Whenever the kindness and mercy of the Lord are dwelt upon in order that sinners may be encouraged to trust Him, someone will always be sure to interpose with the objection, "Yes, but the Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11)
Of course the natural effect upon the doubting, trembling soul is to lead him to think, "I know that I am wicked, and therefore God is angry with me."
And then will follow either a feeling of apathy, or else vain efforts to do something to appease the supposed anger of God. Thus the purpose of the enemy of souls is accomplished.
Remembering that "God is love"; that "[He] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" (John 3:16) and that this was a sacrifice on the part of God himself, because "The Word was with God, and the Word was God," (John 1:1) and, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," (2 Corinthians 5:19) let us examine the scripture in which the statement of God's continual anger against all men--"for all have sinned,"--is supposed to be found. It is the 7th Psalm, and we will study it as a whole. The study will show incidentally the danger of building a theory on a single text detached from its connection.
In the quotation of the palm, which follows, we have not followed any one translation, but have combined several, so as to give the most literal and vivid rendering of the Hebrew. It will be seen that the psalm may be naturally divided into six sections, the last consisting of but one verse. The first section presents a picture of:
1. One Pursued by the Enemy
"O Lord my God, in You do I take refuge; save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver me; Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, when there is none to deliver." (Psalm 7:1-2)
This is the cry of a soul in extreme peril. He is chased by an enemy who is like a raging lion, which will tear him in pieces if he does not find a place of safety. We see at the very outset that we have before us the cry of a soul pursued by Satan, the great Destroyer; for: "The devil, as a roaring lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
In a preceding article we have read some of the text which show how sure a refuge God is in such times of peril. The next section shows:
2. The Injustice of the Enemy's Attack
"O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands: If I have rendered evil to him that was at peace with me; (I haveeven delivered him that was my enemy without cause); Let the enemy chase my soul and catch it; and let him tread mylife to the earth, and cast down my glory to the dust." (Psalm 7:3-5)
The lion cares nothing for the fact that his prey is inoffensive, and has done him no injury. He is filled with a desire to destroy, and he slays to gratify his own passion for destroying.
So the devil lies in wait for the innocent, as shown in his dealing with our first parents in the garden of Eden. The spirit that deliberately plots the spiritual ruin of an innocent soul, is purely satanic. Such a degree of wickedness is abhorrent to any soul that is not utterly degraded, and so the psalmist utters a call for Judgment.
3. Call for Judgment
"Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift up yourself against the fury of my adversaries; and awake for me the judgment You have commanded. So shall the congregation of the peoples compass You about, and over it return You on high." (Psalm 7:6-7)
Read in the light of the first section of the psalm, this cry for vengeance does not seem so revengeful as it sometimes does to the careless reader. It is not the demand of one man for vengeance upon other men who are hostile to him, but it is a call for judgment upon the arch-enemy.
Moreover it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that the element of human passion does not enter into it. Compare this section, and indeed the whole psalm, with the 35th Psalm.
In this section we have present before us, in brief, the last judgment, and its results. When the judgment which God has commanded, shall be executed upon the "wicked spirits in high places," (Ephesians 6:12) the congregation of the people will compass the Lord about, as He returns on high to "reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." (Isaiah 24:23)
In the next section we have a statement of the certainty of the Judgment.
4. Certainty of the Judgment
"The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and the uprightness that is in me, Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; the righteous Lord tries the hearts and the reins. My shield it is with God, who delivers the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that has indignation continually. If He turn out, He has whet His sword, He has bent His bow, and made it ready; He has prepared for him the instruments of death, He will make His arrows fiery." (Psalm 7:8-13)
Have we here a little self-righteousness? No, for the Lord says of His people, "Their righteousness is of me." (Isaiah 54:17)
Remember that this is the prayer of one who has taken refuge in Christ, and "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)
The uprightness that is in such a one, is the uprightness of God, and it is according to that that the psalmist would be judged. The soul that makes God its refuge, can look on judgments without fear, because he is in the place whence they come, so that they cannot fall upon him.
It is in this section that the verse occurs which in the common version is rendered, "God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11)
The words in italics, however, show what was added by the translators. Even if we take the text as it stands in the common version, there need be no difficulty, since we see that "the wicked" are not sinners on probation, but the devil and all his hosts, both of angels, and of men who have sold themselves to him to persecute the godly. "God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that has indignation continually." (Psalm 7:11)
Is it not well? Is it not comforting to know that we are not left alone and forgotten? that the efforts of the enemy to accomplish our destruction, awaken the indignation of the mighty God?
Even when Satan's rage works through men who have no fear of God before their eyes, we may know that God regards it as directed against Him. And so indeed it is, when we fly to Him for refuge. He makes our cause His own.
When the children of Israel were marching toward Canaan, the Amalekites came out to fight against them, but in reality it was to fight against God. In Exodus 17 we read: "Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of the Lord, therefore the Lord is against Amalek self-destroyed." (Exodus 17:16,margin)
5. Self-Destroyed
In the last part of the section of the psalm that we have just considered, there is evident allusion to the wicked, and the words, "if they turn not." (Psalm 7:12)
If the wicked turn not, God has prepared the instruments of destruction for him. (Read Job 38:22,24) In the following section we have a description of the persecutor, a statement which shows the justice of His punishment.
6. The Justice of His Punishment
"Behold, he travails with iniquity, and he has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and dug it. And he shall fall into the ditch which he has made. His mischief shall return upon his own head. And upon his own crown shall his violence come down." (Psalm 7:14-16)
In the judgment it will appear that God is clear. He is love, and yet there is punishment for the wicked, and "fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:27)
And this is because He is love. We cannot now go further into particulars than to call attention to the obvious fact that it would not be an indication either of love or justice, for God to allow the wicked to destroy the innocent.
But let it not be forgotten that all the punishment that any wicked person will ever receive, will be only that which he brings upon himself, and which he might have avoided if he would. "Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." (Romans 2:4-5)
So we read in the last part of the 1st chapter of Proverbs, that the wicked in their destruction only "eat of the fruit of their own way." (Proverbs 1:31)
All they that hate the Lord, love death.
"But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:36)
Thus in the passage before us, the wicked only receive that which they themselves have worked out; they are taken in their own net, and fall into the pit which they dig for another. They that love cursing shall receive it, for God will give to every man that which he most delights in.
The last section is the ascriptions of praise.
7. The Ascriptions of Praise
"I will give thanks unto the Lord according to His righteousness: and will sing praises to the name of Jehovah Most High." (Psalm 7:17)
And thus we find, as we always shall, that the portion of Scripture which Satan uses for the purpose of discouraging people, is the one that is full of comfort for them.
If we are not ignorant of his devices, nor unmindful of the goodness of God, we shall know, whenever a text seems to be for the purpose of holding us off from God, that we do not understand it, and will study it with a prayer that the Holy Spirit will teach us the truth as it is in Jesus.--Present Truth, November 9, 1893--Psalm 7:1-17.