Surely There Is a God Who Judges the Earth

In the first part David laid out the indictment against the corrupt judges. In the second part he turns from accusation to prayer: he asks God to break the power of the wicked, describes how they melt away and vanish, and rises to the climax, the victory of justice. It is a piercing move from anger to hope, and it ends with the great statement of the whole psalm: there is judgment, there is a Judge, and there is a God who judges on earth.

The images here are vivid and blunt: the teeth of lions shattered, water poured out and gone, a snail that dissolves as it crawls. All of them paint the emptiness of evil before justice, a presence that looks strong but melts away as if it never was. This part also opens with the same heading, "Al-Tashchet, a Michtam of David," shared with Part 1 and with the neighboring Psalm 57.

The central verse, chosen as the title of this song, is:

"And men will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."

The word rendered "surely" means indeed, without doubt. At the end of the road, when justice is revealed, people say: there truly is a reward for the righteous, and there truly is a God who judges the world. This is not personal revenge but the recognition that the world is not abandoned, that there is judgment and a Judge. It is the great hope that holds the believer even when it seems the wicked are winning.

This song is part of the larger journey of the project: with God's help, to compose and sing the entire Book of Psalms in a diverse, emotional, Jewish, and uplifting musical language.