Reflection on the Psalms (Psalm 17)

Let my vindication come from you;


may your eyes see what is right.

I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;

turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

Show me the wonders of your great love,

you who save by your right hand

Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down;

with your sword rescue me from the wicked.

By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
    

from those of this world whose reward is in this life.

As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face;

when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

Romans 12:19 says 

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, 

for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord."

We seek our own vindication, revenge and vengeance but the bible tells us that is not our right, duty or role.  When we do these things we take God off of the throne and try to sit as the judge ourselves.  But only God is the true and righteous judge.  Our role is prayer, to pray to God to be our avenger and righteous judge.  As followers of Christ it is our role to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile and to extend to others the mercy and grace that we have been given.  For as the text says our reward is not in this life, if it were then we would live differently.

I watched a movie a while back called "The Interpreter".  In that movie there is a beautiful story told that drives this point home.  The punch line at the end of the story is that "Vengeance is a lazy form of grief."  The character says we can either choose to return evil with evil (which is not what we are called to do as Christians) or we can accept that life is not always fair and that we don't understand it all the time, and we can offer grace and forgiveness and move forward conquering evil with good.