Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,
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you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Lord, I pray
you to open to our minds and to our hearts this
passage, that we would see the goodness of a
God who judges all, who looks over all. God,
I pray, knowing that the idea of your divine
judgment unsettles us at times. I pray, Lord,
that it would also give us great hope. Lord,
we commit this time to you, and we ask that the
words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts,
would be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our
rock and our Redeemer. Amen. All right. I think
it's rather uncontroversial to say that there
is no shortage of injustice in the world. Far
from it. It's actually not just maybe that there's
no shortage of it, that it just seems to abound.
The world seems chock full of it. And of course,
it's not hard to think of different cases of
the world. We could, I could recount for you
some of the history in our own city of redlining
and cities throughout our country during the
Jim Crow area and how that has continued to have
effect in the lives of so many throughout our
own land. We could consider human trafficking
here in central Pennsylvania or Los Angeles or
the boroughs of New York or all throughout the
world. We could think of the forced labor that
happened during much of colonization, the Spanish
and Comedian of the Americas or what they did
in what is now the Philippines. I mean, the examples
can just kind of abound. We can think of famous
court cases of injustice. You can think, of course,
maybe of the Central Park Five, but we could
go on and on with court cases. We can think of
Massive racial injustices, apartheid in South
Africa, the transatlantic slave trade. We can
think of the genocides in Rwanda or Cambodia.
We can think of the Armenian genocide and so
many Christians, 1 .5 million Christians killed
during World War I by the Ottoman Empire. And
of course, we can talk about the Jews under the
Nazis, the six million or so that were killed.
But what's the difference of these things just
don't happen overnight? It's not just the case
that societies at large kind of commit injustices,
though that often ends up sometimes happening.
But it's often the case that one individual or
one ruler or one authority or one judge acts
unjustly and perpetuates injustice. It's not
the case that all of a sudden Hitler appeared.
He was existing within a structure that had a
history to it Let me tell you at least one of
the examples that people kind of said well Much
of what happened in this case kind of led structurally
to what happened under the Third Reich many of
you may know of the Dreyfus affair Alfred Dreyfus
in his case. He was a he was an affluent and
rather deeply patriotic Frenchman living in Alsace,
which at the time you may know that sort of northeastern
part of France sort of went between the French
and the Germans, but he was a French military
officer and And he had, by all means, sort of
assimilated into French life. And so some people
actually that were sort of known anti -Semitics
thought, well, if we can show that he didn't,
can't it be said maybe that all the Jews can't
assimilate into French life? So Dreyfus was accused
and he was convicted of treason and more specifically
of selling military secrets to the Germans. He
denied the charges, his family protested, all
of the rest. And actually this is where it sort
of parallels both what developed in Germany over
the next few decades, and actually in some ways
you could say our own time, the mass media took
over as it was in the 1890s. And the mobs rallied.
In fact, we know that there were mobs that were
rallying in French cities, crying out in 1894.
death to the Jews in light of the Alfred Dreyfus
case. In fact, one person that I read said that
you could literally just kind of divide the French
population between the pro -Dreyfus and the anti
-Dreyfus, which was to say the pro -Jewish people
and the anti -Jewish people. What seemed clear
to many was this was a case of gross injustice,
of covering up evidence. and largely for the
sake of the Jews being blamed. So Dreyfus was
court -martialed because somebody supposedly
found in sort of the trash bin near him what
was supposedly evidence for this selling of secrets
to the German military. He was court -martialed.
He was tried. He was not allowed to see the evidence.
He wasn't allowed to speak on his behalf. And
he was sentenced to life in a felony colony in
French Guiana on an island called Devil's Island.
Probably not the greatest place to live. Not
only was he sent there, but he was sentenced
to solitary confinement there. As if to teach
anyone else who may do something similar, this
will be your fate. Well, there was a good deal
of outcry against this, of course, because it
seemed rigged. Where was the evidence? Where
was the just trial? And one of the most famous
people that sought to uncover this injustice
was the great French novelist and journalist
Emile Zola. And so Emile Zola actually wrote
a letter that appeared on the front cover of
one of the most widely spread French newspapers
at the time. It was addressed to the French president.
And that letter is called Jacuz, I accuse. And
he lists at the end, Jacuz so and so and so and
so and so and so. And how he was just saying,
this is a rigged deal. This is injustice grossly
administered. Well, after writing that, Emile
Zola was accused himself and he was put on trial
for libel. I'm gonna get back to that trial.
I want us to consider Psalm 82, because in many
ways Psalm 82 actually mirrors in some ways a
courtroom setting. And I want us to look at this
Psalm by considering the judged, who's being
judged, what the judgment is, and then the jurisdiction
of God, all right? Y 'all got that? Three J's?
It's a Presbyterian minister thing. Presbyterian
pastors named Peter do three J's. So the judge
first. And if you open up your Bible to Psalm
82, this is how Psalm 82 begins. God has taken
his place in the divine council in the midst
of the gods. He holds judgment. So he's got the
divine council there and there's these gods and
he's the one who's holding judgment. So who are
the judged? Well, the word there is the Elohim,
which is rightly translated gods. What? Isn't
there just one true God? What is this stuff?
What's it saying? I mean, you're right. Okay,
let me give you some examples. Isaiah 45 says,
I am the Lord and there's no other. Besides me,
there's no God. Sounds pretty clear. 1st Timothy
2 .5 says there's one God, one mediator between
God and man. In our Lord Jesus' own words, he's
sort of echoing the famous Shema of Deuteronomy
6, the great confession of Jewish faith that
Jesus says is true. He's affirming in Luke chapter
10 and Mark chapter 12 when he says, hero Israel,
the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. These all
sound pretty clear. So what is happening? Who's
being judged here, right? This council that is
before God who's doing the judging and it says
it's the gods. Well, as you might imagine, scholars
are divided on this. Let me give you two of the
main sort of tier. And the first one and the
most historic kind of understanding of this,
of who's being judged here is human judges. which
is say, human rulers, humans that can affect
the world about them, who can decide the fate
of another. And it might sound odd to us, of
course, to call a human a God, it kind of, it
does. But there's examples of this in the Bible,
actually, Exodus 21, and that's part of Israel's
civil law. And there's actually a case where
it says, okay, if this thing happens, you need
to go to... And it actually refers to gods as
human judges, or sorry, human judges as gods.
You need to go to these small G gods to determine
this case. Exodus 22, 28 says, you shall not
revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
A lot of people think of those as a synonymous
thing. It's saying, don't revile God, which is
a way of also thinking of the rulers of your
people. So the rulers can be considered kind
of like a god. And even if that isn't synonymous
in that text, you can see how there's this god
-like function that rulers have. They actually
sort of set up things for other people. They
speak and actually somebody has to follow them.
They're judging and they're deciding the fate
of the world in a way. And probably the strongest
argument actually to understand these gods here
as human judges or human rulers or human people
that are over others that have an effect in the
world is that Jesus actually in John chapter
10, which Nicole read for us, he directly quotes
this text when he's speaking to the religious
rulers. He's saying, you know, God even said
over essentially you all your gods, why are you
getting mad at me for the idea of blasphemy?
It's kind of part of his argument that's going
on there. So, The thing about this, okay, it's
true that to a degree, human judges, human rulers,
human authorities have a God -like function in
the world, which is to say they work on the world
for its fate, right? There's a way in which they
speak and something comes into being in the world,
directs the life of another. We could think back
about the redlining. How has that affected the
world to come, right? It's happening in effect
on the world. and how it comes about. And we
can think about this sort of on a more sort of
local setting too. We've been praying for, I've
been praying for you teachers and you who are
in education, administrators. You know your effect,
actually part of the great probably thing that
enlivens your work is you know I can affect the
future of a student. And you can. For good. or
for ill. You can build them up. You can tear
them down. Parents, you know this. In the authority
kind of way that you interact with your children,
you sort of direct their life in a way. You kind
of set them up on a certain trajectory or not.
Think, of course, of the human judge. Think of
how an entire life can be taken. by the judgment
that they give. Think of human rulers. Think
about how much you care about who gets elected
to what office. Think of how many millions, hundreds
of millions of dollars go into election campaigns.
And think about how you wake up after election
either elated or dejected. Why do you do that?
Because you know to an extent the people that
have power affect the world about you. We know
how significant human judges and human rulers
and those with authority have. And judges and
rulers, and frankly, you and I, because we all
have a degree of authority, though some of us
a smaller degree, have an opportunity or not
to reflect the great judge, the one true and
living God. So speaking of Jewish judges, one
commentator said, they were sons of the highest
called by his name, bearing his image, exercising
his authority, charged to execute his will. And
they ought to have been in their measure, in
their measure, his living representatives. And
that could be said actually about every single
human, charged to do his will. bearing his image,
exercising his authority in their measure, his
living responsibilities. And so it's in this
sense that this human judge idea comes that you
can be called gods. But of course, that's not
the only reason, or that's not the only sort
of way this is understood. The other main way
this is understood is as sort of minor deities
or spiritual beings. And this has gained some
more traction recently, if you're kind of like
into historical theology and its development.
Probably over the last hundred years, this has
gained some more popularity. And this is taking
this idea of Elohim here, gods, to be sort of
minor, minor deities, spiritual beings, maybe
like angels or demons. They're spiritual beings
that have a sway in the world. And actually,
again, you've heard this kind of argument from
Ephesians chapter six, which Nicole read for
us, right? They're the principalities and powers
of the world, or as six four says, We do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against
the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places. And so you can see there's an argument
to be made here too, right? Oh, maybe this is,
maybe there are rulers and principalities and
powers. And this, of course, pushes against our
modern sensibilities, but there's this spiritual
reality that is existing beyond us that actually
has an effect. on our world. And Isaiah, again,
Isaiah 24 says, the Lord will punish the powers
in the heaven. And so there is this idea that
in the heavens above, there is certain powers.
This doesn't take it away from the responsibility
of humans, but it does say that there's more
at play than we might see. So which is it? I
wonder what you think? Which is it? Human judges?
some sort of spiritual divine, sub -divine being?
The gods, human judges, human authorities, are
they a spiritual ruler? They'll be judged? You
know what? I don't know. I don't know what the
answer is. I think I lean towards human judges
in part because of how Jesus uses that, but I
don't know. And I actually think that there's
maybe something there which might be the point.
Either seems possible, but the point remains
that God is judging those who have authority
and rule, who judge the world about them, who
have sway in how the world progresses, the fate
of the world. God is calling them to account
for what they do. So the judges. What's the judgment?
Okay. Well, again, in some ways we can break
this into two sections. Now it's not two interpretations,
but two sections. And one first is God's, and
then one is sort of the author of the psalm.
So first verses two to three. It says, this is
God speaking. That's what most all believe. How
long will you judge unjustly? This is God's judgment
that he's holding. And show partiality to the
wicked. Give justice to the weak and the fatherless
maintain the right of the afflicted and the death
to rescue the weak and the needy Deliver them
from the hand of the wicked So that's sort of
God's judgment And here's the here's the author
most likely of the psalm responding also verse
four. Sorry verse five They have neither knowledge
nor understanding they walk about in darkness
all the foundations of the earth are shaken What's
the judgment? Well, it's more of an indictment.
The judgment that God gives to these judges and
rulers, whether on earth or in the spiritual
realm, is that they have not cared for those
among them. I think about this. How long will
you judge unjustly? Show partiality to the wicked.
God says, give justice to the weak and fatherless,
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,
rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from
the hand of the wicked. He's saying you have
not done so. Injustice is running rampant. God's
judgment is an indictment. And then the psalmist
himself says they don't have knowledge, they
don't have understanding, they walk in darkness.
And because of this, the foundations of the earth
seem to be shaking. We all feel unsettled. The
world is not right. Which is to say, it's really
kind of an interesting thing that you first have
God's indictment and then you have the human
response. Which is to say that if you are angry
at injustice, God joins you in that. So is God.
If you look around the world, you see the poor
being taken advantage of, the hope of the needy
being forgotten, as one of our prayers says,
the fatherless being overlooked. If you look
at that and you long for the day when that will
no longer be the case, in a way, so does God.
That's part of what's happening here. God's response
to this God's judgment and this human response,
that the foundations seem to be shaken. If you
consider the plight of children who are abused
or abandoned and misused, and that causes your
blood to boil, this text says that God also is
angry at such a thing. If you consider how often
those in authority abuse it, which is so common
in the church, outside the church, in the civil
realm, all over, So is God. He is outraged by
such a thing. The judgment that God gives as
he calls the rulers to account is an indictment
that they have actually not sought justice. They
have not sought the wellbeing of those under
their care. Martin Luther, the great Protestant
reformer, he wrote this of these verses. He says,
these three verses, meaning two to four, Indeed
the whole psalm, these three verses, actually
let's just take the whole psalm. Every prince
should have painted on the wall of his chamber,
and you think art you should put up in your dorm,
like some of y 'all are moving into your dorms,
you're like, what art should I put up? He's like,
you know, art and people should put up on the
wall, these words, write them up there. But he
goes beyond that. He says, every prince should
have this painted on the wall of his chamber,
on his bed, They're like, well, how should I
design the sheets on my bed? Let's print out
Psalm 82. Over his table, you're like, oh, let's
put a, what do table runners should I buy? Let's
buy one with Psalm 82 all over it. And on his
garments. You know, all over. It's like all over,
the rulers need to know that they will be held
accountable. That God is looking at what they
do, how they're affecting the world, and He is
going to judge. Every ruler should know that
he will give an account to God, an account for
how he did or did not act justly and love mercy
and walk humbly before God. and for the sake
of the people under his care. And I think that
leads to the third part, okay? So I've talked
about like who's being judged, what the judgment
is. And then the third thing, what's the jurisdiction
of God? Which is very clear. And I think it's
actually clear if you take the ambiguity of God's
seriously and you don't land necessarily. Is
it human judges? Is it spiritual beings? Maybe
the point is there is no end to God's jurisdiction.
Maybe he's actually over it all and cares for
it all. So continuing verse six, I said, which
most believe this is again God speaking, you
are God's. Sons of the Most High, all of you.
Nevertheless, like men, you shall die and fall
like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth.
We shall inherit all the nations. And again,
two things. First thing, these rulers are not
gods. Sorry. These rulers are not God, right?
It actually says they're gods. They aren't God.
And oddly enough, this text is actually another
one of the ones that people go, well, maybe this
is referring to spiritual beings. Maybe it's
referring to human beings. Part of the argument
for the human side is like man, you shall die.
But again, it does say Elohim and they're like,
oh, what's this? Here's the point. They may be
gods. They may have real effect in the world.
They may be able to judge to a degree, but they
are not God. And think of this again. This is
key, I think, for our own understanding of our
own authority. Fathers, mothers, you will do
well to remember that you are not the God over
your children. You are under the true God, and
you will give an account for how you trained
your children, how you encouraged them, how you
spoke to them. Right, we have certain degrees
of authority you who work so many of you work
you have jobs You will give an account to God
who judges all You know the authority that we
have is a is a authority under the great authority,
which is the point of the Ecclesiastes passage
These rulers are not God and they will give an
account They will give an account That's the
first thing there The rulers are not God and
neither are we. The second thing, though, is
that God's jurisdiction really is over all things.
And again, this is why I kind of love the ambiguity
of verse one. But verse eight, it ends, arise,
O God, judge the earth. He's not saying judge
the king's... The the judges of Israel Judge
Babylon and Assyria, you know, we've been looking
at some exilic Psalms. He's saying judge it all
Arise with God judge the earth for you shall
inherit some of the nations Doesn't say that
does it says all the nations? The jurisdiction
of God is over all things His care is for it
all he desires justice be brought to all of the
world There is no end to the jurisdiction of
God. He will judge the earth, not just Israel
or apartheid South Africa or the Third Reich
or whatever you want it to be, but all of it.
And he will inherit the earth, which is to say
he will have it all. This is something I read
interesting this week. Psalm 82 is used in one
of the great Eastern Orthodox liturgies, particularly
of the Paschal Vigil. And how it's used is this,
is after each reading of each verse, the whole
congregation would sing the very last verse,
arise O God, judge the earth for you shall inherit
all the nations. So after each verse, the whole,
everybody on the night before Easter says those
lines, that very last line after each verse,
arise O God, arise O God, judge the earth for
you shall inherit all the nations. And that happens
on the night of Holy Saturday, which is to say
it's sandwiched between Good Friday and the reality
of the cross, the weight of sin, the destructive
nature of injustice and sin, and the empty tomb,
which is to say the hope of God. That the effects
of sin and its destruction, the death which comes
about because of sin, The injustice of the world
will not have the final say, even as they are
remembering and celebrating Christ in the tomb.
It's sung declaring that the judgment of God
that happened on Good Friday and his rule through
Easter Sunday and the empty tomb will come about.
God's judgment on the cross and the resurrection
is not just a forensic judgment, though it is
that. It is also the vindication of a righteous
God saying, I'm going to bring my righteousness
to the world. I'm going to judge those who perpetuate
sin in the world. It will be judged. And there's
a greater story. He judges Satan's sin and death.
He judges the principalities and powers. He judges
earthly rulers on the cross. And he invites those
who look to the cross to see that there is hope
beyond it to the empty tomb. That's what they're
remembering as they sing this, as they recount
this on Holy Saturday. But let me get back to
the Dreyfus affair, as it is often called. So
I left with Emile Zola's trial, right? he had
written that famous letter, Jacuz, and he'd been
called to trial for libel. And a lot of people
think actually Zola was actually hoping to do
that in a way because he was trying to raise
awareness to the injustice that was happening
and how antisemitism was being widespread throughout
France through this Dreyfus affair. And so he
goes to trial and he's standing there in the
court and And he was told he's not allowed to
speak. He's not allowed to bring evidence. He's
not allowed to to have any testimony from anyone.
And what I read in a number of cases is that
what the what the judge kept telling, in fact,
the judge kept yelling at Zola was this case
is closed. Stop trying to reopen it. We've decided
this man's case is closed. And I guess in the
middle of this judge yelling this, Zola stands
up and he points to a mural of a crucifix, Jesus
hanging on a cross. And he says, there was another
case that was closed. And what he was doing was
he was saying, you know, the Romans and the religious
leaders took their power and they sought to suppress
someone. In fact, what they did was they even
closed him up into a tomb with a big old stone
behind it, thinking, we've done it. And he's
saying there was a case that was so unjust in
the world. And yet the justice of God prevailed.
Jesus should not have died a sinner's death.
He was unjustly condemned. And the justice of
God prevailed so that Jesus himself conquers
Satan's sin and death and brings an end to this
idea that injustice can get away with it. And
here's what happened to Emil Zola. They didn't
buy it. He actually fled to England. He had to
leave the country. He was going to be in prison,
one of the most famous writers of the time in
France. So he fled to England. But what happened
actually right after that is that they decided
to reopen up the Dreyfus case. And a year later,
Alpha Dreyfus was brought back from Devil's Island.
Now, not initially, actually, it wasn't for five
more years that his case was really retried fully
and he was vindicated. It actually wasn't for
seven more years that he was reinstated as a
lieutenant colonel in the French army. But it
was that turning point. The turning point when
Emile Zola said there was a case that was closed.
And that case was the greatest instance of injustice
where the righteous died for the unrighteous
and the unjust judges thought they were going
to get away with it. They thought they could
get away with injustice, and God will not allow
it. Friends, that is good news. I mean, in a
world that is chock full of injustice, in a world
where it's not hard to think of different ways
that all of us live unjust lives, it is good
news to know that God does not turn a blind eye
to any of it. Also, if this jurisdiction of God
is over all things, the truth is that we will
all give an account. And the question of the
scriptures is, will you give an account of how
Christ died for your sin, for the injustice that
you perpetuate? Will you rest on Him? as the
great judge, yes, but also as the one who paid
the penalty for your sin, or will you not? It's
good news to know that God says, there is no
injustice of which I will not judge justly. No
case is finally closed until I close it. But
also it begs the question, where will you be
on the judgment? Will you be clinging to Christ?
Will you be saying, I don't need the righteousness
of God for me. I'll continue in my unjust sin.
Thank you very much. Where will you stand at
the judgment when the jurisdiction of God is
over all things? Let me pray for us. God, we're
thankful that your word speaks to so much. We're
even thankful to a degree when it speaks in a
way that is beyond our understanding because
it humbles us. God, would you bring your justice
to bear in this world? Would we be agents of
it? Would we walk justly? Walk humbly? Would
we love mercy? God, would we be those who exercise
the authority that you give us for the well -being
of those under our care? Would we guard our speech?
Would we use it to build up and not to tear down?
Would we love others as you love us? And God,
would we cling to the cross of Christ who takes
on Satan's sin and death and takes our sin upon
himself that we might receive the judgment of
God, not for what we did, but for the righteousness
of Christ. Please do this, Lord. Teach us these
things. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening
to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this
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God bless.