Psalm 50: 'These things hast thou done, and I kept silence [...] Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver'.
The eternal question of the justice of God is why he keeps silence in face of evil. Hong Kong protesters had suffered this, while they started with songs singing hallelujah to the Lord. Gang rapes and secret execution in mass has torn their heart into pieces. And they are not alone in unanswered persecutions in the world. Where is God, all ask all the time.
The Psalm speaks in God's voice to the sinners and the righteous. It is itself a 'preview' of the answer demanded. Interestingly, it comes in the form of a provocation. God provokingly asked the sinner: what about this?
Such a provocation did not even link the sinners to their victims. It separates sinners from the righteous. Victims has no clear place. But sinners do. Through the provocation, God declared already his judgment. Tearing the sinners to pieces. But the judgment is first an invitation for reflection: what about this, sinner?
And the provocation came after a reminder, that God had been keeping silence to the sinners' deeds. This is the only connection to the victims. In this reminder, God also admits his silence to the victims. How strange an arrangement. It seems to avoid a certain sensation to be satisfied. That is: our urge to see punishment delivered by the Almighty. The Psalm itself affirms it, but its narration discourages it. It seems to put the focus away from comforting the victim, to warning the sinners.
And the provocation came after a reminder, that God had been keeping silence to the sinners' deeds. This is the only connection to the victims. In this reminder, God also admits his silence to the victims. How strange an arrangement. It seems to avoid a certain sensation to be satisfied. That is: our urge to see punishment delivered by the Almighty. The Psalm itself affirms it, but its narration discourages it. It seems to put the focus away from comforting the victim, to warning the sinners.
Furthermore, it indirectly address the sinner. The silence kept from the sinner affirmed, is an answer to the victims in detour. It implies the judgment to come, or the repent to come. And to come, in this sense, means suffering the situation before that which is to come, which is the object of hope.
Therefore, to keep on hoping is to keep on suffering.
From here one could consider the place of bystanders. Earthly bystanders either suffer with the victim, or keep silence in pretending to be God. In this sense, silence is attached with a sort of arrogance. The arrogance of being able to say that silence is God, instead of God keeps silence.
Activism finds its footing on this.
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