HOW GOD VIEWS JUSTICE
©Wendell
Griffen, 2016
August 14, 2016
(Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
New Millennium
Church
Little Rock, AR
Psalm 82
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgement:
2 ‘How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgement:
2 ‘How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I say, ‘You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.’*
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!
Psalm 82 is attributed to a person
named Asaph, a Levite who established a guild of Temple singers, and appears in
a collection of psalms that begins with Psalm 73. In this Psalm, Asaph envisions a heavenly
trial—a “divine council”—of important beings.
God has taken his place in the
divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment (Ps. 82:1).
The defendants are subordinate deities
to God—“lesser gods” if you will. These
less powerful members of the divine order are charged with judicial
misconduct. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? (Ps.
82:2).
We don’t know what the word “Selah”
means. This Hebrew term appears only in
Psalms and in Habakkuk 3, and separates passages within a psalm. I have come to think of “Selah” as similar to
a punctuation mark. “Selah” punctuates a
psalm. “Selah” instructs psalm readers
and singers to pause a bit, allow a thought to sink in, and give ourselves time
to ponder it.
So let’s ponder Asaph’s vision of divine
beings on trial and charged with favoritism.
They are charged with being partial “to the wicked.” In Psalm 82, Asaph envisions that favoring
the wicked works to oppress people who are vulnerable, and declares that doing
so amounts to judicial malpractice!
In this vision, the Psalmist imagines
there is no escape from the moral gaze of God even for what the elders of my
youth would call “big shots.” “Lesser
gods” can’t get away with violating divine justice.
The divine standard for righteous
judgment is clear. Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the
lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak
and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked (Ps. 82:3-4).
Those
in power have a moral obligation to protect vulnerable people from oppression. Protecting weak, orphaned, poor, and
otherwise vulnerable people from oppression by the powerful is not a matter of
political correctness. This is not a
partisan political position. The duty to
protect weak, orphaned, poor, and otherwise vulnerable people from oppression
is about morality! It is a question of
right and wrong!
It is not right when judges allow
vulnerable people to be mistreated by the powerful.
It is not right for judges and other
rulers to favor the wealthy.
It is not right for judges and
politicians to manufacture ways to save corporations and investment bankers
from bankruptcy by extending lenient payment arrangements and forgiving debts,
yet refuse to write off debts and show leniency to homeowners who are “upside
down” on their mortgages and people saddled with debt from student loans.
It is not right for judges, prosecutors,
and other politicians to allow police to violate the rights and threaten the
lives and mental health of people who are poor, people who are black, brown,
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and immigrants.
It is not right for the powerful
rulers—lesser gods if you will—to treat the vulnerable status of children,
people who suffer from mental illness, and people who are women as an excuse to
pay them less than what other workers are paid.
It is not right for rulers to favor
employers over workers.
It is not right for rulers to give drug
companies a moral license to jack up the cost of life-saving drugs so that poor
people suffer and die in disproportionate numbers.
According
to Asaph’s notion of divine justice, any system of justice that shows
partiality to the wicked and oppresses the vulnerable is morally indefensible
and illegitimate, no matter how politically popular or powerful it may appear
to be. Justice is not about political
correctness. Justice is about divine and
moral accountability!
The
“Selah” in Psalm 82 calls us to ponder what happens when politicians, judges,
and other “lesser god” entities show favoritism to the “wicked” and uphold
oppression of people who are poor, needy, orphaned, and otherwise
vulnerable. We know what happens to the
vulnerable when that happens.
We know because we remember how unarmed Michael
Brown Jr., “Mike-Mike” to the youth and elders who lived in his Ferguson,
Missouri neighborhood, was shot to death August 9, 2014 by Darrin Wilson,
someone who had a sworn duty to protect his life.
We know because we remember how
Mike-Mike’s dead body lay uncovered in the middle of the street where he died
for almost five hours in 90 degree heat two years ago.
We know because we remember how the
prosecutors turned what supposed to be a grand jury investigation into whether
Mike Brown’s death was a crime into an opportunity for the police officer who
killed Brown to use cultural incompetence and racism as an excuse for killing
him.
We know what happens to vulnerable
people when the rulers favor the wicked.
Eric Garner’s killer gets off without
being charged with choking him to death.
Mike Brown’s killer gets off without
being charged with shooting him to death.
Freddie Gray’s killers get off without
being found guilty of breaking his neck.
Eugene Ellison’s killers get off without
being charged with shooting him to death.
Homeowners are forced into bankruptcy
while mortgage companies get government bailouts.
What
Psalm 82 reminds us, however, is that God holds the “lesser god” rulers
accountable who favor the wicked and allow the wicked to oppress people who are
vulnerable. Psalm 82 speaks of divine judgment
on “lesser god” rulers who favor the wicked. The Psalm ends with a prayer that calls on
God to “rise up” and “judge the earth, “for all the nations belong to
you.” (Ps. 82:8)
The
lesson of Psalm 82 is straightforward.
Unjust rulers will fall! They
will fall because they operate from a morally unstable position. Systems of injustice and the people who
operate them are doomed to the judgment of God who will not show favoritism and
who will not be bribed, bought, or bullied.
That
lesson also presents a challenge to the rest of us. We must choose whether we will defend systems
of injustice and the people who operate them to oppress the vulnerable or
whether we will join God in condemning and overthrowing them. Are we propping up systems of oppression or
helping God tear them down and replace them?
Are we standing with God and condemning
systems of injustice and the “lesser gods” who operate them?
Are we standing with and making excuses
for the perpetrators and enablers of systemic injustice?
Are we standing with the vulnerable
against the wicked?
Are we standing with victims against
their violators?
Are we standing with oppressed people
against their oppressors?
Are we standing with working people
against wealthy wickedness?
Are we denouncing those who call on
vulnerable people to keep silent about their oppression?
Psalm
82 carries a solemn warning to anyone who will not stand with God against the
systems and rulers who oppress the vulnerable and reward the wicked. At verses 6 and 7 we read the divine sentence
on the “lesser gods” that committed judicial malpractice. I say,
“You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall
die like mortals, and fall like any prince.
God
will overthrow the “lesser gods” who favor the wicked and powerful over the
vulnerable. Let us help God do so, not
prop up the wicked.
Amen.
