Have you ever experienced the sting of injustice? Martin Luther King Jr. experienced injustice as did 20 million African Americans under the imposition of segregation with all of its attendant implications. Sitting in a Birmingham jail, he penned a letter to his Fellow Clergymen everywhere in response to a letter published in the New York Times written by an Alabama clergyman charging the Birmingham Movement as “unwise and untimely.” From his jail cell, he contemplated the meaning of justice and injustice and the out working of these in law and society. He said two types of laws exist: “just and unjust.” He said, “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” He then argued the difference between just and unjust laws. “A just law,” King said, “is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. (“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 16 April 1963).
King’s basic argument is that the measure of what is right and wrong, just and unjust is the character of God as revealed in the Bible. Justice is a much larger matter than law codes. God himself, his righteous, unchanging character is the standard by which all men are judged. Psalm 35 is a “Letter from an Israeli King” grappling with the problem of injustice.
The psalm has close affinity with psalm 34 and 36, the psalms immediately before and after it. Logan Smith commented, “I read this morning Ps. 34 which thanks the Lord for his deliverance. On the other hand, Ps. 35 then asks the Lord to deliver David and to judge his enemies. Comfortingly, the prayer voiced in Ps. 35 will be answered (Ps. 36:12 – "There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise), and believers will enjoy God's presence forever. Now you know why I LOVE Ps. 34–36.” (An email from Logan Smith, 24 March 2014).
The psalm divides into three sections: complaint, prayer, and a promise of praise. We will briefly walk through these sections of the psalm and then make some applications (the applications will be on the screen).
The psalmist pleads with God to take up his cause in verses 1-3. Verse one is an example of the poetry of justice. Verses 4-6 and 8 are imprecations. We struggle for no reason with imprecations. It is much too simplistic to define an imprecation as a curse. An imprecation is better thought of as a request for righteous judgment upon those who do injustice, a setting of things right. This is a huge point. If things are not set right, justice is a myth, salvation topples, and life and eternity are hopeless.
The only way to escape bitterness and desires for personal vengeance in this world is to trust in the judgment of God. You can only love your enemy if you are confident that God judge between you.
In verse 7 David declares that he is suffering unjustly. Of the 6 times the phrase “without cause” is used in the psalter, 3 are in this psalm (v7, 19). Verses 8-9 are a promise of praise.
In verses 11-16, the psalmist makes his case that he is suffering unjustly. He does this by contrasting his treatment of those who oppose him and their treatment of him. He shows how they repaid “evil for good” (12). He fasted, prayed, and humbled himself before the LORD in their behalf (13-14). What did they do? At the first sign of weakness, they attacked the psalmist like beasts (15-16). The psalmist laments the Lord’s delay in rescuing him and promises to praise Him publicly when delivered (17-18).
In verses 19-26, the psalmist pleads for the LORD not to let his enemies gloat over him (19a, 24c) because they perpetuate injustice not only against the psalmist (19d) but also in the entire land (20). The psalmist desires that God “Awake” and vindicate him (23-24) by doing to his enemies what they intended to do to him (26 c.f. 4). Again he promises not only his praise but the praise of the congregation (27-28).
In dealing with the problem of injustice, we hear 3 voices in this Psalm—The voice of God, the voice of evil, and the voice of the psalmist and the congregation. In 4 places in this psalm, the psalmist puts words in the mouth of God (3b), evil people (21b, 25), and himself and the congregation (10, 27) (Wilson, NIVAC, 578-9). I want us to hear these voices as they relate to injustice so that we may be helped in grappling with injustice in our world and in our lives. I am going to refer to these voices in personal terms because they are personal—God is personal, evil is personal, and we are persons.
David begins the psalm with a legal metaphor (contend) (1a) and moves immediately to a battlefield metaphor (1b-3a). David’s encounter of injustice is like a dramatic courtroom scene and the brutality of an ancient battle. Into this visual imagery, David brings the character of God. He puts the words in God’s mouth that he so wants to hear Him say, “I am your salvation!” (3b).
The vision is one of God storming through the courtroom doors or racing on the battlefield with the shout, “I am your salvation!” God is the salvation of His people. There is no other savior. We must realize the gravity of this thought. We cannot scheme our way through this world. Sooner or later, all pretense, pride, positioning, and posturing must be put away. We are all as desperate as Jonah was in the belly of the fish when cried out, Salvation belongs to the Lord! (Jon. 2:9). What else could he do? Swim? We are as dependent for God to shout “I am your salvation!” over our lives, our trouble, and our sin as Jonah was to get out of that whale.
How does God relate to an unjust world and to His people living in it?
Those who seek to shame and disgrace God’s people (4) will experience shame and disgrace (26). Those who set a trap with be caught in it, and those who dig a pit will fall in it (7-8). This is poetic justice. This is the irony of divine justice. You don’t expect someone to get caught in his own trap.
The idea of shame or being caught in one’s own evil schemes is the idea of exposing evil people for what they are in light of the character of God. This gets to the heart of the concept of shame in the Bible. Shame is not so much an emotion as it is outward, visible, public disgrace, a discrediting that cannot be overcome. Shame is a discrediting that “spin” cannot alter. This is like the final scene in a Perry Mason trial when the witness realizes that he or she is exposed as the guilty criminal. It is damning.
For the psalmist to desire that his enemies experience the shame they intended for him is not simply a wish to strike out and hurt his enemy. Rather shame is a desire that the inward truth of the evil character of His enemies would be made known in public over against the righteous character of God. This is why for example the Scripture speaks for Jesus experiencing the public humiliation of bearing our sin (Heb 12:2, despising the shame), yet in His redeeming work, He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15 ESV). He openly, publicly demonstrated the righteous character of God and exposed the darkness of demons and men. The resurrection is inconvertible proof that they crucified the Son of God.
Ultimate shame is the experience of eternal damnation. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 10:11 ESV). What is done in secret will be shouted from the housetops. You have done little if you get through this life covering your tracks and hiding your sin. For eternity, you will be exposed for all to see your true nature and character.
Friend, all of us deserve eternal shame. There is enough evil in the best us to shock the rest of us. Jesus bore such shame, the shame He despised, on the cross. Come to Christ and acknowledge your blameworthiness before Him. He will take away not only your sin but the shame of it as well. The justice of God is poetic. The punishment fits the crime.
God alone is able to uphold justice. This is why we have lament psalms. If killing were all that was needed to set things right, the psalmist could have done that himself.
This is like the river scene shootout in Tombstone. The Cowboy gang led by Curly Bill Brody had murdered Wyatt Earp’s brother Gordon. At this point in the movie, Earp and his deputies take on a type of apocalyptic persona to inflict justice on the Cowboy gang. Earp walked out into the river under heavy, close-range gunfire and shot Curly Bill Brody. After the smoke cleared, Doc Holladay was lying in the shade of a tree. Texas Jack said to Doc, “I’ve never seen anything like that. He must really want revenge.” Doc Holladay replied, “Make no mistake this is not revenge; this is a reckoning.”
God will uphold justice because whatever is just is a reflection of His character. He cannot be other than who He is. He cannot decide to be unjust. He cannot decide that murder is fine, adultery is good, or homosexuality is wholesome. Justice is a reality because God is a reality. God’s righteousness is the measure of vindication (24). When all things are set right, the psalmist tells of the righteousness of God not his own (28).
God will contend with those who contend with His people; He will fight with those who fight against His people (1). We have already seen from verse 24 that it is a righteous thing with God to defend His people. To fail to vindicate His people is as impossible as not raising Christ from the grave. His resurrection assures our vindication and the exaltation of His righteousness. Sure vindication eliminates the need to get even.
Those who devise evil will be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the LORD driving them away (5). Their attempts to escape are dark and slippery with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! (6). This attempt to escape is as helpless as that dream where you are trying to get away and can’t get traction. The destruction of the planners of evil will come upon them suddenly (8a).
God relates personally to his people and those who do injustice in the world. We should pray for the setting of things right not for the sake of our reputation alone but for the reputation of God.
A second voice we hear in the psalm is the personality of evil as it perpetuates injustice in the world. “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it!” (v21). “Aha, our heart’s desire!” “...We have swallowed him up.” (25). Goldingay translates “aha” (he’ah) as “hurrah” because it expresses joy. Evil is not some abstract force out there in the universe, but it is personal. The devil is a person. The powers are persons. They energize the spirit of the age, this world’s system, through persons under their control and influence. This psalm lets us see the personality of evil working injustice in the world.
Three times in this psalm, the psalmist laments that he is being opposed “without cause” (7, 19). This is how things should be. We should always be opposed without cause, and we should never be surprised. This is why Peter said, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you (1 Pet 4:12).
Back to our movie Tombstone. Johnny Ringo is the incarnation of evil. In distress, Wyatt Earp ask Doc Holladay, “What makes a man like Ringo? What makes him do the things he does?” Holladay replies, “A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.” Earp questions, “What does he need?” Answers Doc, “Revenge.” “For what?” says Earp. “Bein’ born.” Holladay answers.
So the Scripture says, All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Personal evil opposes the righteous because it is in the nature of evil to oppose the righteous. All we have to do to incur the wrath of evil men is to preach the undiluted gospel of Jesus Christ. To represent gospel interests in the world is no justifiable provocation for persecution. The gospel itself undergirds promotes and strengthens good governance, law and order, good citizenship, and civil society. Yet the nature of the gospel is to expose personal evil’s deconstruction of all things good, and the person of evil will not have it (20)
In this psalm, personal evil is making a case against the psalmist. The psalmist has done nothing but good to his opponents, yet they “repay evil for good” (12). They scanned his life for any point of accusation (15-16). When they could find no evidence, they invented it. They promote evil in the land but spin it to accuse the psalmist of promoting evil. “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it” (21b). Their whole desire is simply to destroy him. “Aha, our heart’s desire! We have swallowed him up” (25).
You have to beware of people who are making a case against others. This wariness is a fundamental axiom of life, not to mention a biblical principle. We live in a time when a case is being made against evangelicalism due to our opposition to the big societal sins. We oppose abortion. The spin is we are evil because we are not for the right of a woman to choose. All most people would need to do is read Margaret Sanger’s own words to realize the staggering depth of evil behind this movement. We oppose same sex marriage. The spin is we are not for civil rights. I find it deeply offensive to take the high moral ground on which Martin Luther King, Jr., stood when he penned his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and attach the agenda of the LBGT lobby to it. Is it just me, or are we talking about two fundamentally different things? Personal evil using the art of spin masquerades as good.
The idea of rejoicing in verses 15a, 19a, and 24b is the concept of gloating and glee over their seeming victory over the righteous. The metaphors of placing a net or digging a pit (7) are telling. If you were wicked and you wanted to capture the righteous, where would you place your net or dig you pit? Obviously, in his path. The wicked know the way of the righteous. They are like snipers who lie in wait for the perfect shot.
I find it interesting that you will never read in the Bible of the righteous setting a net or digging a pit for the wicked. It is impossible for the righteous to compete in this game. It is a contradiction to gloat over a capturing a righteous man for walking the path of righteousness. If you are net setting and pit digging, you are never right. If you always win the argument, it proves nothing but you are a good arguer.
Last, we hear the voice of the people of God as they experience injustice in the world. Each of the three sections of the psalm end in promised praise. Our praise in this world is always going to be from the context of injustice. What is there about God in an unjust world that is praiseworthy?
The psalmist promises, when the wicked are destroyed, he will extol the uniqueness of God with his entire being (9-10). O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and need from him who robs him? (10). The answer to this question is “no one!” I find it interesting that the psalmist talks of the uniqueness of God in terms of Him delivering the poor, weak, and needy. The wicked oppress the poor under the auspices of doing them good. The reality is that the presence of the poor and weak in the world is an indication that God is delivering them. Otherwise this world’s system would eliminate them.
As the people of God, we are called to defend the powerless. We are called to do this because this is what God does. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (Deuteronomy 10:18 ESV)
How did the psalmist know that God defends the poor and weak? He knew it because the law of God says He does. He saw it again and again in the landscape of Israel’s history. O LORD, who is like you? is a quote for the Song of Moses. David knows this is true of God.
We are bring gospel goodness into their lives. Here’s the rub. We expect somehow if we do this thing of entering into their affliction all should go well and life should be rewarding. The psalmist entered in the affliction of those in need only to have them repay him evil for good (11-16).
The people of God enter into the affliction of poor, weak, and needy in whatever form it is to be found hoping for redemption and willing to suffer for the hope and good it may bring. We realize that we above all are poor and weak and needy. The Son of God entered into our suffering, and we nailed Him to a cross. How He has brought hope and gospel good to us.
The psalmist promises that when he is delivered, he will praise God in the great congregation (18). We see, however, the psalmist complain because of the Lord’s long delay (17). He did not suffer alone. He told the people of God. As a result when the psalmist is vindicated, the people of God confess that God delights in the welfare of his servant (27) and they praise God along with the psalmist (28).
How did the congregation know that God delights in the welfare of His servant? The psalmist told them and they entered into his struggle with him. This is part of being the people of God. Had he been unwilling to share with the people of God, 1) he would have isolated himself in his suffering; 2) he may have begun to think no one cares; 3) he may have begun to think wrongly about God; 4) the congregation would not have known of God’s work in his life.
Sharing life together in a world of injustice aids us in seeing the greatness of God in the context of delighting in the well-being of His people.
We have all felt the sting of injustice, but more than that we have all been numbered with the unjust. In our experience of injustice, we share in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. In our doing of injustice, we realize that Christ died bearing the shame of sin. He died for the poor, the weak, and the needy.
He rose again vindicated and to vindicate those who repent of their sin and place their faith in Him.