Sermon on God’s Righteous Anger, Finkenwalde, July 1937
Psalm 58 is one of the most savage of the cursing Psalms. Bonhoeffer asks is, as Christians, can we pray this Psalm. And, he answers no. “No, we cannot pray this Psalm. Not because we are much too good to do that—what a superficial thought, what inconceivable arrogance—but because we are too sinful, too bad to do that.”
Only one without sin can pray this. In this life we may not see the judgment of God the way we want it We have to look up on the cross of Jesus to see judgment and pardon. In this world, Satan continues his work and we will see evil, injustice, violence, etc. In the midst of all this, Jesus Christ prays this Psalm for us.
“And now we may pray this Psalm with him, in humble thanks that by the cross of Christ, we are delivered from the anger and the justice of God.”
Thursday; May 1, 2014