Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is God a Social Justice Warrior? | The Writings | Psalm 94

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Does the Bible support social justice? Does God care about the oppressed? Are we called to do the same? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Psalm 94 points us to God - our good social justice Warrior. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 94

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. The phrase social justice warrior has become a bit of a shibboleth. For some people, it's a phrase for a bad kind of person, and for others, it's a phrase for the right kind of person. And on one level, I understand both sides. Modern social justice warriors often stand for causes directly opposed to God's definition of justice, to God's vision of the good life. And yet, God does care about justice, doesn't he? I think I have to ask that as a question because I've had many sincere friends get frustrated with their churches and church leaders when they address issues of justice, whether that's racial justice or justice for the poor.

And it's not that my friends are against those things. They just say it's the church's job to preach the gospel and not address social issues. Several years ago, I had a friend who was frustrated with a church service where the worship leader used words like oppressed and oppression in the liturgy. He feared that the church was abandoning her duty. Maybe it was becoming Marxist. But then he went on a journey to discover what the Bible said about these topics. And you know what he found out? The Bible frequently uses words like oppressed and oppression and justice. So maybe his church wasn't parroting a political party. Maybe they were just using biblical words. I've kind of thought the same way about the phrase

social justice warrior. While I think the church has no business pursuing causes that directly reject the Bible's teaching and parade themselves under the false moniker of social justice, I am also very aware that in the Old Testament, God is a social justice warrior. Quite literally, throughout the Psalms and the prophets, God is depicted as a divine warrior fighting on behalf of the oppressed and the hurting and the forgotten. He's the social justice warrior to end all social justice warriors. If that irks you and you don't believe me, let's just read through today's passage, Psalm 94. The Lord is a God who avenges. Oh God who avenges, shine forth. Rise up, Judge of the Earth. Pay back to the proud what they deserve. How long, Lord, will the wicked be jubilant?

They pour out arrogant words. All the evil doers are full. of boasting, they crush your people, Lord. They oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the foreigner. They murder the fatherless. This is a powerful description of God. He is a judge, he is a warrior, sallying forth on behalf of who? The oppressed, the widow, the foreigner, the orphan. He's bringing justice against those who murder others and oppress others and their pride and in their arrogance? Who is God in Psalm 94, if not a social justice warrior? The author goes on to ask a set of rhetorical questions. Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? Again, the author's point is clear. The world is

full of injustice and evil, and more often than not, no one does anything about it. No one rises up on behalf of the oppressed. No one stands up to the wicked. No one stands up to the evil-doer. We just mind our own lives and hope that those people don't notice us. But the author knows that this is not the full story. He goes on and says, unless the Lord had given me help, I would have soon dwelt in the silence of death. He answers his own question. Who will stand up for justice? The Lord. He gives help. He protects the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner from death at the hands of the unjust. And then he goes on one step further, speaking to those in power, he warns anyone with authority that if they obstruct God's justice, they ally themselves

not with God, but with the devil. Verse 20, can a corrupt throne be allied with you? A throne that brings on misery by its decrees? The wicked band together against the just and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God, the rock in whom I take refuge, he will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness. The Lord, our God, will destroy them. When you think of God, do you think of him like this? As the one who defends the just, defends the orphan, defends the widow, defends the foreigner, just as Psalm 94 says, He is the ultimate warrior, the ultimate judge, the one who stands for justice when no one else will do it. And this is incredibly good news for the poor, the needy, and those who often find themselves under the boots of the powerful.

But it's also an invitation for us as followers of Jesus. We are the means by which God offers relief to those who are hurting, relief to those who are forgotten, relief to those who are oppressed. After all, Jesus quite literally began his ministry by reading this passage from Isaiah in a synagogue. We'll pick up in Luke 4, verse 6. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news

to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. This is how Jesus begins his gospel ministry, and that reminds us that, while the gospel certainly is the good news that Jesus died for our sins, forgave us, and rose from the dead, it is also the good news that he is king. In fact, just go through the New Testament and read all of Paul's descriptions of what the gospel includes. And you know what he always includes? The theme of Jesus' kingship. Why? Because the good

news for the oppressed, the blind, and the poor, is that the king has come to set the world back into joint, to right every wrong. What's that mean for us practically? It means that you have been invited not only to share the good news of Jesus's forgiveness, but also to live out the good news of Jesus' cosmic restoration, the good news that he is a good king who is bringing about good justice for those who are hurting. And of course, we can seek that justice by giving, by serving, by taking care of the poor and needy in our midst. And every time we do that, every time you do that, you point forward to the day when Jesus returns as a warrior

to set the world to rights.