“a God who judges” (1)
[Psalms 58]
I stopped by this afternoon at a nursing home and turned on the radio on the way to the church. And I came across the news of a pastor from a large church in Los Angeles assaulting his wife on a Korean radio broadcast. In the news, I heard the reporter say: ‘Some pointed out that we should look back at the current church members who are only looking at the position of pastor and seeking unconditional follow-up. … It is argued that the members themselves need judgment.’ I was little bit surprised when I heard this news. I also thought that through this thing, the glory of God would be hidden and evangelism would be blocked. In the meantime, I sympathized with the claim that, as the news said, ‘the members themselves need judgment.’ The reason is because I think we Christians are losing judgment. When I think about what the cause us, I think it is because the famine of hearing God's word has already come (Am 8:11). Since we cannot heart the word of God, even though there are countless sermon broadcasts and numerous Bible books, our judgment is inevitably blurred. Many of us Christians seem to know God's word very well in our minds, but we don’t seem to know His word in our hearts. Therefore, rather than being led by the word of God, we are drawn to things like circumstances and emotions. In the end, our judgment was blurred by the famine of hearing His word.
Pastor John Han says in his book ‘Leader, Have the Heart of a Lion’: ‘… Don't interpret God's will based only on visible circumstances. Rather, we must interpret the situation with the will of God. Don't judge God, let God judge you. Don’t keep speaking before God, but listen quietly to what God says to you’ (Internet). We must interpret the situation we face with God's will. And in order for God to judge us, we must remain silent before Him and hear His voice. At the Wednesday night prayer meeting last week, the voice that God gave us through the words of Psalms 57 was “My heart is steadfast, O God.” Especially as we meditated on the David’s saying “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!” (v. 7), we learned that our hearts also must be steadfast. Even in the midst of the disaster he faced (v. 1), David’s heart was steadfast and praised God. However, it would not have been so easy for David to come to this place of praise. In other words, David's heart wasn’t very comfortable until his heart was steadfast. How do we know this? We know this when David confessed his feelings, "My soul is bowed down" (v. 6) while running away from Saul. What if we were in the unfair and distress situation like David? As Psalms 58:11 says, we must look to God who judges. In other words, we must trust in God's righteous judgment. I hope that this will be an opportunity to listen to the voice of the Lord by meditating on one thing today and thinking about the other two next week to see what kind of God is the God who judges under the title of “a God who judges”.
First, “a God who judges” is the God who rebukes the wicked (Ps. 58:1-5).
In Psalms 58:1-5, we can see that a just and judge God rebuking David's enemy, the wicked. As we think about His rebuke in four ways, I hope that we can use it as an opportunity for self-reflection to see if God is rebuking us or not.
(1) God’s rebuke is ‘Don’t be silent!’
Look at Psalms 58:1 – “Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?” Although “Speech is silver; Silence is gold” makes sense, but among the silences there are cowardly silences, and even evil silences. What is evil silence? It refers to the silence that doesn’t say the right thing that we suppose to say (Park). To be silent when we see injustice, to remain silent without having to speak righteousness is evil silence. In Isaiah 56:10, prophet Isaiah said that Israel’s watchmen, that is, the shepherds, were “mute dogs” who couldn’t bark. The dog's responsibility was to bark when “beasts” (v. 9) come. Nevertheless, the Israeli shepherds didn’t. They didn't take on the role of watchmen. Therefore, the God’s flock was caught by wolves and were eaten and was wandered in the fields and mountains (Ezek. 34). What was the cause? The cause was greed. The Israeli shepherds were in greed, "Each one to his unjust gain" (Isa. 56:11). While they were feeding themselves with fat, they didn’t feed the flock properly with the word of God. The Israeli shepherds who didn’t take on the role of the watchmen but rather coveted themselves were the "mute dogs." Their silence was 'evil silence'.
When I apply this God's rebuke to myself, my conscience was stricken by the word “mute dogs” in Isaiah 56:10. When I was in seminary, an elderly pastor, a well-known from immigrant churches, came and talked about the sermons. And I remember hearing him saying to us ‘Preach the sermons of comfort.’ In addition to that pastor, I also remember hearing a few other pastors advising me to preach the sermons that can comfort the church members. ‘Healing sermons’ seem to be popular these days. I feel that way even more when I see other pastors keeping of talking about ‘healing, healing’. However, I wonder if I and other preachers, as God's servants, are preaching the word of God faithfully. For example, even though there is a word in the Bible that rebukes our sins, when we think about whether we the preachers are preaching that word of rebuke as it is, as we all know to some extent, it’s hard to hear that word of rebuke anymore. If this is true, aren’t we the pastors the “mute dogs” as prophet Isaiah said? When a wolf comes, the dog that guards the flock must bark. But what if the dog eats only its own food and doesn’t take full responsibility as dog, then the dog is a mute dog and useless. Further, the dog is the one which kills God's flock. Therefore, we must not be silent. We must judge uprightly and speak righteousness (Ps. 58:1).
(2) God’s rebuke is ‘Don’t work unrighteousness in your heart!’
Look at Psalms 58:2 – “No, in heart you work unrighteousness; On earth you weigh out the violence of your hands.” The wicked Israeli officials and leaders worked unrighteousness even though they said they judged uprightly with their speech that was smoother than butter (55:21) (Park). In short, they were hypocrites. Jesus said in Matthew 7:5 – “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” The hypocrites must face their own false heart, the heart that does evil. Then the hypocrite has to take “the speck” out of their own eye.
We need courage. We need the courage to face our own “speck”. With the eyes of God's word, we must face the innermost part of our hearts. The reason is because God desires truth in the innermost being (Ps.51:6). We must never be believers whose words and hearts are inconsistent. We must not become so used to religious rituals that we forget ourselves and misunderstand and pretend to live a life of faith. We must repent our innermost sin to God with a broken spirit as we let the word of righteous God to judge our hearts. Therefore, we must become people after God’s own heart like David. We should never be hypocrites. In front of God who sees our hearts, we must live a life of right faith, right heart, and right conduct.
(3) God’s rebuke is ‘Don’t lie!’
Look at Psalms 58:3 – “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.” The wicked accumulate evil deeds from childhood and don’t repent in the end, so they are full of sins (Park). Among those sins, the wicked commit habitual sin of lying. Therefore, they are used to go to a side path. We must not lie. And we must not go side path by lying.
(4) God’s rebuke is ‘Hear the voice!’.
Look at Psalms 58:5 – “So that it does not hear the voice of charmers, Or a skillful caster of spells.” Like the poison of a snake, like a viper that harms human life, the wicked are trying to harm our lives. These wicked men, says David, are like “a viper which doesn’t hear the voice of charmers. There are sorcerers in Arabia and India who lure snakes with instruments that are like tungso and drums. And when they play the instruments and make sounds, the snakes hear the sound and move. David says that the wicked men are like a cobra that doesn’t hear the sound. In a word, the wicked are like the “deaf cobra” (v. 4).
As I meditate on the words of God rebuking the wicked, I ask myself the question whether I am a “mute dog,” whether I work unrighteousness in my heart, whether I lie, and whether I am listening to God’s voice or not. In the meantime, I ask myself whether I am not boldly proclaiming the word of God like ‘the mute dog’ because I cannot hear God’s voice like ‘the deaf cobra’. I hope and pray that I will become a watchman-like shepherd who listens to the word of truth and boldly proclaims it while pursuing truthfulness at the innermost being.
Longing to listen to God's rebuke,
James Kim
(With the hope that God may open my heart and ear so that I may hear His voice and speak His truth boldly)