This article is an excerpt from day four of The Psalms Aflame, a twenty-five day devotional on the Psalms. To download the entire devotional click here. 

Read Psalm 96

God’s judgments are so often a subject of Christian seriousness. C.S. Lewis notes that centuries of Christian art and literature “have depicted it’s terrors”; “that day of wrath, that dreadful day.” Our perspective is that we stand as a criminal on trial. And we know too well, by the horror of the cross, just how costly our sin is, and just how devastated our condition is before a holy judge. But Lewis observes, with great surprise, how “the psalmists talk about the judgements of God.”

And how do they talk? “Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (96:12-13). In Psalm 96 the judgment of God produces giddy joy compelling eleven verses of worship. Sing. Praise. Declare. Ascribe. Worship. Testify. Rejoice.

What could catalyze this jubilation? Lewis explains. In the ancient world the psalmist pictured himself not as the criminal on trial, but as the oppressed plaintiff in a civil case hoping for relief from oppression. After all, it was difficult for the small man to get his case heard. With no power, or privilege, his rights were easily neglected or subverted. And this is why we too can celebrate: God will “judge” the people rightly; “defend the cause of the widows” (Psalms 68:5); “defend the poor” (Psalm 72:2); “help all the meek upon earth” (Psalm 76:9); all the “helpless people whose wrongs have never been righted yet (Lewis p.12). “The Divine Judge is the defender, the rescuer” (Lewis). Let us also give praise to this champion of justice.

Apply: Who has God placed on your heart to cry out for justice for?
Prayer: Let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Tags: justice, psalm 96, divine judge