Mattie's Psalm

God of vengeance, O Lord,
    God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth,
    bring down on the proud requital.
How long the wicked, O Lord,
    how long will the wicked exult?
They utter arrogance, speak it,
    all the wrongdoers bandy boasts.
Your people, O Lord, they crush,
    and your estate they abuse.
Widow and sojourner they kill,
    and orphans they murder.
And they say, “Yah will not see,
    and the God of Jacob will not heed.”
Take heed, you brutes in the people,
    and you fools, when will you be wise?”
Who plants the ear, will He not hear?
      Who fashions the eye, will He not look?
The chastiser of nations, will He not punish,
    Who teaches humankind knowledge?

                                               Psalm 94:1-11 Robert Alter’s translation

I had the pleasure this morning of “murmuring” Psalm 94, among others.

Having just viewed True Grit this past weekend, I couldn’t help but see Psalm 94 coming out of Mattie Ross’ mouth – the fiesty 14 year old girl who narrates the story.

First, on the film, I’m trying to remember the last time I found myself just basking in such cinematic beauty. I haven’t seen everything thing the Coen brother’s have done, but I’ve seen some of their more quirky pieces (Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou) and have thoroughly enjoyed them. This film definitely bears their mark, but they’ve ventured into new territory for them (from what I’ve seen) and done it masterfully. I saw the original theatrical version with the Duke on the big screen forty years ago and so I knew where the story was going (this time with the Dude), and how it would end. And I loved every minute watching it get there. It’s not so much a re-making of the 1969 film but a re-creation of the story, with a few telling differences. This one was far more, well, gritty. And overlaid atop that grittiness was a soundtrack that stirred me to the depths with its simple, haunting subtleties and it drew me in as I watched, Mattie’s theme throughout being strains of the classic hymn Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. It was simply beautiful.

Hope that doesn’t oversell it.

But this story of a young girl seeking justice after her father’s murder suddenly sprung before me in the words of the Psalm I was muttering this morning. David and his fellow psalmists didn’t live in the Old West, but we could say that they lived in an Old East that had much in common with it.

And it just makes me think.

Yes, I grasp the transforming nature of the cross and Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them they know not what they do.” I get the injunction to “as much as it lies within you, live in peace with all men” and it’s ultimate follow-up in Paul’s classic challenge to us to “overcome evil with good.” I understand that as followers of Christ we are in the business of “being killed all day long” rather than doing the killing (too bad the Church has forgotten that through much of its history).

But as I hear the heavenly strains of beheaded souls under the altar in Revelation 6 crying out their own, “How long, O Lord?” I still feel the relevance of Psalm 94 in a world that despite our seemingly civilized manners feels very much practically like an Old Testament world.

I don’t think that means we necessarily all start packing pistols and setting out for justice – though to be fair, Mattie didn’t set out as a vigilante seeking to take vengeance like an “avenger of blood” of old, she turns to the law and employs a marshal, and when she does shoot it’s only in self-defense. In the same way Psalm 94 is not crying out for bloody crusade or jihad – but for the divine intervention of justice in human affairs – which is what the Marshal Cogburns of the world are for.

But I do think it means that perhaps by “outlawing” the sentiments expressed in psalms like this (just try praying this psalm in your next small group meeting or church gathering and see what response you get) we have surrendered to a phony, unbibilcal Christian “niceness” evidencing more an emasculated spirituality that conforms to current cultural norms than embracing a truly biblically informed maturity shaped by Christ.

Perhaps such spiritual emasculation is what can make us cringe at the thought of the torments of hell. The fictional Rooster Cogburn doesn’t strike me as one who would flinch at the thought of it for the likes of a Tom Chaney – and as I’ve waded through most of the gospel of Matthew in the past few days, neither does Jesus seem too. Yes he is meek and lowly of heart, but that very statement in Matthew 11:29 comes on the heels of “Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! Woe to you Capernaum! You think you will be exalted to heaven? You will be cast down to hell.” Makes me think we need to look at that word “meek” again. Now, the very suggestion of parallels between Rooster Cogburn and Jesus Christ no doubt raises an eyebrow or two, but hands down I would choose to stand with either of them in a fight! And the fact is, that’s what we all have on our hands in this world. Reminds me of the classic comment about Aslan – “He’s not safe – but he’s good.” Why do we always seem to be so either/or, so dualistic? He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world or he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Why do we seem to have such difficulty grasping both, such difficulty “considering the kindness and the severity of God”?

Just wondering about a spirituality that doesn’t have room for such an image of Jesus Christ, of a God who is the “chastiser of nations” – or for Mattie’s psalm of vengeance – as much as I wonder about one that only knows how to play that tune.

Selah.