“The Lord is righteous. He has cut the cords of the wicked.”
– Psalm 129:4
Psalm 129:4 is such good news, isn’t it? Just think about it. Think about wickedness in the world around us, evil in the world around us, injustice in the world around us. Just horrible things. When I go into different parts of the world, not even just different parts of the world, in the city where I live, and see suffering due to wickedness, people enslaved, trafficked, and I see traffickers who continue doing that day after day, week after week, it is good to know that the Lord will cut the cords of the wicked. He will cut the cords of the wicked. He will bring an end to injustice. That injustice will not have the last word and evil will not have the last word. Wickedness will not have the last word, because the Lord is righteous and he has cut the cords of the wicked.
Though we deserve eternal destruction, through Jesus Christ dying on the cross we are covered by His righteousness for all eternity.
But even there, even as I see this verse, Psalm 129:4, I think about wickedness in my own heart and the fact that I am a sinner before God. I deserve to have the cords cut, in a sense, in my own life, to be cursed and separated from God’s love forever and ever, and I am just drawn in a fresh way to thank Jesus for saving me through his righteous life and his sacrificial death on the cross so that I might be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. To have confidence that when I face judgment, though I deserve eternal death, I will receive eternal life. All of this hinges on the righteousness of the Lord.
So God, we praise you today for your righteousness. We praise you because you are just. We praise you because all you do is right. All your words are right. All your judgments are right. There is no sin in you. There is no error in you. God, I praise you for your grace in my life and for all those who are praying right now, who have trusted in Jesus for your grace in our lives together, for in your mercy, sending your son to pay the just price of our sin on a cross so that we could be saved from the judgment we deserve. All glory be to your name for not treating us as our sins deserve. We praise you for your grace and your mercy in Jesus.
Psalm 129:4 Reminds Us of God’s Righteous Justice
Jesus, we praise you for your righteousness, for your righteous, sinless life, for your substitutionary death on the cross for us, for your resurrection from the grave, for your Ascension to heaven, for your promise that you are coming again and righteousness will be made known all over the earth. That justice will be made known all over the earth. That wickedness will one day continue no more, that in a new heaven and a new earth there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more injustice, no more wickedness.
The old will be gone and the new will come. We rest in this reality, we look forward to that reality, and we pray that you’d help us until that day to work for justice, to live justly, to work with righteous, to work with compassion for those who are hurting as a result of wickedness, to spread your gospel, your good news of judgment and grace and mercy available in Christ. God, we pray that you’d help us to work for justice as we proclaim Jesus as Judge and King overall. God, we pray Psalm 129:4 in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
