CNN, MSNBC, Fox, News Nation all agree. Today’s big story is the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. After decades, justice was served, but what about cases closer to home where injustice seems to have the last word?
“We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. ‘At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity’” (Psalm 75:1-2). God’s name is His self-revelation. Here we learn that there will indeed be a time of fair and impartial judgment, but it is at God’s time, not ours. “In his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25).
“When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn; do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck” (3-4). “Horn” is a biblical symbol for strength and victory. The psalmist says the wicked are overpowering the just. Still happening, but God keeps the earth steady. Keeps us steady too.
“It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (7). The government took out al-Zawahiri as an agent of God, whether officials see it that way or not. Government “is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).
“For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs” (8). That happened on the cross, Christ enduring God’s punishment against all injustice, all evil, all sin. “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” (Matthew 20:22). God is slow to punish “to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
“But I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up” (9-10). Notice, future tenses. When the crucified Christ appears in glory, “what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Peter 4:17). His cross and appearing is our hope in a world of injustice, and we “will declare it forever.”