在伸冤的神家中被完全认可的成员？Full members of the Avenger team?

Title: Full members of the Avenger team?
Preacher: Rev Enoch Keong
Date: 03 Dec. 2023

Introduction
I will begin this morning by recounting some less pleasant experiences I had when serving National Service. Due to high myopia, I was a clerk for the entire 2 years. That was supposed to be a happy arrangement since I don’t need to do things like chiong sua. Chiong sua is a local dialect expression that means to charge up the hill.

But my time in the army was not altogether happy days. Because the section head that I reported to was rather capricious at times. Let me cite 2 instances. One, I was placed in a small team that does filing of documents for the first year. Our ‘arsenals’ were files and filing cabinets. One day, a colleague chose to file his swimming trunk in one of the filings cabinets. The outcome, my colleague went scot-free, and I was given a big scolding for letting a swimming trunk drift into the filing cabinet. That’s injustice.

The second incident. Remember what were our arsenals as filing clerks? Files and filing cabinets. Our task was to file the documents in good order and to guard them well. And one day, my section head ordered me to send the filing cabinets to the respective owners’ offices for them to do the filing themselves from then on. My lieutenant, 2 stripes, in charge of admin operation, made this newbie, basically empty here, a mouthpiece to declare the defiance to a few colonels. Each colonel 3 crabs, this Mr. Empty sent to declare defiance to about 10 crabs. That’s abuse of power. That’s causing disorder.

I am sharing the injustice, abuse of power and disorderliness I saw during my NS days because it was phenomena as such that led to the writing of Psalm 94. The difference is that while I shared the wrong things done to one fellow, the psalmist on the other hand was calling out to God because of widespread social and economic oppression.

The extreme cases, says the psalmist, included bloodshed of the poor and powerless: the widows, sojourners, and orphans. The oppressors, lo and behold, were the rulers of the people that should have protected the innocent and punished the criminals accordingly. Instead, as verse 20 indicates, these rulers multiplied acts of injustice in the name of the law.

Psalm 94 laments the social injustice inflicted by people in positions of power on their own citizens. The context makes Psalm 94 look out of place as a royal psalm. Royal psalms declare and celebrate the God’s greatness and his kingship.

A quick look at the opening lines of the neighboring psalms suffices. Each one of them bursts forth with a happy and triumphant sounding tone. Psalm 94 on the other hand begins with expressions of agony and pain.

How are we to understand this royal psalm that is seemingly out of place? One way would be to see the psalm as introducing a balance to the euphoria seen in the neighboring psalms. It does so by taking a hard look at reality; the challenges and difficulties faced by God’s people. Reasonable explanation, but not useful to us.

There are 3 groups of people mentioned in the psalm, a closer look at each of them might be more instructive. The names I give the 3 groups: Zero Trust, Little Trust, and Fully Trust.

II. Zero trust
The Zero Trust are the oppressors, whom the psalmist calls “the proud”. These people were not proud in the sense they were flaunting whatever they have. The psalmist has something specific in mind when calling them ‘the proud’.

The Psalmist writes, “Rise up, O judge of the earth”, beseeching God to deal with the proud. “Rise up” is not a common way to entreat God. The Hebrew verb used carries the meaning of “lift yourself up”. [1] The psalmist was calling God to do some self-assertion, to show some colors of his. Was it because that God was slow or an absentee in the situation? More likely, the psalmist was asking God to carry himself in similar manner as the Zero Trust, and to behave somewhat like them. The Zero Trust were filled with an inflated sense of self-importance and greatness, to an extent that while they know God is there, he is not a consideration when they want and feel like doing something. In other words, they think they are kings.

“Rise up” or “lift yourself up” is therefore the psalmist confessing, however indirectly, that “the proud” though act like kings and arbiters were not the king. The true king is God.

“The proud” in the psalm, we mentioned, were members among God’s people. Do we have “the proud” in the church? It does not seem so, but let’s think again. The proud in the psalm chose to be oblivious to evil, they do as they please. Churchgoers, mostly well-informed people, I don’t think we are oblivious to evil. But we can be unconcerned towards evil, especially systemic evil. Let me try an example.

I think our buying power can potentially make us unwittingly and unknowingly among the ranks of “the proud”.

We like new clothes, better still if they come cheap. The next thing we hear is that many fashion wears come from sweat shops. We get them cheap, because people who made them take home little or not much for doing the job.

Recently, CNA Insider published an article on how digging critical metal or rare earth to manufacture magnets used in phones and cars has impacted our region. The summary under the heading reads, “The world’s appetite for tiny magnets and EV batteries is having repercussions such as chemical pollution in unlikely corners of the region, the series Power Scramble finds…” [2]

We need apparel. We very much need a phone to get around these days. We probably rely on the car to help us manage our packed schedule. So, I am not asking us to stop buying apparel, to live like Tarzan and communicate using jungle calls and to be as muscular as Ivan to be able to travel by swinging from tree to tree.

But people in our global village and our environment have become victims of the supply and demand cycle. As people who worship the creator and king, how should we make use of our buying power?

We like to tell others and ourselves, get what you need rather than what you want. Psalm 94 as a royal psalm nudges us to connect this piece of day-to-day wisdom with our beliefs, to make better choices between needs and wants guided by the vision of God as the king of the earth and that he fellow human beings are God’s creation.

Let’s move on to the second group mentioned in the psalm, Little Trust.

III. Little Trust
We find the second group in verses 8 to 11. I at first thought that the psalmist is here chiding the Zero Trust for being so ignorant about what God could do. But I got it wrong as this cannot be the case. The psalmist wanted God to avenge the Zero Trust, he only wants to see the oppressors wiped out (v.23).

In verses 8 to 11, he is instead taking the time to talk sense, to promote wisdom, and to encourage reflection and repentance. The “dullest of the people” refers to ordinary folks, people who responded inappropriately to oppression happening in their society. Some of these people just wanted to go under the radar and not be picked on by the oppressors. Others might have wanted to get into the good books of the oppressors and have friends in high places.

The fundamental flaw of this second group is that they laid their focus wrongly. They focused on the situation rather than trying to see how God’s hands might be at work. They focused on the oppressors rather than on God. We don’t blame them, do we? We ourselves also have the same tendency to focus on matters and people instead of God. Like the Little Trust group, we often wonder if God is involved in the world.

Such a mindset, one commentator suggests, potentially leads to 3 areas of temptation .[3]

Though slightly farfetched, the first temptation would be to think that God only involves in our religious lives. We got lost in reading the bible, he illuminates our mind. We are hard hearted; he convicts us to change. We pray for healing, God does it at times. But in the day-to-day struggles such as unfairness in workplace, managing difficult family members, etc., the Little Trust might assume that God to be not interested.

The second temptation is that God will only act at the end of time. God is the universal end time judge. He see everything yet will show hand only in the End. I believe this temptation to be more common among Christians. And this might be the way we expect some things to be, even though we trust God in other areas.

The third temptation would be to take matters solely into one’s own hand; no surprise when trusting in God for help is not quite the thing to do. We probably have gone down this path before, often to find that the problems are bigger than us, and solutions are not readily at hand. Problems coupled with sense of responsibility with no ready solutions then leads to guilt feelings and sense of being overburdened. We know what I am talking about if we have ever succumbed to this second temptation of taking matters solely into our own hands.

The royal psalm we are reading urges us not to be, or to no longer be, part of the Zero Trust or Little Trust group. The third group, which the psalmist is a member, is the Fully Trust. It is to this group that the psalm invites us.

IV. Fully Trust
The Little Trust thought God to be dormant and passive. The Fully Trust refutes there being such a possibility and argues the point from experience.

God had been his help, says the psalmist. God had held him up when he nearly slipped and fell off the cliff. He saw through such experiences God’s steadfast love and commitment. And when he was going through anxiety attack, God comforted him.

His experiences made him realize 2 things. One, that he was not finally overwhelmed though the challenges were great, because God had been there. Can I have a show of hands if we find this to be also true for us.

Second, having survived passed challenges he affirms that God is involved in our ordinary lives. So with full confidence in God, he cries out, “O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!” When we follow the tenses of the original Hebrew wording, the verse should read, “O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, has shone forth!” Experience of God, led to confidence in God, led to greater trust in God.

And in case we wonder why God is also the “God of vengeance”. Do not mistaken the psalmist to be calling God to join him in being angry with the enemies, and to use violence on them without restrain. Vengeance in Hebrew is a word associated with justice and fairness. So, the psalmist is saying he had seen God bringing about equity, God has shone forth; and he is asking God to do so again. Experience of God, led to confidence in God, led to greater trust in God. That’s the characteristic of the Fully Trust.

The Little Trust, we said, are wrongheaded because they take things solely into their own hands and fail to trust God as their helper. Conversely, it will not do for the Fully Trust to be willing to trust God but not wanting to get our the hands dirty. To be Fully Trust is to do while depending on God, to pray and to work on things by faith. Be it daily matters involving family and friends, or in bigger projects such as to help the poor or to improve the environment. God is looking to his people doing something good, something new, in partnership with him.

To be fully Trust is to look for God’s involvement in the real time. And to look to God to overcome the challenges and problems that are bigger than us.

Conclusion
This morning we reflect on the 3 groups of people: the Zero Trust who are the rulers of the people, the Little Trust who were the ordinary people and the Fully Trust, herein represented by the psalmist. All these groups were members of God chosen people, but only Fully Trust are full members of the Avenger’s team.

I believe in the church there are also the Zero Trust, the Little Trust and the Fully Trust, we probably know who we ourselves are.

Today is advent Sunday, which marks the start of the new Christian year. As we embark onto another year of our life journey and spiritual growth, let us come to the Lord with an open heart. By open heart I mean to be not overly ready to label ourselves as the Zero Trust, the Little Trust or the Fully Trust. But to allow the Lord to show us which group we belong to. So, let’s draw near to the Lord to hear him speak. And pray, that in this new year and henceforth, we shall become full members of the Avenger’s team with his help. There will be times where we falter. But God is good, and what he is looking for is the willingness and dedication to live a life of trusting and serving. This morning we call such people the Fully Trust.

[1]John Goldingay. Psalms. Vol. 3: Psalms 90-150 (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic Press, 2008). p.76.
[2]https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/china-critical-metals-rare-earths-southeast-asia-ev-battery-3928246
[3]John Goldingay, Psalms. Vol. 3: Psalms 90-150. p.86.

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