December 6, 2020 Evening Verse Of The Day

Affirmation of Justice (58:11)

11 With the triumph of God, the righteous are vindicated. Whenever justice prevails, God and his kingdom are being established (see Reflections, p. 119, Yahweh Is King). Humankind (ʾādām; cf. v. 1), which has experienced the oppressiveness of evil, will testify that God rules (“judges,” cf. 98:9) with “righteousness” and “equity” (cf. v. 1). It will also be evident that God is concerned with the righteous (ṣaddîq; see 1:6) and will reward them for their loyalty. The language of “reward” (lit., “fruit”) is reminiscent of Psalm 1:3: “He is like a tree … which yields its fruit in season” (see also Gal 6:9; Jas 5:1–11). The day will come when the righteous will receive their reward from the Father (cf. 2 Ti 4:8).^[1]

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Then men will say, ‘Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth’ (v. 11). Men in general will ultimately make the declaration that the righteous receive the fruit of their lives from the God who judges the whole earth (cf. Ps. 94:2 where God is called ‘judge of the earth’). The psalmist is confident that a day is coming when even the heathen will acknowledge this fact. Believers know that God, the righteous judge, is going to reward them at the last day (2 Tim. 4:8) and they must wait patiently for the day of reckoning (James 5:1–11).^[2]

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58:11 people will say, “… surely there is a God who judges the earth.” In this verse, we have the use of the generic term for humanity (’adam) and a plural participle (“who judges”) that modifies “God” (’elohim). The judgments the psalmist prays for will elicit the confession, evidently by humankind generally (“and mankind [’adam] will say”), that God’s two-pronged justice is a reality: God rewards the righteous and judges the wicked.^[3]

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Ver. 11.—So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous. God’s righteous judgment being seen in the punishment of the wicked, men will no longer doubt of the ultimate reward of the godly. God must, by his very nature, be more inclined to reward goodness than to punish wickedness. Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth; rather, verily there is a God, etc. (see Revised Version). Elohim is joined with a plural here, because the speakers are men generally, not only Israelites.^[4]

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11. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward. We have additional evidence from what is here said of the cause or source of it, that the joy attributed to the saints has no admixture of bad feeling. It is noticeable from the way in which this verse runs, that David would now seem to ascribe to all, without exception, the sentiment which before he imputed exclusively to the righteous. But the acknowledgment immediately subjoined is one which could only come from the saints who have an eye to observe the divine dispensations; and I am, therefore, of opinion that they are specially alluded to in the expression, And a man shall say, &c. At the same time, this mode of speech may imply that many, whose minds had been staggered, would be established in the faith. The righteous only are intended, but the indefinite form of speaking is adopted to denote their numbers. It is well known how many there are whose faith is apt to be shaken by apparent inequalities and perplexities in the divine administration, but who rally courage, and undergo a complete change of views, when the arm of God is bared in the manifestation of his judgments. At such a time the acknowledgment expressed in this verse is widely and extensively adopted, as Isaiah declares, “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness,” (Isaiah 26:9.) The Hebrew particle אך, ach, which we have translated verily, occasionally denotes simple affirmation, but is generally intensitive, and here implies the contrast between that unbelief which we are tempted to feel when God has suspended the exercise of his judgments, and the confidence with which we are inspired when he executes them. Thus the particles which are repeated in the verse imply that men would put away that hesitancy which is apt to steal upon their minds when God forbears the infliction of the punishment of sin, and, as it were, correct themselves for the error into which they had been seduced. Nothing tends more to promote godliness than an intimate and assured persuasion that the righteous shall never lose their reward. Hence the language of Isaiah, “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings,” (Isaiah 3:10.) When righteousness is not rewarded, we are disposed to cherish unbelieving fears, and to imagine that God has retired from the government of the world, and is indifferent to its concerns. I shall have an opportunity of treating this point more at large upon the seventy-third psalm.

There is subjoined the reason why the righteous cannot fail to reap the reward of their piety, because God is the judge of the world; it being impossible, on the supposition of the world being ruled by the providence of God, that he should not, sooner or later, distinguish between the good and the evil. He is said more particularly to judge in the earth, because men have sometimes profanely alleged that the government of God is confined to heaven, and the affairs of this world abandoned to blind chance.^[5]

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^[1] VanGemeren, W. A. (2008). Psalms. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms (Revised Edition) (Vol. 5, p. 470). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[2] Harman, A. (2011). Psalms: A Mentor Commentary (Vol. 1–2, p. 440). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor.

^[3] Bullock, C. H. (2015). Psalms 1–72. (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.) (Vol. 1, pp. 443–444). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

^[4] Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Psalms (Vol. 2, p. 10). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

^[5] Calvin, J., & Anderson, J. (2010). Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Vol. 2, pp. 378–379). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.