Br. Curtis Almquist

Psalm 7:6-11

There is a curious request in Psalm 7. The psalmist asks for God’s judgment: “Judge me, O Lord.” And this request – this desire for God’s judgment – does not just appear in Psalm 7. Praying for God’s judgment is repeated a number of times in the scriptures, particularly in the Psalms.[i]

Being judged is a sore subject for many people, and maybe for you, personally. You might have faced a kind of belittling judgment in growing up; you may live with it now. But the worst kind of demeaning judgment is not what we hear from other people, which may be terrible. The worst kind of judgment is what we may hold in our own hearts against ourselves: disparaging self-judgment about how we should be better, or different, or changed in some way. This not only compromises our zeal for life, but also compromises our hope for the future. So to hear the psalmist solicit God’s judgment of us may seem incredulous to you. If so, you are missing an important piece of due process.

When the psalmist talks about appear­ing in court before God the judge, this is not a criminal case where the psalmist – or you! – are on the dock. Rather, this is a civil case, and you are the plain­tiff.[ii]  If it were a criminal case – which it is not – the best judgment you could hope for is an acquittal. But this is a civil case, and you are anticipating a resounding triumph with a heavy reward being made to you. You are going to win this case! So the psalmist prays, “judge my quarrel” and “avenge my cause.”[iii]  The psalmist simply cannot wait for God’s judgment, nor should you.

Something we all have in common is our rather hidden lives. No one actually does know or could know the things that you know about yourself: what you carry in your heart, what you juggle, wrestle with, suffer over, have survived from.…  But God does know you, better than you know yourself.[iv] And in God’s judgment, you are absolutely amazing. You are a walking miracle. You are the apple of God’s eye.[v] In God’s judgment, you are understood and cherished as God’s own child. You are judged by God as one created in God’s very own image.

In God’s judgment you need a Savior to rescue you from mean and partial judgment. Jesus puts a face to God’s judgment, and this is a judgment of love. In God’s judgment you are no mys­tery. You are knowable, and understandable, and forgivable, and helpable, and loveable; and God adores you. You are already prejudged as one with whom God has every desire and intention to share eternity.

[i] See, for example, Psalms 35, 57, 96.

[ii] Insight about court procedures drawn from C. S. Lewis’ Reflections on the Psalms (1958); pp. 9-19.

[iii] Psalm 35:23.

[iv] 1 Corinthians 13:12.

[v] Psalm 17:8.