshipped. Many have toppled over and it would appear that their care and carving stopped rather suddenly. This is not the first time that a religion collapsed over night. It also happened to the Maya in pre-Columbian America.
More recently at the beginning of the last decade, Soviet atheism suffered a similar meltdown. Certainly, the struggle for freedom from that hopeless faith in Eastern Europe is far from over. Yet, the sudden collapse of the atheistic power base has revealed the emptiness of the Russian soul. Before we rejoice too much, we ought to consider our own political situation. Yes, the Russian atheists took great delight in persecuting the Russian Christians for seventy some years. Yes, death and martyrdom were very common even as late as the early eighties when the Russian psychiatrists sought chemical and surgical cures for religious faith.
Well, thank goodness that these things can never happen here you think? Think again, the typical Russian soul is just as empty as the ordinary American, because we are all fallen creatures. When we look upon the Russian history of this century we must understand that even in America we have been following a parallel course that is only slightly safer in degree! An old Scots song ran "Ye take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll get to Scotland afore Ye". Which road we American saints have been given leads to heaven just as assuredly as that road assigned to the Russian saints. What we have failed to realize these many years is that our journey is just as perilous spiritually as that of the Russian saints. Here in psalm fifty-eight, where David speaks bluntly about the power of leaders, we are invited to look in a mirror and consider our own American situation.
Spurgeon divided this particular psalm into three sections. He sees in this psalm a case in court. In the first five verses the accusation is made, in the second three verses judgment is sought and in the closing three verses the execution of the sentence is prophetically known.
A long time ago I watched a television show where a court case was in progress. It was seen through the eyes of one character who assumed that he was part of the jury. Imagine his surprise when the tense ending came and suddenly the spotlight was upon himself and he found himself accused of the crime for which he found the evidence overwhelming! Do we dare allow our souls to look into this dark mirror today? An older translation issues this invitation for verse one: "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?"
In a World War Two documentary filmed at the opening of one of the death camps in Germany, the local Germans were brought in for a tour and they were addressed in the familiar tone of their language. Do you see what you have allowed? Do you see what you have done? In that language, there are two words for you. There is a polite form which is generic in nature, and there is the very personal form which applies to the person being addressed. In that speech, the very personal form was used and the locals were held personally responsible for the drift into Nazism. Since these camps were usually in remote rural areas, it was the small townsmen, the farmers who were being addressed. Ten years before it was these self-same conservative rural people who provided the essential votes to bring Hitler to power!
Well, you may be thinking, I can't be blamed for our present economic and political situation! Most of you would be very comfortable with a bumper sticker I heard about, it read something like this: "Don't be a Village Idiot when you vote!". Aha, we might well want to focus on the faults of our leaders, which the Hebrew of this psalm will allow. However, if we are indeed the salt and light of culture, we must take the invitation of the King James very seriously indeed. "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Look at the answer in verse two: "No". That's simple enough isn't it. But, like my students and many little children we may not understand that simple answer "No". On my bulletin board at school, I have a little poster that reads: "What part of NO don't you understand?" We are implicated very directly in this verse because it is "your heart" and "your hands" which are emphasized.
Our unredeemed human condition is carefully spelled out in verse three. Here is the charge leveled against all of us descended from Adam. We are all indeed fallen creatures from birth. Some of us may just be a little tamer than others. The pet Cobra of the snake charmer is described here in verse four and five. We may well understand that even a pet snake is still a snake. Even as the psalmist declares here, snakes are indeed deaf and the tune of the charmer is unheard. The hypnotic movement of the instrument is the key to managing the creature. Is this why ritual and entertainment are so popular amongst some congregations? Do people actually go to Church to be hypnotized so that they can lead themselves to think they are better than they really are? If we are indeed spiritually deaf by nature, than well do we need the power of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and lead us safely home to heaven in and through Jesus Christ.
If the grace of our Father is not given through the working of the Holy Spirit, we have only to consider the way of the wicked outlined in the rest of our psalm today. Please understand, that just as the Robert Frost poem encouraged his readers to take the road least traveled, so should we want the upward way that leads to heaven. Are you on that road? Are you part of the Kingdom of heaven? Do you belong to Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit? If you do not, look carefully at the rest of this psalm that describes the well traveled road to destruction, physical and spiritual. Spurgeon's justice of the court is requested beginning in verse six.
David speaks for everysaint when he declares his hope that at long last, true justice may be handed out. May the wicked have their teeth broken, the very teeth which they have used to chew up their prey. May the wicked vanish like water running down hill, may the wither like crushed weeds reads some translations.
Verse eight, like other phrases in this psalm, is indeed difficult to translate. The slug simile here may be inappropriate. One suggested translation links 8a and 8b with this thought. "Like a miscarriage melts away, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun." What a grim scene is here. Isn't it really unnatural that so many sinners are lost? Isn't it tragic that so many sinners will not listen to God's invitation to come and follow Him. Instead of a second birth, their whole spiritual life miscarries and they pass away, lost forever.
Now, verse nine is almost impossible to translate in our day and age. One possibility is that "before the thorns grow into a bush, they are blown away." Now it is unnatural to expect a bush to grow from a thorn and so how much should we expect from the wicked? Only a miracle can change a thorny sinner into a productive saint.
Thanks be to God, that He has chosen to work with such thorns as we! And because He has chosen us, we may rejoice on the last day when God comes to judge the earth. The reality of His coming will turn our eyes to heaven and away from the terrible destruction under our feet. His elected righteous will be rewarded and all the earth will know that there is a God who judges the earth. What will be the nature of your case when He comes to judge the earth? Will you be part of the bloody miscarried mess underfoot? Or will you instead be redeemed and praising God for undeserved grace? May you by God's grace reflect upon your own calling, and while there is still time, remember that He is coming and He will judge the earth. May you be found in Christ. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
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Kidner, Derek. |
Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms. | |
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Spurgeon, C.H. |
The Treasury of David. | |
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The Holy
Bible, New King James
Version. | ||
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058a |
21 March 93 & 16 January 00 | |