The Sting Of Injustice

February 20

READ Psalm 28:1–5.
1 To you, LORD, I call; you are my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.
4 Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Because they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

THE STING OF INJUSTICE. David fears being “drag[ged] away with the wicked” (verse 3) to the “pit,” a word that can mean a dungeon for offenders (verse 1). He cries to God at the prospect of being unfairly charged and counted as a corrupt ruler. This is a major theme of the psalms, but not one that most of us in comfortable Western societies can easily understand. “Nothing stings so sharply as injustice, and nothing should; so these verses are not simply vindictive, but put into words the protest of any healthy conscience at the wrongs of the present order, and the conviction that a day of judgment is a moral necessity.”20 Christians should also cry to God day and night against injustice (Luke 18:7).

Prayer: Lord, I pray for justice in the world—for the lifting up of the poor out of their misery, for the breaking of the power of tyrannical regimes, for the end of violence, warfare, racial conflict, and strife. Thank you that you are a God of justice. Amen.