Victims of injustice

I have been meditating on the theme of injustice and yesterday I witnessed some injustice firsthand. I have heard of unjust laws and unjust settlements, I have seen it before and yet yesterday I saw a concrete example of it.

The world is full of injustice. Life is not fair. If you have been verbally attacked, humiliated, treated with contempt or slandered, you have experienced injustice. If you have been sexually manipulated, molested, seduced, or raped, you have experienced injustice. If you have been the victim of financial fraud, you have experienced injustice. Victims of prejudice based on race, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability suffer injustice.

Psalm 44 is just one example of scores in OT poetry of the righteous crying out when injustice occurs:

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (vv. 23-26)

Everyone who experiences injustice asks "Why me?" We ask, "Where is God? My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" We want God but we feel overwhelmed. Some even blame God as they grope for answers. Violence, betrayal, and abandonment hurt greately.

What do we do when we experience injustice? How do we help one who is writhing from pain from fresh injustice or is having difficulty with fear, bitterness and doubt? Psalm 10 is an excellent model for us to follow. David Powlison deals with this psalm extensively in an esssay in Seeing with New Eyes. God in his sweet providence brought this chapter to my eyes just a few days ago and it has helped me to react more biblically and Christlike to injustice.

Powlison offers several helpful insights. We must talk to God when we suffer. Talk out loud. We must think through how harmful people have mistreated us and how we may have sinned in the conflict or as a result of the injutice. We must remember that God will act against injustice and we should ask God to act, to destroy evil and bless good. And we must confidently affirm that the Lord who is King will right all wrongs one day. In these times we need to remember that God sees the hurt; He knows the turmoil the wicked can incur. Doing these things and suffering with a Godward perspective brings calm, strength, hope, peace, and comfort.

The Heildberg confession reminds us of the source of true comfort in times of injustice:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Yes, the Lord will reign forever! Christ will win, evil will lose So even when your life is shattered by human injustice and sufferings we can affirm with John Newton

These inward trials I design,
From sin and self to set thee free
To break thy schemes for earthly joy
That thou may'st find thy all in Me!

Lord, help us today to suffer in a Godward direction today as we experience injustice! May we do it for your glory, our Deliverer and King!