Psalm 9:5

it's time to be more judgmental

For thou hast maintained my judgment and my cause: thou hast sat on the throne, who judgest justice. (Psalm 9:5 DR)

One particularly persistent theme throughout the Scriptures is the vindication of the righteous over against the wicked. This is often framed negatively in the sense that—from the human or worldly point of view—righteousness does not always seem to accrue to one’s temporal or material advantage. In fact, the man who follows the precepts of God’s law will often find himself at a disadvantage comparative to the wicked who live with no such compunctions.

This dilemma frames the book of Job wherein Job—a righteous man—is afflicted in spite of his righteousness and not for any sin that he has committed. As he reasons through his suffering and voices his desire for vindication, he is ultimately vindicated, but not because of his own righteousness. Rather, he is chastised for his presumption against God’s wisdom, and in the death (so to speak) of his repentance he forfeits his own claims to righteousness so as to find his righteousness in the Lord.

The Psalmist also often speaks in similar language, imploring God to vindicate him and his cause against the wicked. On one level this is a plea for a temporal vindication, which in the life of David is sometimes seen (cf. Psalm 131). However, since the Psalms are prophetic in their speaking of Christ and His Body the Church, there is a deeper sense to be found in which the hope for such vindication is not merely a temporal desire but is located in eternity, as the Book of Wisdom makes plain in this lengthy passage worth quoting in full:

But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. They that trust in him, shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love shall rest in him: for grace and peace is to his elect. (Wisdom 3:1-9 DR)

As is evident from the language, the hope which is full of immortality points beyond temporal vindication to the confidence and trust that Job ultimately found and of which the Psalmist now speaks.

This judgment is said to be maintained, which speaks to something continuing or being perpetually preserved or supported. And since this is spoken of our Lord, there are many options for the content of this judgment. Perhaps the most obvious is the final judgment, when our Lord shall—as the Creed says—“come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” However, St. Augustine brings out an interesting thought in which this judgment is the judgment with which our Lord was judged:

“You have made my judgment, and my cause:” that is, the judgment in which I seemed to be judged, You have made mine; and the cause in which men condemned me just and innocent, You have made mine. For such things served Him for our deliverance: as sailors too call the wind theirs, which they take advantage of for prosperous sailing. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 5.)

In this manner St. Augustine notes that it is by means of the very judgment by which our Lord was judged—that is, the Cross—that His judgement of the nations is vindicated, as it were. Not, of course, in the literal sense, since as God He is eternally Judge over all. But the Cross becomes a means of despoiling sin and hell and the devil of their prizes, as St. Paul notes:

Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross: And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself. (Colossians 2:14-15 DR)

St. Robert Bellarmine quotes a sermon of St. Leo that gets at a similar point:

“O unspeakable glory of the passion, in which are united the judgment seat of God, the judgment of the world, and the power of the crucified;” and these are in reality the occult things of the Son, which by some are prefixed as a title to this Psalm. For he who, to all appearance, seemed to be guilty and was suffering punishment in the greatest ignominy, at that very moment was sitting on his throne, “judged justice,” that is, judged most justly, inasmuch as now that the price had been paid, man was delivered, and the devil despoiled of his dominion over him… (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 9, 4.)

St. Paul also explicitly links our Lord’s death on the cross to His future judgment of the world:

He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11 DR)

This confession of all creation that our Lord is in the glory of the Father is tantamount to declaring His right to judge, especially since it is this glory of the Father in which He eternally exists which is from whence He shall come to judge. His judgment on the Cross becomes the vindication of Him who judgest justice, for He was innocent and without sin, and thus the judgment that fell upon Him was that by which all sin was judged and triumphed over. The poet and hymnist Prudentius thus would write in His magnificent Vexilla Regis which dovetails nicely with this Psalm:

Impleta sunt quae concinit
David fideli carmine,
dicendo nationibus:
regnavit a ligno Deus.

Fulfilled is all that David told
In true prophetic song of old;
Amidst the nations, God, saith he,
Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree. (Vexilla Regis)

The prophetic nature of the Psalms was not lost on the early Christians and Church Fathers, and thus they understood the Psalms as pointing to Christ and speaking of Him and at times speaking in His voice, as it were. This grand interplay of verse and reality develops a richness of interpretive depth that allows the Psalms to be continual wellsprings of truth and profundity.

As we return to the beginning of this passage, we are reminded that God has maintained His judgment. The Vulgate has fecisti which generally is somewhat generic for done, made. Hence St. Augustine reads it as made my judgment. However, since the Psalmist speaks of this judgment being done in respect to His enemies (cf. Psalm 9:4); it maintained is a reasonable translation in the Douay-Rheims since that speaks to support, or—this case—vindication.

The Cross thus becomes the chosen means by which our Lord reigns over his enemies and thus stands in judgment of them since He is Lord over All and King of Kings. The Divine Office makes use of this figure in its fitting juxtaposition of the following antiphon and the final verses of Psalm 97 at Matins for the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary:

Antiphon: Crucis impérium * super húmerum eius: regnávit a ligno Deus.

Antiphon: The government was upon His shoulder, * even the cross; from the tree hath God reigned.

The rivers shall clap their hands, the mountains shall rejoice together at the presence of the Lord: * because he cometh to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with justice, * and the people with equity. (Psalm 97:8-9 DR)

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For this animation I found a figure of a person, isolated it in Photoshop and brought it into After Effects. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do, so I brought in some textures and played around with some different looks and styles and plugins until I came up with this. I don’t know exactly what bearing it has on the passage, but I liked the way it looked. It is a combination of Stretch and HydroChrome, and I simply modified the parameters until I came up with a look I liked.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: