March 24, 2009
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Are you judging people fairly
Psalms 58:1-11 For the leader. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” By David, a mikhtam: [Rulers,] does your silence really speak justice? Are you judging people fairly? (2) [No!] In your hearts you devise wrongs, your hands dispense violence in the land. (3) From the womb, the wicked are estranged, liars on the wrong path since birth. (4) Their venom is like snake’s venom; they are like a serpent that stops its ears, (5) so as not to hear the voice of the charmer, no matter how well he plays. (6) God, break their teeth in their mouth! Shatter the fangs of these lions, ADONAI! (7) May they vanish like water that drains away. May their arrows be blunted when they aim their bows. (8) May they be like a slug that melts as it moves, like a stillborn baby that never sees the sun. (9) Before your cook-pots feel the heat of the burning thorns, may he blow them away, green and blazing alike. (10) The righteous will rejoice to see vengeance done, they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked; (11) and people will say, “Yes, the righteous are rewarded; there is, after all, a God who judges the earth.”
David was speaking out against the corruption he saw growing in the nation that was fostered by judges that were not judging righteously. In fact they were silent to what they saw and what they were suppose to do. You see, a judge was HaShem’s representative, in a sense, for he had the power of life and death in capitol crime cases. And when the judicial system of any nation breaks down, when judges become silent towards evil, then violence will fill the land.
David is saying that we are all born with yeter hara (evil inclination). We all got yeter hara after Adam’s disobedience. After the return of Mashiach ben David (Messiah the king) we will no longer have to deal with the yetzer hara part of ourselves.
The yetzer hara represents the inner impulse or tendency within the human heart to gravitate toward selfish gratification (the word yetzer first appears in Genesis 6:5 where the wickedness of man is described as “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”). The yetzer hatov, on the other hand, represents the inner impulse to do good.
Those that refuse to be obedient to Adonai and His Word are like wild animals that can’t be tamed. They don’t want to hear the truth. Not wanting to hear the Words of Adonai and be obedient to them, they shut their ears, but that does not negate the responsibility they have, for they are accountable to Adonai for rejecting the truth!
Barukh attah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam,
hama’vir shenah me’eynai utnumah me’afapai.
Vihi ratzon milfaneykha, Adonai Eloheinu velohei avoteinu,
shetargileinu betoratekha vedabkeinu bemitzvotekha,
ve’al tevi’einu lo lidei chet, velo lidei averah,
ve’avon, velo lidei nissayon, velo lidei vizayon,
ve’al tashlet banu yetzer hara.Translation:
Blessed art Thou, L-RD our G-d, King of the universe, who removes sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids. May it be Your will, L-RD our G-d and G-d of our fathers to accustom us to Your Torah and attach us to Your mitzvot. And do not lead us into the hands of sin, nor into the hands of pride or perversity, not into the hands of temptation, nor into the hands of shame, and do not let the evil inclination rule over us.
Shalom
Comments (3)
“Blessed art Thou, L-RD our G-d, King of the universe, who removes sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids. May it be Your will, L-RD our G-d and G-d of our fathers to accustom us to Your Torah and attach us to Your mitzvot. And do not lead us into the hands of sin, nor into the hands of pride or perversity, not into the hands of temptation, nor into the hands of shame, and do not let the evil inclination rule over us.”
wow, this is almost just like the Our Father Whom Art In Heaven/Lord’s prayer. awesome =)
Amen, my friend!!
“they shut their ears, but that does not negate the responsibility they
have, for they are accountable to Adonai for rejecting the truth!”
AMEN!