The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
September 2, 2023 - Saturday, 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm 98:1, 7-8, 9
Psalm 98 ends with a proclamation that the Lord comes to rule or to judge “the world with justice and the peoples with equity”. We can ask a few questions: Is it a criticism of our social structure, a utopian dream, or a realistic hope?
Let us begin with the first suggestion. As we read through the Bible, we realise that none of the leaders of Israel was perfect. From Moses, through the charismatic tribal rulers portrayed in the Book of Judges, to the kings of Israel and Judea, all of them failed to administer justice and equity. The prophetic books indicate that it was their injustice that contributed to the demise of both kingdoms. At the same time, the rulers of the powerful empires that surrounded Israel - Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome - acted with injustice towards God’s people.
As we move outside of the Bible to the wider context of human history, the acts of injustice committed by the tribal leaders, powerful kings and emperors only multiply. I am not talking just about the horrible leaders famous for their crimes. I am also thinking about those we often consider as good leaders. For example, one of the greatest presidents of the US was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet, he did not do anything to prevent the Central and Eastern European nations from falling under the power of Stalin and the Soviet Union.
But perhaps, the psalmist, seeing his world devoid of justice, tries to escape into a utopian dream or an apocalyptic vision of a world different from the one we live in. The sociologists and historians usually explain to us that it is often a dream of the oppressed and the poor. Being victims of the acts of injustice on a daily basis, they long for a different world. But unable or unwilling to stage a revolution against their oppressors, they imagine that someone would do it on their behalf. This idea is behind all those Hollywood movies where a superhero transforms the world into a lost paradise.
Finally, we come to the last possibility. What if the psalmist's proclamation that the Lord “will rule the world with justice and the peoples with equity” is an expression of realistic hope? The Bible includes many examples of God’s intervention on behalf of his people with the classic among them being the liberation of Israel from Egypt. For Christians, the story of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus offers a realistic hope of the final triumph of justice over injustice. Moreover, our individual stories and the history of many nations uphold our belief in God administering justice. For my father, such an event was the fall of communism in Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He often says that if anyone told him that he would witness such monumental events, he would not believe it.
The Lord “will rule the world with justice and the peoples with equity”. In our proclamation, the risen Christ rules over all creation (see Rev 1:8). And we believe, hope, and pray, that one day, He will come “to judge the world with justice and the peoples with equity”.