Psalm 96.10-13 offers a word of hope for all the world, confused and crazy and mean as it can be.
The Psalmist says: "The world is firmly established; it'll never be moved."
The rest of the Psalm offers up striking images of judgment ... not the hammer and fire kind, but restoration and kindness and peace.
The Psalmist clearly sees the world for what it is, and it isn't always good (vss. 1-9), but rather than shouting out wrath, the Psalmist offers up hope. And in the hope offered, judgment is clear, not as a threat of destruction, but a pathway for how it's going to work out.
The Psalmist doesn't succumb to the spiritual temptation of faith: threats of punishment to the "enemy" ... "god will get ya', and it ain't gonna be pretty. Ha!"
Noting like that in Psalm 96.
Only confidence in God's restorative justice and judgment - not a separating of the peoples from one another (there's more than enough of that already), but a joining together of all creation with humankind - the image of the Garden realized.
The Psalmist has a kindly spirit about her.
Other writers of the Text have differing temperaments, and there's time and place for them, too. Take names and kick butt.
But this Lectionary piece caught my attention. The world will end in flowers and fields and goodness, and with peace between Cain and Abel.
Such is the judgment of God!
