Rise Up, O God

Scripture: Psalm 82

Sermon: Rise Up, O God

Topics: Justice, dreams, Crossan, heartbeat, Jesus, Cummings

Preached: December 11, 2011

Rev. Mike Abma

Psalm 82

Psalm of Asaph

¹ God has taken his place in the divine council;

in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

² ‘How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?

Selah

³ Give justice to the weak and the orphan;

maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’

⁵ They have neither knowledge nor understanding,

they walk around in darkness;

all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

⁶ I say, ‘You are gods,

children of the Most High, all of you;

⁷ nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,

and fall like any prince.’^*

⁸ Rise up, O God, judge the earth;

for all the nations belong to you!

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

One of my favorite Disney animated movies is Robin Hood.

Remember that 1973 classic?

It is the one where the characters are all different animals:

Robin Hood and Maid Marian are foxes;

Little John is a big loveable bear;

The Sheriff of Nottingham is an overweight wolf;

And the evil sniveling Prince John is a mangy, maneless lion,

always accompanied by his slithery sidekick, Sir Hiss.

This animated film is both funny and heart-breaking at the same time.

As the common folk languish under the oppressive rule of Prince John,

they cope with things by singing folk songs —

songs like Prince John, the phony king of England:

Too late to be known as John the First

He’s sure to be known as John the Worst

A pox on that phony king of England.

Prince John is the phony King.

Everyone is waiting for the REAL king to return.

They are yearning for King Richard the Lionhearted to come back,

to put the corrupt Prince John out of business,

and restore justice, and order, and peace to the land

PSALMS OF ASAPH

There is a similar thing going on in this section of the Psalms.

Psalms 73-83 are known as the Psalms of Asaph.

Oppressed people are singing psalms of lament.

They are describing the fall of Jerusalem:

the corruption of their kings,

the reality that enemies have breached the walls of the city,

and have defiled the holiness of the Temple.

The psalms lament that everything, everything seems lost.

Israel is crushed.

The nations mockingly ask in Psalm 79:10 “Where is your God now?”

The next Psalm, Psalm 80 is a plea, a desperate plea for help.

The refrain in that Psalm is

Restore us, O God,

make your face shine on us

that we might be saved.

Now here we are at Psalm 82.

Psalm 82 is a vision.

It is a dream.

It catches a glimpse of the High Court of the Universe.

At this Court, all the powers of the world are gathered:

the gods of the Assyrians, the Babylonians,

the gods of the Moabites, the Ammonites,

the gods of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians.

They are all there.

And then God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, enters.

And he takes his place as the Judge – the Judge of them all.

His first words are words of accusation:

“How long will you judge unjustly

and defend what is wicked?

How long will you show partiality to those who abuse their power.”

Then this Supreme Judge,

rattles off 4 imperatives,

4 commands,

which are his standard of justice:

1. Give justice to the weak

2. Be fair to the lowly and destitute

3. Rescue the needy

4. Deliver the weak from the hand of the wicked.

After this accusation, and after this standard of Justice,

the gods of the nations are speechless in verse 5.

They offer no defense.

They stumble around in the darkness,

clueless about what justice really looks like,

but also clueless about the terrible effects of their injustice.

Their injustice is threatening all of creation – because of them,

the foundations of the earth are shaking.

So God, in verse 6-7 renders his verdict.

God says to them all, “Yours powers are being taken away.

You will die like mere mortals.

You will fall like any human prince — much like the corrupt kings of Judah fell and were hauled off into exile.”

DREAMS OF JUSTICE

Psalm 82 is a dream.

It is a vision of God’s coming justice.

We find similar visions in the prophets.

We find similar visions at the end of Daniel.

In all these visions,

the corrupt powers are sent packing,

and justice is restored:

the hungry are fed

the homeless are housed

the unemployed find meaningful work

the bullied finally find lasting friendship.

Don’t we all have these types of dreams?

Dreams of a better world,

a more just world

in which people are not crying themselves to sleep at night because they are afraid they will lose their house,

or won’t be able to afford a medical procedure for their child,

or cannot help their kids get an education.

So what are these dreams we have?

What are they?

Are they just dreams — there is reality and there are dreams. Is that what dreams

are – pure fantasy?

Or are these dreams of a “just world” simply visions of a totally different world. Not this world at all, but a world we can only escape to once we die.

Or are these dreams actually visions planted in our hearts and minds by someone who cares so deeply for his creation,

and so deeply for his creatures,

that he wants us to start dreaming, and watching, and working for this kind of world, this kind of justice, right here, right now?

THE SINGLE-MOST IMPORTANT PSALM

The Biblical scholar, John Dominic Crossan calls Psalm 82 the single-most important text in the entire Bible. Now, I know that is somewhat of an exaggeration. But why would someone like Crossan say this?

Crossan calls this Psalm absolutely stunning,

because in it we see the core character of God.

In this psalm,

we see the heartbeat of God.

We see what gets God upset,

what makes him weep,

and where he puts his foot down.

What is amazing about this Psalm is that these other gods

are not condemned for being pagan;

They are not even condemned for being false.

They are condemned for not providing justice.

As Proverbs 14:31 says:

You oppress the poor, you insult God.

You help the poor, you honor God.

Psalm 82 shows that justice is the cornerstone of the cosmos.

When justice is threatened, everything gets shaky.

Justice becomes the standard by which all things are judged.

JUSTICE and JESUS

Justice.

It is amazing how much controversy that word is generating lately.

Everyone seems to be for justice…in theory.

But the minute anyone tries to actually do something about it, there is trouble.

When it comes to justice, where does one begin:

the growing gap between the rich and the poor;

the on-going exploitation of the most vulnerable who are often used and abused as slaves of all kinds;

The political systems that continue to refuse to listen to ordinary people, but only seem to listen to those with money and power;

The legal systems that favor those with wealth: if you can afford a good lawyer, you will get a light sentence, but if you are too poor to afford one, your case gets dumped on the dust-pile of neglect?

When it comes to doing justice, where does one begin?

Is there any doubt that this world still cries out for justice.

In this Advent season, we remember that the heartbeat of God

began to beat in the infant child born in Bethlehem.

The heartbeat of God came,

and was born to poor parents.

He was born not in a palace but a barn.

He ate what people were willing to feed him.

He slept wherever people gave him a place to stay.

He eventually rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey.

He was buried in a borrowed tomb.

The only thing we know he owned was his robe – but in the end, he lost that too.

Jesus came to the poor, to the weak, to those denied justice.

And he lived poor, and weak, and as one denied justice.

To them, he brought good news.

The very first sermon he ever preached began this way:

“I have been anointed to bring good news to the poor …the poor.”

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees?

Here were people who loved God.

Here were people who were devoted followers of God’s teachings.

Here were some of the most religious people of that day.

And yet, Jesus reserves his harshest words for them.

Why?

Because they did not practice justice.

They devoured the homes of the poor and the widows;

They gave tithes but neglected the needy;

They wanted to appear righteous on the outside, but remained stingy on the inside;

They refused to listen to the words of the prophets – to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

When Jesus was preaching, he gave people another vision of the Heavenly High Court. You can find that vision in Matthew 25. There the Son of Man takes his seat on the throne. All the nations are gathered around him.

It is a picture, a vision, that is remarkably similar to Psalm 82.

In this New Testament vision, the Heavenly King pronounces his judgment.

Some will be welcomed into his kingdom and some will not.

And what is the standard of justice?

It is the same standard as in Psalm 82:

Those who feed the hungry

Those who welcome the stranger

Those who care for the sick,

Those who tend to the needy,

Those who look out for the least and protect the poor,

They are the ones welcomed into the kingdom.

In the New Testament, there simply is not any division between

justification and justice,

between grace and the doing of good works.

Those who know Jesus,

those who have tasted his grace,

and know his mercy,

these are people

who yearn for justice,

who dream about it;

who work for it;

and who anxiously wait for the rightful King to return

to make all things right.

If our faith is not deeply rooted in doing justice,

then it is not a Jesus-centered faith.

Then it is not a Thy-kingdom-come, Thy-will-be-done faith.

CONCLUSION — DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

Last week we had Priscilla Ribeiro and her husband Daniel Cummings visit Woodlawn. I’ve been thinking about them all week.

Here we have two people in the prime of their lives.

Priscilla, a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School,

a specialist,

an obstetrician and gynecologist.

And Daniel, a graduate of the Penn State Medical School,

a specialist in Emergency Medicine.

Here we have these two people on the threshold of their careers —

bright, promising, productive careers.

They probably have the choice of any number of hospitals in the country to work at.

But they are choosing to go to Angola.

They are choosing to practice medicine in this African country,

Where the hospitals have poor facilities;

Where they know, before going, that they will be overworked and underpaid;

So why go there?

There are hundreds of reasons not to go –

they have serious student loan debts from their schooling.

They have parental responsibilities – they are the parents of a 6 month old son.

they have careers to establish…..

But …..they are going.

They are going because there is a dire need of doctors there.

In the United States, there are about 250 doctors for every 100,000 people.

In Angola, there are only about 3 doctors for every 100,000 people.

Well, you may ask, why don’t Angolan doctors work in Angolan hospitals?

The hard, but brutal truth, is that often doctors trained in many of these developing countries, look for jobs in wealthier countries in Europe and North America.

Last week, Daniel said there were more Ethiopian doctors practicing medicine in and around Washington DC, than there are practicing in the whole country of Ethiopia.

So why are Priscilla and Daniel going?

Well, it is mainly because they love Jesus.

They know Jesus, and they know, deep in their gut, that this is the right thing to do —

to care for the poorest and to treat the neediest

of the world in the name of Jesus.

This is what justice looks like.

And I have a feeling when the King returns,

they will be ready.

Will you?

Amen