Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Praying for Justice? | The Writings | Psalm 140

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. When you see injustice in the world, do you pray about it? Like when the news is overwhelming, when wars break out, when politics become marred with greed and power-hungry men, when injustice seeps into your own life, do you pray? Do you ask God for deliverance, for justice? Well, in my own life, I think I pray some of the time when I see injustice, but it isn't usually consistent. It's sporadic. It's when I think about it or when the injustice is so close to home, so dangerous to me that I have nothing left to do but pray. Now, in Psalm 140, we hear the cries of

Starting point is 00:00:58 David. It is a Psalm of lament. He's crying out to God for deliverance from injustice. And is opening words, he cries out, rescue me, Lord, from evildoers. Protect me from the violent. He goes on to explain what the evildoers are like, how they threaten him. And then again, he cries out, keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Protect me from the violent who devise ways to trip my feet. Rescue me. Keep me safe, Lord. He calls out to God for protection. In verse 6 we read, I say to the Lord, you are my God. Hear Lord, my cry for mercy, sovereign, Lord, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle.

Starting point is 00:01:50 Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord. Do not let their plans succeed. See, it's his final plea of this chapter. Hear my cry for mercy. And it's intermingled with reminders of why he's calling out to God with his cries. You are my God, the sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer. You shield my head. He knows who it is that he's calling out to.

Starting point is 00:02:16 And he knows that his God is faithful. In the final two verses, David ends with more statements of faith. Why does he cry out again and again to the Lord throughout the Psalms? Why is it to God that he turns when injustice rages around him? Or verse 12. I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live in your presence. He knows. He knows that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Do you know that? Do I? The theme of this Psalm and many others is that David is, that David is, is persistent in his appeals to God for justice to reign, for God to step in. Now, I think about the latest election in the United States, and directly following it, had either of the candidates won, you would have heard calls from both sides of the aisle that because their candidate didn't win, evil and injustice was going to take over. It would abound. Right and left, both used tactics of fear to most, motivate voters to the polls. If Donald Trump or Kamala Harris won, the opposite side would have

Starting point is 00:03:41 woven a narrative to their base that some kind of injustice would rule and reign in America. And we saw the fear, the lamenting that came following Donald Trump's win. The left was fearful of what would come, of what kind of injustice might reign, of what kind of evil might reign. Now, I'm not here to make a political judgment call on whether either side was right in their assertation. I would say that both sides were accurate to some extent in their belief that the opposite candidate wouldn't promote perfect justice for everyone. But what we can pull from this is the fact that many people in America view politics and candidates as a place where they can assert their version of justice. We cry out to politicians to save us, to cast out the evildoers.

Starting point is 00:04:31 And a very quick aside, I believe that God uses politicians and politics to produce justice in our world. I think politics is an amazing place for Christians to join in and be a part of making God's justice real and tangible here on earth. I believe that politicians make good and horrible decisions that either create peace or incredible hardship for people. Elections matter. They have real consequences. But they do not hold the ultimate power. You should call your congresswoman about areas of injustice you see around you. But this psalm shows us that even more consistently, we should be on our knees before our God begging for his justice to reign supreme. In Luke 18, we read a parable from Jesus, verses 1 through 18. He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Starting point is 00:05:31 He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused. But afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down with her continual coming.

Starting point is 00:05:59 And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? So this woman in the parable, she did not give up. She engaged in the world around her. She begged for justice from those in power who did not know God, and they heard. They gave in. And Jesus says, If the judge who doesn't know God will deal justly, how much more will God give to those who cry out to him? How much more will a loving father, with all the power in the world, produce perfect justice for his children?

Starting point is 00:06:46 But he ends with a challenge. Will the son of man find faith on earth? Will the people pray and not lose heart, not give up hope, not be overcome by injustice, the evil, the fear, and anxiety that they forget who their true king is. Will the son of man, the king, Jesus, return to find a faithless and fearful people? It's a challenge. If I look at my own prayer life, it says a lot about where my hope lies, where I put my faith for deliverance. What does your prayer life say about where your hope lies? What does your relationship with politics say about who you put your faith in for deliverance. Will Jesus find faith in your life when he returns?

Starting point is 00:07:35 Will he find a Facebook full of fear or hate? A heart plagued by anxiety or hardened by the lack of justice in our land? Or will he find a hopeful believer who returned again and again to prayer for deliverance, for justice, for peace to reign in the land? See, I want the second to be true. in my life. I want to believe, like David did, that my God will hear my cry for mercy, that he will deliver me, rescue me, save me, that he is sovereign, that he is a strong deliverer, that he will execute justice for the poor, and that he will uphold the cause of the needy. See, faith, it isn't just a belief of the heart. It's a deeply rooted belief system that produces life-changing action. If my faith in hope are in King Jesus, someone who defends and upholds

Starting point is 00:08:26 justice who cares for the poor and needy, then when I get up off my knees in prayer, to my God, my life should reflect the values of my king. Where in your life have you taken up the cause of the needy? Where are you actively upholding justice in your sphere of influence? Where are you being a deliverer of justice for the poor? How has your knowledge of the one true living sovereign, just God, changed the way that you view and pray for in an interaction? with the injustices happening in your life. Now, I can't possibly know how you specifically should take action, but if you don't have an immediate answer to those questions, it might be time to make a change. Start with prayer, powerful prayer, persistent prayer to God for justice to rule and reign on

Starting point is 00:09:18 earth, and then ask him to reveal where you can participate with him in spreading justice. You have the strength of the sovereign God behind you. He will be faithful. He will deliver and he wants to use you today right now to push back the injustices of this world. Will you let him? Will you join him? Will the son of man return and find faith on earth?

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Praying for Justice? | The Writings | Psalm 140

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