Psalm 34
declares that even the name of those who do evil will be blotted out from the face of the earth while the Lord will remember the brokenhearted and save those whose
spirits are crushed. Of course broken hearts are often brought about by those
who do evil and as the prophet Habakkuk points out the wicked prosper long
enough for the righteous to wonder why. (Habakkuk 1:1ff) But the psalm declares
it is the very act of evil that slays the wicked while those who patiently
endure troubles (albeit while crying out for help) will be rescued from whatever condemnation is reserved for those who oppose the way of righteousness. While
we might interpret this psalm as being willing to wait for the scales of
justice to ultimately and finally balance the equation between good and evil the psalmist sings of
justice in the present tense and will not stand idly by while the wicked
prosper. That means Psalm 34 might
respond to Habakkuk’s question, “How long, O Lord, will the wicked
prosper?” with a defiant, “no longer.” And so we live the future, which is the
present tense of Psalm 34, whenever we tip the scales of
justice in the favor of the troubled while setting our face (and our energy and
resources) against those who do evil. The petition, “thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven” has as much to do with our will as
God’s.
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