.webp?width=80&height=80&name=1517headshots-141-Edit%20(1).webp)
God is a judge, but unlike you, God is just!
1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite. O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
Whatever a Shiggaion is, David prays it "effectually." An effectual prayer is one in which David's feeling (his cry to God) is equal to his own words: not only does he gain the ear of God ("O Lord my God"), but he ceases complaining, gains his own ear, and "steels" his faith under difficult circumstances. He believes what he prays, then gathers up his people around him, and returns them to their true God. Then, using this Scripture, he gives prayer to us to convert us away from seeking revenge to seeking salvation by faith alone.
We do not quite know David's sitz im leben (life situation), but we get a clue when the first line recalls that it was sung "concerning the words of Cush, the son of Jeminia (the Benjamite)." It took one of the great Christian interpreters (a Jewish Spaniard of the early 15th century named Solomon ha-Levi, baptized as Paul of Burgos) to notice that David, on his deathbed, asked Solomon to revenge curses made earlier by Shimei: "bring down Shimei's hoar-head to the grave with blood" (1 Kings 2:9). Accordingly, Cush and Shimei seem to be one and the same.
I feel for David, as one gray-haired old man speaking to another. At the end of life, old age seeks revenge for the wrongs done to it, especially when breathing its last. Shimei was a strange man "of the family of Saul" (the tribe of Benjamin) who took it upon himself to cast stones at David while the King was running from the coup by his own son Absalom: "Come out bloody man," said Shimei… "the Lord return to you all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead you have reigned!" (2 Sam. 16:7-8). Strangely enough, David did not seek revenge by cutting off Shimei's head for the false and ill-timed charges. Instead, he said, "Let him alone and let him curse, for God has commanded him" (2 Sam. 16:11). The prophet then shadowed David in retreat, cursing him every step of the way.
2 lest like a lion, they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
God was testing David's faith, not to determine if any existed, but to "firm" his faith into hardened steel: "lest a lion tear my soul apart." Tear what? Not his arms or legs— but his very soul. David was innocent of Shimei's charges. The blood of Saul (and so the tribe of Benjamin) was not on David, but when his kingdom was taken from him by his son, Absalom, it appeared as if God had discarded him as he had done Saul. Yet, God put David into that office; David could not have managed to take the throne by himself. Further, God had promised King David that his Seed would be on that throne forever (2 Samuel 7). For that reason, David accepted the curses of Shimei as the very voice of God's judgment—but not such that it would undo the promise that God gave him.
God's judgment of sin and God's promise were colliding. What did David do in that situation? As Shimei claims, his conscience does not agree that he has sinned. Nevertheless, David is aware that, somehow, God commanded the prophet to utter these curses. David thinks, "I have done no wrong, but it might be true in God's sight—if not my own." So, without confidence in his own conscience, David called God to go ahead and chastise him by means of Shimei, but not so far as to tear apart his soul! Like David, even if we are innocent, we "fear a sin where a sin is not" if God sends such accusers against us.
God's judgment of sin and God's promise were colliding.
Indeed, God chastises his sinners, but he does not remove their righteousness from them. That means several things for our theology: there are two kinds of righteousness in our lives, one of this earth and the other of God's eternal life. Because of these two kinds of righteousness, we learn to respond to false curses without vengeance. The world teaches us to react by vengeance: a wrong done to me must be returned to you. If you harm me, I will harm you. That is, in fact, the fundamental law of life, "An eye for an eye." This revenge is why the law always ends up accusing. Every tribe, history, and person has suffered from this cycle of retaliatory violence, yet David learned how to break through it by stepping outside the law and clinging only to the gospel. Rather than seek revenge, David learned that God did not give Shimei curses to accuse and execute the him—they were rather divine "trials" of faith. God was chastising David through Shimei's unjust curses. Why? If God had wanted to punish David, Absalom's revolt would have sufficed, but Shimei was what we call God's "light chastisement" that would not tear his soul apart but rather increase David's faith.
3-5 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
Only trust can overcome the lust for legal revenge. Revenge cannot be defeated by the power of David's crown or his justifiable innocence.
If God meant Shimei to "trample" David's life, David could have disposed of the threat by beheading the old man. But David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse—God has bidden him to do it." David turned away from his accuser to pray to God: "O Lord my God, if I have done this…let my enemy overtake, trample, and bury me in the dust." When you are innocent and find yourself unjustly tried, do not turn to the law for your help—turn to God. Only trust can overcome the lust for legal revenge. Revenge cannot be defeated by the power of David's crown or his justifiable innocence. So it is that everywhere in the world, love ends up in revenge while faith turns the world upside down.
David knew that two different kinds of righteousness were operating here: one is the case he makes as an innocent man, "I did not do what I am charged with." That would be like a legal case in To Kill a Mockingbird. Yet rather than take his case to a judge and jury of his peers, David let his rights go. He let God know that he was innocent (which God already knew), and then he gives his case to God as a kind of taunt: "My Lord, if you sent Shemai to kill me, go ahead! Who would stop you? It would be unjust by any earthly law (you know I have not done this), but surely you have the right to do it as you please."
The Lord operates well above the law with justice the world knows not of. As Paul said, "For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends" (2 Cor. 10:18). And again, "Whatever things were written beforehand were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15:4). Luther thought this verse was prayed by David not with a feeling of confidence (as the Latin translator Jerome thought), but with a genuine fear of God. This led to one of Luther's significant observations. You may often find yourself as David: "Knowing that You may not know." In any situation, I may not know God's exact command: what should I do? We also may be unable to do it, even if we know what to do. Yet, Luther continued: "Who can endure this most constant inconstancy of the divine contradiction (so to speak) with an all-constant (though incomprehensible) constancy, but he who is a 'man after God's own heart' as this David and Abraham were?"
That is a mouthful, but right as rain. David had come to his "offer up Isaac" moment with the hidden God: Knowing I don't know! Enduring the constant inconstancy of the divine contradiction! "God made me king; then he sent Absalom and Shimei to curse me! What a life! It makes me question God's truthfulness while out of my heart and soul pour hatred over the justice of the world." So, Luther concludes: "But in this way must that mercenary principle of our servile nature [retribution] be destroyed, whereby we worship God for our own advantage only."
God is "inconstant" regarding David's kingship on earth but not regarding David's promised Seed, who forgives his sin.
Our hatred of God is enflamed by an injustice done to us. Why does God put us in these situations? Why are we such inconstant, unfaithful flesh that God "must show himself to us as if he were an inconstant and unfaithful God…so that we learn not to trust anything, even if divine, with a false and perverted affection and feeling." When we trust God, we do not trust our righteousness under the law. God hides himself outside the law so that we trust his kind of justice, not our own. For that purpose, God is "inconstant" regarding David's kingship on earth but not regarding David's promised Seed, who forgives his sin.
This gives the faithful what Luther calls "an evangelical standard of righteousness" that opposes the "legal standard." In the legal world, whenever a wrong is done to you, you must "return" it. If you are a purely evil man, you will "return" by pure power—even "rendering" or "returning" evil for good. If you are a moderately good person, you will use the measure "an eye for an eye," by which you return the same evil for any evil done. If you have advanced to the world of Moses, you say, "I will not take revenge on evil; I will leave it to the court system and those called to those seats." But David responds differently: he said about Shimei's curses: "Let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him…" (2 Sam. 16:11).
Luther is in awe of this moment. David submitted to God's promise and was ready to bear "whatever you give me and whatever you take away from me"—not just to "cast down" but bury" it. Although David had been anointed king three times by the divine command and had received the infallible declaration and promise that Christ would be born from his loins, he lays down the whole kingdom and is prepared never to receive it again. He permits all those unspeakable honors to be trodden down and buried in the dust. What feeling is more unbearable, sublime, profound, and wonderful than this!
6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
"Wake up, O Lord, and remember!" David is praying for God to remember what he had commanded the king to do—and most importantly, what he had promised David he would do. Think how different it is to pray to God as he commanded versus as promised. David prayed for three things:
1) for God to arise and show his anger at David's enemies,
2) to restrain the enemy's fury, and
3) that God would use David to restore the divine judgment: "Do what you said! Give me the throne you promised!"
In this way, David first ascribes glory and righteousness to God: "O Lord…lift yourself up"; then he prays within that safety and against those who tyrannized him in such a way that he prays with "the fear of the Lord." This fear, according to the first commandment, is the trust in God, which makes it possible for a man to execute any of the divine commands faithfully. Without such fear, everything we do and say is sin. God gave the kingdom of Israel to David as his office or duty, an office of judgment according to the law: "You have appointed a judgment." But David can't do what a king must unless it is God who executes the judgment against his enemies—David cannot judge by his own feelings, especially when he is innocent of all charges that he had stolen the throne from Saul. God must handle that and no one else.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.
David knows the congregation gathers "not around me, but Thee, O Lord." A true leader does not aggrandize power around himself as church and political leaders routinely do. So, David was given the office of king, and his people were commanded to submit themselves to him in this world—but never as a people without a God or a God without his people. David only served God as king to the extent God wanted him to. The office of a public leader is a submission of its own, so for the love of God alone, David ascends to his throne in order to descend in love and serve his citizens. David is honored because he is God's chosen, not because he is God's incarnate. Thus, we learn an important lesson about the two kinds of righteousness. The king of this world is not the king of God's new kingdom, and he is not even the "pope" or stand-in for an absent God. God is not absent but present on the throne of David, and he reminds his kings and leaders that their justice is only justice if God justifies it. Luther says, "If only bishops, pastors, rulers, and potentates knew this scripture and abided by it!"
David is honored because he is God's chosen, not because he is God's incarnate.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
The optative sense of the future tense verbs in these verses is not merely saying, "Let it happen," but is an assertive future: "I know you will do it, Lord!" For God's glory (who gathers the congregation around him), David is finally compelled to pray for his cause to be justified. It is not enough for anyone in an office like David's, who has suffered for the truth, to commit his soul to God. Even when he has been humbled down into the dust (in a just cause) and committed everything to God, he still must ask for God's justice to prevail. In this case, not for his own sake but for the office of ministry that he holds. Preachers must do the same thing in their office. Their office must be vindicated publicly so that the man sitting in its seat can bring salvation to the people. You judge the citizens—now judge me as you will, O Lord. Then let's see what happens.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous--you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!
Before David was enthroned, God's kingdom had been usurped by Saul as if it were Saul's own. Likewise, Absalom wanted to take the kingdom from David for himself. David now wants righteousness to restore him. He has already learned that man's and God's righteousness are different things. A man's righteousness is legal and concerns how innocent he is before other men (and in his conscience). Yet that righteousness doesn't mean a thing before the face of God. God's righteousness is grace and mercy so that, without any law, God justifies us by himself. David then adds, "O righteous God!" to the prayer: "Establish the righteous." No one can arrogate justice to himself, even if the cause is just. No revenge or retaliation by force of law is in your power. Instead, pour your complaint into God's hands and pray fervently that God will return the only justice he recognizes. This is good because God is the only one who sees the heart, while everyone else sees the outward appearance.
David asks for God's unlawful justice: "Test the kidneys and hearts, O righteous God." Look in us for faith rather than at the things as we do with our external works. Why the kidneys? Leviticus 3 discusses the importance of the fat of kidneys in sacrificing animals and refers to the "inner man" that these kidneys represent. In this life, we sometimes have a clear, persecuting Absalom making charges against us, and we may also have a calumniating Shimei. What are we to do in this situation? Christians hold confidently to their legal innocence before men but also fear their "secret sinfulness" in the sight of God. This is how David overcame Shimei's calumny–fearing that he sinned before God even though he had not before men. Before men, we may claim our innocence, but not before God. Before God, no man is justified, so we prostrate before God and confess our ignorance—only "God knows our hearts."
Before men, we assert the truth—we intend to live and remain without sin. But David then thinks by faith: "O Lord, who tries the kidneys and hearts, remember that glorious promise you made me concerning a future Christ (Seed)? I hold that dearer than anything else—including my throne. In that promise, I hope, glory, rejoice, stand, and go. So, if this is the moment in my life, I am ready to offer everything to you as Abraham did Isaac. Others fight with weapons and seek revenge, but your faith fights using prayer, and when I fight that way, it comes out of a zealous love toward God rather than retribution. Then, through God, my faith goes to our gathered 'congregation' of men waiting to hear God's promise for themselves."
10-13 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day.
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons [vessels of death], making [ordaining] his arrows fiery shafts [against his enemies].
Finally, David observes that our enemies will not come to an end until their wickedness itself ends—and that will not happen until God takes their sin. That is the only way to "save the upright heart." This "upright heart" is something David showed already in the first Psalm when speaking of the "counsel of the ungodly." It is when a man has a "grasp," or apprehension, of God using his preached word. That happens only when he no longer operates according to his own senses but instead believes entirely in God's promise to him. That is why faith alone justifies—it makes us "upright" in heart, not according to good works but by grasping God's promise. Hear this holy preacher! God is a judge, but unlike you, God is just! He is no respecter of persons; the multitude does not move him, nor do fraudulent men deceive him. No craft or wise guy confuses him—he is not changed by any "favor," as are our politicians, nor is God corrupted in his gift.
God's faithfulness to his promise alone keeps our trust from devolving back into retribution. David feels that God is unaware of Absalom and Shimei, but God does see them. David is not to fear because God's word is an electing or "ordaining" grace that appears under the sign of its opposite. It looks like the enemy will win by distorting the law, but God sees, knows, and elects you by a grace beyond that law, and God's eyes are on that much more significant, final, and eternal righteousness that we call "faith."
14-16 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil is pregnant with mischief, and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
After all his troubles, David sits back and allegorizes. The man pregnant with evil gives birth to lies; the man who digs a pit will fall in it. So it was for Absalom; he sought to destroy David, but the snares he laid for David hung himself on the tree. For the present, it can suffice for us to say to the enemies who burden us that they will become their greatest burden. As Augustine once said, "They endure the greater punishment who inflict punishment rather than those who endure it." So, David was "firmed" in faith and came out laughing at all his persecutors, as Bob Marley sang in Small Axe, "he who digs the pit will bury in it."
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks according to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
As a man of faith, David beautifully concludes his prayer: "I have put before the Lord all my petitions, all my cursings, calumnies, and injuries from Shimei and my son, Absalom. I can stand in my legal righteousness before them and God, but I don't trust in my righteousness. I even declare my righteousness before my enemies. Still, I have another righteousness that I glory in: 'He that glories let him glory in the Lord' (1 Cor. 1:20). That is the free gift of God 'according to his righteousness.' Not from my strength and doings, even my kingly lordship over this earth, but from God's righteousness by which I receive salvation and a happy conscience. So, I give this Psalm to the public as my ministry of the Word of Grace, by which the Name of the Lord is manifested to sinners like you. This Psalm is, therefore, for you, not me. Enjoy the help it gives when you are unjustly charged and lawfare is used against you. The devil himself is your worst calumniator, confounding your conscience and worrying you about your well-being. He often is your unweary-ing Shimei saying, 'Come out, you bloody man! The Lord is bringing the blood of the house of Saul upon you now!'"
You are judged–neither according to your accusers nor your cry of innocence–but by Christ's righteousness.
But remember from David that God's judgment of your enemies is coming soon, and your judgment by him is already here! You are judged–neither according to your accusers nor your cry of innocence–but by Christ's righteousness, who has taken your sin and given you new life. You can endure this moment's pain without retaliation for the eternal joy that is coming.
.webp?width=36&height=36&name=1517headshots-141-Edit%20(1).webp){kind=small}
