Psalms 35:17-28: a reflection

17Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions. 18I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people. 19Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes. 20For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land. 21Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!” 22You have seen it, LORD. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me. 23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me! 24Vindicate me, LORD my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me. 25Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!” 26Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. 27Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!” 28My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.

The psalmist is under attack from enemies who hate him without cause, who gloat over his troubles and twist deceitful words against him. And he does two things with it. He cries out the honest question of the wronged: Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue me. And he hands his cause entirely to God: contend for me, my God; vindicate me according to your righteousness; do not let them gloat over me. He asks God to be the one who fights his battle.

Notice both movements. First, the honesty of how long. The psalmist does not hide his impatience or his sense that God has been standing by while he suffers injustice; he says it plainly, how long will you look on? Real prayer can voice that ache. And second, and crucially, he does not take vengeance into his own hands. He asks God to contend for him, to vindicate him, to be the one who acts against the injustice. He hands the whole matter, the wrong, the gloating enemies, the longing for vindication, over to God.

There is a model here for handling injustice. When you are wronged, mocked, treated unfairly, the temptation is either to despair silently or to fight back yourself. The psalm shows a third way: bring it honestly to God, even the how long, and then ask him to contend for you, entrusting your vindication to him rather than seizing it yourself. And notice how the psalm ends, not in bitterness but in a vow of praise: my tongue will tell of your righteousness all day long. Hand your cause to God, wait for his vindication, and let your heart move, even now, toward praise.

Lord, when I am wronged and my enemies gloat, I cry with the psalmist, how long will you look on? Help me not to take vengeance myself but to hand my cause to you: contend for me, vindicate me, be the one who acts. Teach me to bring even my impatience honestly to you, to wait for your vindication, and to move my heart, even now, toward praise.