How Long, Oh Lord? (Psalm 94)

Posted by on July 11, 2004 under Sermons

My text for today is Psalm 94 …

    1 O LORD, the God to whom vengeance belongs,
           O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice be seen!
    2Arise, O judge of the earth.
            Sentence the proud to the penalties they deserve.
    3How long, O LORD?
           How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?
    4Hear their arrogance!
           How these evildoers boast!
    5They oppress your people, LORD,
           hurting those you love.
    6They kill widows and foreigners
            and murder orphans.
    7“The LORD isn’t looking,” they say,
           “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”
    8Think again, you fools!
           When will you finally catch on?
    9Is the one who made your ears deaf?
            Is the one who formed your eyes blind?
    10He punishes the nations–won’t he also punish you?
           He knows everything–doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
    11The LORD knows people’s thoughts,
           that they are worthless!
    12Happy are those whom you discipline, LORD,
           and those whom you teach from your law.
    13You give them relief from troubled times
           until a pit is dug for the wicked.
    14The LORD will not reject his people;
            he will not abandon his own special possession.
    15Judgment will come again for the righteous,
           and those who are upright will have a reward.
    16Who will protect me from the wicked?
           Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
    17Unless the LORD had helped me,
           I would soon have died.
    18I cried out, “I’m slipping!”
           and your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me.
    19When doubts filled my mind,
           your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
    20Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side–
           leaders who permit injustice by their laws?
    21They attack the righteous
            and condemn the innocent to death.
    22But the LORD is my fortress;
           my God is a mighty rock where I can hide.
    23God will make the sins of evil people fall back upon them.
           He will destroy them for their sins.
           The LORD our God will destroy them.

My secondary text for today is the Southwest Times Record …
(July 11, 2004, edition)

  • “At Ramadi’s hospital a child caught in the crossfire [between Marines and militants] moaned inagony.” (Marines, Militants Clash, page 8A)
  • “They shot him in his house. They blew her apart with a bomb. They cut him to pieces withswords. They dragged her into the desert and raped her. As the world’s attention was turned tocrises in the Middle East, a slaughter has raged for 17 months in Sudan’s Darfur region. ‘We arelate in Darfur. We have to admit that,’ U.N. Under-Secretary-Generral for Humanitarian AffairsJan Egeland said on a visit last week.” (Systematic Slaughter Unfolds in Sudan, page 10A)
  • “A 16-month-old boy was released unharmed Saturday after being taken by his father, who hadshot the mother of the boy and her brother-in-law late Friday, the Benton County Sherriff’s Officesaid.” (Benton County Shooting Wounds Two, page 4A)
  • “A 20-year-old man reported that he turned and saw a male acquaintance at the wheel of a sportutility vehicle that had pulled up beside his vehicle. The acquaintance then told the 20-year-oldman to tell a mutual acquaintance that he is “dead” because “he killed my homeboy,” the 20-year-old man told police. The 20-year-old man said he then looked forward and heard a loudbang and breaking glass. He then drove away, and he last saw the sport utility vehicle travelingsouth on Massard.” (Drive-By Shooting Suspects Arrested: Incident Occurs on Rogers Ave.,page 2A)

In Psalm 94, the Psalmist refers to “evildoers.” The term seems a bit dramatic. The Presidentused the term after 9/11 and has received some criticism. Evildoers? That would seem todescribe characters like Doctor Octopus or Darth Vader!

But all it takes is a daily recap of the headlines to remind us that there is evil in the world – andthere certainly are evildoers in Sudan, the Middle East, Arkansas, and Fort Smith.

Like the Psalmist, we are disturbed by such evil because of the arrogant and foolish attitude ofpeople who seem unconcerned with the ugliness of their deeds. We feel restless and angrywhen we see innocents – our loved ones, even – oppressed by such evil and no one seems tonotice.

Christians, women and children, are being slaughtered and tortured by military in the Sudan andthe government there is not held accountable by the U.N. or other nations. This goes onearound the world, but even here within America we witness the impact of evil and the harm ofinnocents …

Even in our own neighborhoods young men and women sucked into a life of conflict, drug abuse,and conflict settle arguments with gunfire. They boast about killing. They threaten the lives ofeveryone around them, and they seem proud about it. And they threaten our loved ones too.

Last week 18-year-old Amelio Romero was killed on the street in what seems to be related to arecent series of shootings. (www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/July/05/news/shooting.html)Sounds like just another story of violence – I tried to dismiss it as such, until I realized that it tookplace in Dick and Mary Broyles neighborhood.(www.thehometownchannel.com/news/3497478/detail.html)
I know them. They are members of this church. I love them. And I am tired of those I lovebeing threatened.

I think I know why people want revenge. I admit that I would support drastic action to fix theproblems of our neighborhood. And I confess that in my own mind and heart I have ideas abouthow we can end the problem – but my ideas are really worthless. They simply involve bringingout a bigger club than your enemy wields, which leads to more violence and more oppressionwhich creates even more arrogance.
I thank the Lord for his discipline and his instructions, for they cause me to realize that if I try tostraighten out the mess I am part of the mess! I am not qualified to dispense justice becauseI am unjust myself. I meditate on the teaching of Jesus – the anger that I feel in my hearttowards others – even the evildoers – is the seed to murder.

And even though we know we are unqualified to take matters into our own hands, wehave to ask if there is something that can be done. We have to ask can we do anything atall.
Psalm 94 shows us that something can – and is – being done. And it points us in the directionwe should go to do something:

When our anxious hearts pray, “How long, O LORD? How long will the wicked be allowed togloat?” We might also raise the question the Psalmist raises, “Who will protect me from thewicked? Who will stand up for me against evildoers?”

The creator of eyes and ears sees and hears what is going on. It may seem to us that aresponse from God is slow in coming, (and we will address this in the weeks ahead as we hearthe word of God for the last days in 2 Peter) – but even if final judgment seems delayed,God’s help is ever-near. We have relief through troubled times even as a pit is being dug forthe wicked.

Yesterday I was exploring rock cliffs and caves. When you come down the side of the mountainthat falls off steeply, moving is a sort of series of intentional slipping and sliding. Your feet neverreally hold on to anything because everything beneath you (pebbles, dirt, leaves) slips. But yourest when you come to a flat surface – like a large rock.

God is our Rock – our place of refuge in the slippage of an evil world. When we are indanger of falling, we can cry out and the unfailing love of God supports us. When we aredistressed and our hearts and minds grow restless, we are encouraged to know that God renewsour hope and cheer. The Psalmist doesn’t just look forward to this – he has experienced it.

Nothing gets by our heavenly Father. He takes care of us – and only he is qualified todeal with those who are foolish in their wickedness …

Some weeks ago I experienced everything the Psalmist is saying just walking to our van in aparking lot. All of us were leaving the store and suddenly two high-powered, souped-up carscame roaring toward us. My first thought was for the safety of my family, so I commanded mychildren to get to the van quickly. My second thought was outrage at the arrogance of thesereckless fools – and I confess I did a stupid thing – I yelled at them. I did not curse them. I justyelled at them to slow down. But they had already turned and were probably off to terrorizesome other parking lot. My third thought was for my children and the example I set for them -Daddy is always saying, “Don’t yell at each other.” And of course the boys are stirred up at thispoint: “Who were those guys? Are you going after them? Are they coming back?” And myfourth thought was how the arrogance of evil and my inappropriate reaction had injected just alittle anxiety into my sons’ world. So I tried to restore hope and cheer, “It’s alright, those are justsome reckless fools who are driving dangerously. You just sit down and be good and let mehandle anything that comes along.” And my five-year-old son expressed the idea of the Psalmistquite well to his older brother. “Okay, let’s be good and let Daddy fight the fools.”

God will make the sins of evil people fall back upon them. He will destroy them for their sins. TheLORD our God will destroy them.
Our Father in heaven will fight the fools. God will take care of this, not us. The Psalmistexpresses a confidence that God will deal with the foolish, arrogant evildoers. Their own sins willfall back on them. This confidence is not only expressed at the end of the Psalm, but also in thebeginning when he addresses the God of vengeance. It is an old teaching in Israel – vengeanceis mine says the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35). “Let me handle it,” says God. (And remember that we arenot qualified!) The old teaching is found also in the New Testament. …

Romans 12:16-21 – Do not think that you are wiser than you really are. Do not pay anyone back evil for evil, but, focus your thoughts on what is right in the sight of all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with all people. Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will pay them back, declares the Lord.” But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him. For if he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will pile burning coals on his head.” Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

If our Father is going to handle the evildoers then the best thing we can do is be good! And thismeans more than staying out of trouble – it means conquering evil with good.

That’s what Dick and Mary Broyles are doing in their neighborhood. Dick told me that the youngman, Romero, knew he was in trouble and had been in hiding. When he came back to town, hetold his mother the first thing he needed to do: “I need to see Mary – she will pray for me.” Andthe Broyles will continue to pray for the young people and families in their neighborhood. Theyare not going to be conquered by evil, they are going to do good and let God deal with the evilonce and for all.

Now that’s the sort of fight I want to be part of. I am thinking about ways I can pray for myneighborhood – to do good and try to be a blessing in a cursed world. Why don’t you pray aboutsome ways you can be good. Perhaps we can do a lot together.

There’s a lot of evil in the world – why can’t there be just as much good?