Do You Truly Want Justice or Judgment?
Photo by Sean Pierce on Unsplash
The dilemma of justice and truth
You can’t reason with a two-year-old child.
They haven’t learned how to reason. They haven’t had enough life experience, and they’re still learning right from wrong.
You also can’t reason with a person whose conscience hasn’t developed regardless of their age. Why? Because their sense of right and wrong is limited or non-existent.
Lawrence Kohlberg, an American psychologist, developed a hierarchal theory of the development of moral reasoning. It includes six stages within three major levels.
This developed sense of moral values coincides with our innate human conscience, often referred to as the moral referee within us. The Bible speaks of the human conscience (Romans 2:15; 1 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:15 NIV) and reason (Isaiah 1:18; James 3:17 NIV).
Justice or judgment—What’s the difference?
Justice implies fairness, reasonableness, honest, and so on. But judgment can mean discerning what is fair, reasonable, and honest.
It also can mean the passing of a sentence based on a decision or judgment, as a verdict of innocence or guilt. This is where we get the idea of condemnation—determining someone as guilty.
When people call for justice, they often want judgment. We do the same by passing judgment on someone or something. We determine a person’s rightness or wrongness.
Sometimes, we react to people or situations as if we were emotional toddlers.
We resist our own sense of reason. Of course, we don’t realize it at the time because we aren’t capable of being objective because of our emotions. We are too personally and subjectively involved with emotion.
We don’t see things or ourselves from God’s perspective. And we never will.
We may say we want justice and fairness, but do we really?
Are we willing to start with ourselves?
Scripture
(A shiggaion [meditation] by David; he sang it to the Lord about the ⌊slanderous⌋ words of Cush, a descendant of Benjamin.)
O Lord my God, I have taken refuge in you.
Save me, and rescue me from all who are pursuing me…
O Lord my God, if I have done this—
if my hands are stained with injustice, if I have paid back my friend with evil or rescued someone who has no reason to attack me— then let the enemy chase me and catch me...
Selah [from vss 1-5]
Arise in anger, O Lord. Stand up against the fury of my attackers. Wake up, my God...
The Lord judges the people of the world.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity…
O righteous God who examines thoughts and emotions. [from vss 6-9]
My shield is God above, who saves those whose motives are decent.
God is a fair judge, a God who is angered by injustice every day...
See how that person conceives evil, is pregnant with harm, and gives birth to lie.
He digs a pit... Then he falls into the hole that he made ⌞for others⌟.
His mischief lands back on his own head. His violence comes down on top of him.
I will give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness.
I will make music to praise the name of the Lord Most High. [from vss 10-17]
(Psalm 7:1-17 GW) [Context– Psalm 7]
Reflections and Insights
Our knee-jerk reaction when accused is to justify ourselves and project blame. A young child doesn't try to cover up doing something that's wrong until they've learned right from wrong.
When King David prays, his honesty is refreshing and encouraging.
He displays a full range of emotions. He may plead his case with God but David is willing to be examined and judged by his own integrity of heart.
David displays genuine faith in God.
Think about it. That's a deep trust in God's mercy, grace, justice, and goodness. It is a childlike faith and Jesus said we are to have childlike faith in God’s kingdom (Luke 18:17).
But what about justice?
When people wrong us, shouldn't they be held accountable?
When we choose the Lord as our refuge and shield—trusting Him implicitly as His child—we can trust Him with whatever injustices are done to us.
We need to trust God with those who lie, do us wrong, or dig a pit for us. He'll take care of us and them.
But the question remains—
Do you really want true justice?
King David was a flawed man. He knew this about himself. But David trusted God with his whole heart. He asked God to search his heart and apply the same justice David asked of God upon his enemies.
If you really want justice, you need to answer this question honestly—
Do you trust God with your whole heart and life?
Digging deeper to Make it personal...
Review the Scriptures above as you consider the following questions
How does this psalm begin and what does King David declare to the Lord?
What does David say regarding himself? On what basis does he ask God to judge him?
What are David's declarations about God? How does he express his trust in God?
What is said about the person who "conceives evil" and is "pregnant with harm"?
Have you suffered the consequences of your own poor choices and felt it was unfair?
Do you go to God first when you experience injustice?
Or, are you quick to defend yourself or place blame?
Do you trust the Lord to judge your own integrity of heart and be your refuge and shield?
Are you able to be fully honest with God in prayer, and trust in His goodness?
Would you like a free study guide for your study of Psalms?
Click the link for a free Psalms Study Guide
