Psalms 28:4

"Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings:

Give them after the operation of their hands;

Render to them their desert.

Because they regard not the works of Jehovah,

Nor the operation of his hands,

He will break them down and not build them up."

This is a fourfold plea that God will deal with the wicked as they deserve. The plea is that God will execute justice upon the wicked enemies: (1) according to their work; (2) according to their wickedness; (3) after the operation of their hands; and (4) according to what they deserve. Such could be nothing less than absolute justice. Addis' notion that this was David's prayer, "for vengeance,"[11] misses this point altogether. Kidner properly discerned the genuine import of these words as follows:

"Nothing stings so sharply as injustice, and nothing should; so these verses are not simply vindictive, but they put into words the protest of any healthy conscience against the wrongs of the present order, and the conviction that a day of judgment is a moral necessity."[12]

In the Book of Revelation, the souls of the martyrs are represented as crying to the Lord, "How long, O Master, the Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 6:10). This also, like the passage before us, cannot be considered a sinful cry for personal vengeance, because the `martyrs' in that passage are reckoned among the redeemed. Theirs was a cry for the execution of justice, which is identical with what this passage has. As Rawlinson noted, "David here exhibits a moral nature uncorrupted by contact with the world of his day."[13]

The rewarding of evil men according to their conduct and according to what they deserve is retribution; and Rawlinson commented that, "Nothing satisfies the moral feelings of humanity except exact retribution." The passage here is a prayer for that very thing.

Now and then in the record of sordid human behavior, God has provided examples of retribution against persons of extreme wickedness.

ILLUSTRATION. The gospels carry the story of Herodias' wicked persecution of John the Baptist in which she contrived through her voluptuous dancing daughter Salome to receive "The head of John the Baptist on a platter." Behold the retribution which heaven meted out to Herod Antipas, Herodias and Salome as a direct result of their hell-born actions:

(1) Herod lost his throne. Aretas, whose daughter Herod had divorced in order to marry Herodias,[14] declared war on him and drove him out of his kingdom.

(2) Both Herod and Herodias were banished by the Roman Senate to Lyons for their shameful deeds, "Where they both perished miserably,"[15] in disgrace.

(3) And the dancing girl, Salome? What happened to her? "She died by a remarkable visitation. She fell through some treacherous ice over which she was passing and fell through it in such a manner that her head was caught while the rest of her body sank into the water, with the result that her head was practically severed by the sharp edges of the broken ice."[16] The dancing girl who received the head of John the Baptist yielded up her own head on the cutting edges of the treacherous ice.

One may indeed see the hand of God in such visitations; and the prayer of David here that all wicked men may receive "what they deserve" justifies our expectation that all wickedness shall eventually receive exactly the punishment it deserves, whether in this life or in the world to come. Regarding David's prayer here, "There is no evidence that there is anything of vindictiveness or malice in his prayer. It is a prayer for justice."[17]

"He will break them down and not build them up" (Psalms 28:5). "David, in these lines, is a prophet."[18] The grounds of this fate which God announced through David is listed in the preceding lines, "They regard not the works of Jehovah, nor the operation of his hands." The wicked men in view here appear as unbelievers, "Who have shamefully refused to recognize David as God's anointed, through whom God promised to establish an `eternal kingdom' (2 Samuel 7)."[19] In this light, Absalom and his fellowconspirators were servants of Satan himself, who was determined to prevent any such promise's fulfilment.