Psalm 119:84 – How Long?
How long must your servant wait?
When will you execute judgment on my persecutors?
“How long?’ is a frequent refrain in scripture. Come to think of it, it’s a frequent refrain all our lives. Just start a long trip with children in the car and you’ll soon be hearing this question in one form or another. Are we there yet?
In the Bible we have frequent examples of this sort of question. Abraham wondered how long, and even informed God that it was a bit late for the promise of a child. The Israelites in Egypt cried out in their slavery, and I suspect “how long” was part of that cry. During the 40 years of wandering about in the desert, that question no doubt came up a few times. At the time of the exile, again the question was asked, “How long is this going to last? When will God’s promises be fulfilled?”
In Revelation 6:8, the souls under the altar cry out “How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, must it be before you will vindicate us and avenge our death on the inhabitants of the earth?” (REB). It’s still going on. And on, and on, and on. How long?
Revelation 10:6 gives us an answer, of sorts. Here God declares, “There shall be no more delay!”
Which leaves open the question of why there is delay in the first place. I think there’s a hint in Revelation, and once we see that hint, we can turn back to Hebrew scripture and see that this answer isn’t new. I’m not going to give specific verses, because to see this, you need to read at least Revelation 6-16. If you do, you will see three sequences of seven. There are seven seals opened, seven trumpets sounded, and seven bowls poured out.
In the case of the seals, six are broken and then there’s a delay, during which God is gathering His people. Then we resume with six trumpets sounded, but the seventh is delayed. The verse I quoted earlier comes from the time between the sixth and seventh trumpet, during which God promises more delay. Finally, come the bowls. With them there is no delay. All seven are poured out in succession and this is followed by the very last scenes of the battle between God and the Dragon, between good and evil.
Perhaps a text from Hebrew scripture will provide the key, stated explicitly:
But you, Lord are God, compassionate and gracious, long-suffering, ever faithful and true.
Psalm 86:15 (REB)
The problem for us is that God is not just compassionate toward us. God is also compassionate toward those other guys. You know, the ones we want God to judge. God loves them too. So God provides warnings and opportunities, and is slow to become angry.
Jonah gets to learn a bit about this when God asks him, “… should I not be sorry about the great city of Nineveh, with its hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from the left?” (Jonah 4:11).
It is useful to remember that Israel had good reason not to like the Assyrian Empire. I had the opportunity to read various royal records of Assyria, and it was disastrous to be conquered by them, especially if you had rebelled before. Jonah had reason to regard the Assyrians as his enemies.
But God cared about them. Let’s remember that. God cared about them.
We often treat “caring” and “compassion” as limited commodities, “economic goods” economists call them, ones that are in limited supply and thus will have a price. If you buy more of this, you have less money to buy that.
We treat compassion in this way. I can only have compassion on some people. But God’s compassion, love, and grace extend to all. God’s grace is amazing, and it is not limited.
So when God is failing to judge your enemies, it is likely that God is giving them the opportunity of redemption. Like Jonah, you and I may not like it when they accept, but God will. There will be rejoicing in heaven.
The desire for justice is not wrong. The desire for God to take action against your enemies is not wrong. But it’s limited. God is inviting you to be more godlike and learn to love more people more deeply.
When you hear about an enemy, or the member of a group you don’t like, can you pray for God’s compassion and mercy on them for their redemption?
(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
