At the conclusion of Psalm 98, a psalm of joyous celebration, suddenly, all the joy and praise and glory seems to stop. Notice how the psalm concludes in verse 9b,
“For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.”
Judge? What a different tone. What a strange way to finish this song of celebration.
Yet, the image the psalmist evokes is not one of negative judgment. Typically when we think of God judging the earth, we think of the disasters in the book of Revelation. Or maybe I have them in mind because this summer and fall I taught New Testament classes that covered Acts through Revelation. We finished the semester just last week, studying the book of Revelation and all its wild imagery of disaster. AKA judgment.
But notice how the psalmist describes the Judge. He first says that the Judge himself will come to the earth. He is present. He is not zapping the earth from afar like the Death Star in the Star Wars movies. Instead this judge is there among the people. He is present with his people. Jesus is with us, becoming one of us. That is the image of the word “advent.” Jesus has come.
I’m reminded of the Johnny Cash song The Man Comes Around. In that song Cash depicts Jesus as the one who comes to judge.
“There’s a man who decides who to free and who to blame/Not everyone will be treated the same/There will be a golden ladder reaching down/when the man comes around.”
That might sound the exact opposite of what the psalmist says when the psalmist says God will judge with equity. But equity does not mean that everyone gets the same judgment. Equity means that everyone is judged based on the same criteria. But the results are not the same.
As judge, God’s not doing any zapping or world destroying at all. When his judgement is described as “in righteousness and with equity.”
God is good, God is love. When he shows up there is rejoicing! We have spent the Advent season thinking about what it means to be ready for his arrival so that when he arrives there will be rejoicing.
Because Jesus is coming again. We don’t know when. When is not our concern. I know it is easy to look at what is happening around the world and think, “He is coming again soon.” I find that kind of speculation to be distracting and counterproductive. What is far more important is to be ready for him to return anytime. How do we ready ourselves?
We spend time rejoicing at his salvation, just like this psalmist did. That rejoicing is singing new songs, and it means a life of worship. Because God has brought salvation, we live the saved lifestyle, the same lifestyle that Jesus himself live. We live lives marked by loving selflessness. We serve others, especially those in need. We share the stories of God’s salvation. We spend time with our Lord individually and with others, so that we might know him better.
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Engaging Scripture 