O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs— O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth. (Psalm 94:1-2)
It is a natural inclination when one is wronged by another to exact vengeance — an eye for an eye more or less. In the world there are those who, when mistreated, will retaliate against their adversary more severely than what was done to them. In other words, our carnality provokes us to destroy anything and anyone that causes us hurt. However, as we all know, this is not how it should be with those who call the Messiah, “Master” — He expects a completely different response from us. “Do not resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also” (Matthew 5:39-40).
Such a reaction to an affront goes against everything in us — and that is the point. We are expected to overcome the natural inclination to retaliate against others and, in my view, one of the main reasons is that we would probably not be just in our response. Our motive would be to inflict hurt on the offender, not administer justice; we would seek to destroy, not restore. So instead of taking matters into our own hands, we are to look to Heaven for justice because only the Lord alone is righteous and true. And so it is written, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
That being so, the psalmist (who many believe to be Moses) does open the door to this consideration; it is not necessarily wrong of us to ask the Lord to rise up against the wicked of this world, and especially when their actions threaten the safety and well-being of the righteous. Mind you, petitioning God to take vengeance shouldn’t include a desire to see the wicked destroyed; I would suggest it is an appeal for Him to administer justice — which can be markedly different. The point in all of this is to recognize that only God has the authority to exact vengeance and He alone has the ability to administer justice in a righteous manner. One day He will rise up and shine forth for all the world to see; until then, we need to submit completely to all He has called us to be and allow Him to be our Defender and Advocate.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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