Joy in Judgment?
Psalm 96

Our natural response to judgment, even at a human level, is fear. Our hope in the face of justice is usually that it will be fallible -- we have every reason to fear REAL justice. And if we respond to fallible human judgment with fear, how much more should we be naturally terrified at the thought of God's judgment. (See, for example, Jesus parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25).

So if judgment is so terrifying, what is going on in Psalm 96. Rejoice. Be Glad. Be jubilant. Sing for joy. Why? "For he comes to judge the earth. And this is not an isolated case. We find that the Psalm writers consistently welcome judgment. They look forward to it. They long for it and cry out for it.

It doesn't take a brilliant theologian to conclude that the Psalmists ideas about judgment are different from ours.

C.S. Lewis points out (in Reflections on the Psalms ) that our normal way of thinking about judgment is to imagine a criminal trial in which we are the defendants. The Psalmists are thinking of judgment in a CIVIL case. A terrible wrong has been done, and the only hope for redress is to appeal to a righteous judge with the hope that he will award damages. Moreover, the Old Testament idea of a judge is not a white-haired man in a robe banging a gavel. The OT judges were the sort of people we find in the book of Judges -- heroes who came to the aid of God's people and saved them from the oppression of their enemies. These judges were more like medieval knights than our modern judges.

Now it is easy to see how this idea of judgment could lead to joy. Just think of any time when you have felt helpless in the face of injustice. Or think of the people of Afghanistan, or the Orphans Yvonne was ministering to in Turkey. Imagine someone coming to free them from their bonds and release them from their oppression -- can you imagine the shouts of joy? The Psalmists shout for joy at the coming of judgment because judgment means that the God is comming to defend the oppressed.

We could stop there and it would be enough to understand how the Psalmists can rejoice at judgment: God judges by defending the dowtrodden. But the picture would be incomplete; There are at least two other wasy that scripture talks about judgment.

First, God judges by disciplining his people. Discipline seems an unlikely source of joy, but look for a moment at Romans 5:3-5. Here we find a command that is quite common in the NT -- we are given the odd instruction to "rejoice in our sufferings." Why? Because of what our sufferings produces. Similarly, in Hebrews 12:7-11 we are told that hardships are God's discipline, and that God disciplines those he loves. And on reflection we can see that our deepest joys are always rooted in discipline. You can't take joy in a beautiful garden without the discipline of weeding. You can't take joy in beautiful music without the discipline of practice. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, Hebrews tells us, but in the end it is a source of joy because of what it produces.

Second, God judges in the way that we usually think about judgment -- punishing sin and destroying evil. Surely there can be no joy in anticipating that terrible day when the secrets of all hearts will be laid bear? Let me try to answer with a story: Don Whiteside is a missionary in Columbia. He's a good friend of Carol's family, and a Canadian. But Don Whiteside has a more colorful past than most missionaries. When he was young he was conficted of armed robbery and attempted murder. He was put away in Kingston Penitentiary, a maximum security prison. After he served his sentence and was released, God go hold of him. He met Jesus and became a new person. He went to Seminary. He became interested in missions. That's when he discovered that although he had served his time, and although he had fulfilled his sentence, he still bore the consequences of his crime. Because of his record, he could never leave Canada.

The only way to be completely rid of the consequences of his crime was to apply for a Queen's pardon -- a special royal dispensation that would erase all record of his crime. Such a pardon had never before been granted in Canada. Yet he applied, and the pardon was granted. His record was clear. Later he went back to check, perhaps not quite believing, and found his name was absent from police records.

We all have a criminal record. Even though the sentence has been carried out. Even though the price has been paid by Jesus, yet we still carry around the burden of a criminal record, the effects of sin in our lives. Guilt. Broken relationships. Habits that haunt us. Sin has been defeated, but we are not yet COMPLETELY free of its effects. And we will not be fully free until we finally face our Lord in judgment. Judgment for the people of God will be like the Queen's Pardon, fully and finally erasing all record of sin. And we will not be completely free in this way until we stand before our Lord and he says, "Come, enter into the Joy of your master!"

If you look at the beautiful portrait of heaven in Revelation 21, the striking thing about it is what is absent: no death, no mourning, no crying or pain. No tears. All of the effects of sin are gone. How? How do we get from here to there? Heaven is the product of judgment. The joy of heaven is impossible without the destruction of evil. Limitless joy is impossible while we still labor under the effects of sin.

There's a common thread here: Only when God comes as judge will we be fully and finally free: Free from the oppression of evil, and free from the scars of sin in our own lives. So judgment can be a source of anticipation and joy -- and recognizing that God is judge is a necessary element of our worship. We face a temptation in worship to tame God. The Psalms don't let us get away with that. They are constantly reminding us that God is both loving and holy, both merciful and just. And true worship has to worship God in ALL of his attributes. Otherwise we are idolaters.

In your worship, spend time praising God that he is judge: That he is champion and defender of the oppressed; that he is disciplining us to produce joy; that he will once and far all rid us of the evil in our hearts, and that we have a Kings Pardon to look forward to.