The Boomerang Effect: God's Arrow and the Righteous Boast Text: Psalm 64:7-10
Introduction: The Plots of Men and the Laughter of God
We live in a world that has forgotten what a plot is. Not a story plot, but a real plot, a conspiracy. Our sophisticated secularists like to imagine that history is a series of unfortunate, meaningless accidents. They believe that wicked men are, at worst, misguided, and that their plans are just different policy proposals. But the Bible knows nothing of this naivete. The Bible knows that the world is full of whispers, snares, and secret counsels of the wicked. David begins this psalm by describing this very thing, the secret plots of evildoers who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows.
They think their plans are hidden. They believe their machinations are clever. They encourage one another in their evil schemes, confident that no one sees, that God is either blind, distant, or altogether absent. They search out iniquities, they congratulate themselves on their perfect plan, believing the inward thought and heart of man are a deep, unsearchable abyss. And in one sense, they are right. The human heart is deep. But it is not deeper than the eye of God.
What our passage shows us today is the sudden, shocking, and gloriously ironic reversal that God brings upon such men. It shows us that God is not a passive observer of human affairs. He is an active participant, and His interventions are decisive. The wicked are not just building a case against themselves for some far-off, distant judgment day. Their sin has a boomerang effect in the here and now. God has arranged the moral order of the universe in such a way that sin is self-defeating. The very weapons the wicked fashion to destroy the righteous are the instruments of their own undoing. This is not karma. This is covenant. This is the poetic justice of a holy God who is also an artist, a master of irony.
In these final verses of Psalm 64, we see the divine response to the plots of the wicked. It is swift, it is sudden, and it produces a cascade of effects: the wounding of the wicked, the fear of all men, and the glad boasting of the righteous. This is a pattern we must learn to see, learn to expect, and learn to celebrate.
The Text
But God will shoot them with an arrow;
Suddenly they will be wounded.
So they will cause their own tongue to turn against them;
All who see them will shake their head.
Then all men will fear,
And they will declare the work of God,
And will consider what He has done.
The righteous man will be glad in Yahweh and will take refuge in Him;
And all the upright in heart will boast.
(Psalm 64:7-10 LSB)
The Divine Archer (v. 7)
The first thing we see is God's sudden counter-attack.
"But God will shoot them with an arrow; Suddenly they will be wounded." (Psalm 64:7)
Notice the glorious "But God." These are two of the most potent words in all of Scripture. The wicked have laid their plans, they have bent their bows, they have aimed their arrows of slander. They have done all their homework. Their plot is perfect. "But God." This is the great disruption. This is the divine interruption that overturns the chessboard when the enemy has declared checkmate.
And what does God do? He joins their archery contest. They were shooting their arrows of bitter words (v. 3), so God shoots back with a real one. This is classic biblical irony. God answers fools according to their folly. He enters the arena they have chosen and demonstrates His absolute superiority. Their arrows are slander and lies, shot from the shadows. His arrow is judgment, shot from the heavens. It is swift, it is true, and it hits its mark.
The result is sudden. "Suddenly they will be wounded." The wicked live in a bubble of self-congratulation. They believe their own press. They think their rise to power, their clever schemes, are the result of their own brilliance. They do not factor God into their equations. And so, when judgment comes, it is always a shock. It is a sudden piercing of their pride. One moment they are toasting their success in a secret chamber, and the next they are staggering from a wound they never saw coming. This is the God who brings down empires, topples tyrants, and exposes the corrupt, and He often does it in the blink of an eye.
Poetic Justice and Public Spectacle (v. 8)
Next, the psalmist explains the mechanism of their downfall, and it is a masterpiece of divine justice.
"So they will cause their own tongue to turn against them; All who see them will shake their head." (Psalm 64:8)
Here is the boomerang. Their chief weapon was their tongue, which they sharpened like a sword (v. 3). And now, that very tongue becomes the instrument of their ruin. God does not simply strike them from the outside; He causes their own evil to implode. He turns their own words, their own lies, their own slanders, back upon their own heads. Their boasts become their indictments. Their threats become their sentences. The pit they dug for others is the one they fall into.
How does this happen? We see it constantly in history and in our own lives. A politician's lies are exposed by his own recorded words. A slanderer's reputation is ruined when his own network of deceit unravels and his co-conspirators turn on him to save their own skin. The proud academic who deconstructed truth with his clever words finds his own life and institution becoming meaningless and chaotic. God simply lets their sin run its natural, ruinous course. He gives them enough rope, and they hang themselves with it. This is not God being arbitrary; it is God upholding the moral structure of the reality He created.
And this downfall is not a private affair. It is a public spectacle. "All who see them will shake their head." This is not the head-shaking of pity, but of astonishment and, for the wicked, of mockery. It is the universal recognition that a great and prideful man has been laid low. It is the sight of the bully getting his comeuppance. God makes an example of them. Their fall is meant to be seen, to be observed, so that a lesson might be learned by all who watch.
The Fear of God and the Gospel of God (v. 9)
The public fall of the wicked is designed by God to produce a very specific reaction in the general population.
"Then all men will fear, And they will declare the work of God, And will consider what He has done." (Genesis 64:9)
When men see the sudden and ironic ruin of the proud, the conclusion is inescapable for any honest observer. This was not an accident. This was not a coincidence. This was the hand of God. The result is that "all men will fear." This is not the cowering dread of a slave before a tyrant, but the awe-filled reverence for a God who is real, who sees, who judges, and who is not to be trifled with. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and public acts of judgment are one of God's primary teaching tools for a rebellious world.
This fear leads to speech. They "will declare the work of God." When God acts decisively, it silences the chatter of men and replaces it with a declaration of His deeds. Men stop talking about politics, or economics, or the cleverness of the conspirators, and they start talking about God. They are forced to acknowledge a higher power, a sovereign hand guiding the affairs of men. This is evangelistic judgment. God's judgments in history are a megaphone to a deaf world, proclaiming His reality and His power.
And this declaration is not mindless. They "will consider what He has done." They will wisely perceive His work. They will think about it. They will connect the dots between the sin of the wicked and their sudden demise. They will see the arrow and understand there was an Archer. God's judgments are not just raw displays of power; they are intelligible lessons. They are sermons preached in the language of events, and He expects us to pay attention and learn the lesson.
The Joy, Refuge, and Boast of the Righteous (v. 10)
But the reaction of the righteous is altogether different from the fearful awe of the general populace. For the people of God, the judgment of the wicked is not a cause for terror, but for gladness.
"The righteous man will be glad in Yahweh and will take refuge in Him; And all the upright in heart will boast." (Psalm 64:10)
The righteous man will be glad. Is this some kind of vindictive, unholy glee? Not at all. Notice where the gladness is located. He is "glad in Yahweh." His joy is not in the destruction of the wicked, as an end in itself, but in the vindication of God's holy name, His justice, and His covenant faithfulness. He is glad because God has proven Himself to be a refuge for His people. The very event that causes the world to fear causes the saint to rejoice, because he sees his God is a mighty deliverer.
This gladness is tied to trust. He "will take refuge in Him." The judgments of God on the wicked serve to remind the righteous where their true safety lies. It is not in political maneuvering, or in building their own defenses, or in clever arguments. Their safety is in God alone. When the arrows of God fly, the only safe place to be is tucked in behind the Archer. Every display of God's power against His enemies is a confirmation to His children that He is a fortress, a high tower, a place of perfect security.
And this glad trust overflows into testimony. "And all the upright in heart will boast." The world boasts in its strength, its wisdom, its wealth, its perfect plots. But all of that has just been laid in the dust. So what is left to boast in? The righteous boast in the Lord. Their testimony is not, "Look how we survived," but rather, "Look at what our God has done." This is the great exchange. The proud boasting of the wicked is silenced, and it is replaced by the joyful, humble boasting of the upright in heart. They glory, not in themselves, but in the cross of Christ, where the ultimate judgment fell, where the ultimate plot of the wicked was overturned, and where the ultimate refuge for sinners was secured.
Conclusion: The Arrow at the Cross
We cannot read a psalm like this without seeing its ultimate fulfillment at Calvary. The wicked gathered in their secret counsels. They sharpened their tongues with lies and false testimony. They shot their arrows of bitter words at the only truly innocent man. They engineered what they thought was the perfect plot to be rid of Jesus of Nazareth forever. And for a moment, it seemed to have worked.
But God. God shot His arrow. The greatest judgment in the history of the world fell upon His own Son. But in that moment of wounding, the entire plot of the enemy was overturned. The tongue of the serpent, which had lied and accused, was crushed. By dying, Christ destroyed him who has the power of death. The cross, which looked like the ultimate defeat, was the ultimate victory.
And what was the result? The earth shook. The onlookers were filled with fear, declaring, "Truly this was the Son of God!" The work of God was declared. And for the righteous, for all who take refuge in that finished work, it is the source of all our gladness and the foundation of all our boasting. We are glad in the Lord. We take refuge in Him. And we boast, not in our own uprightness, but in Christ alone, the one who took the arrow for us, so that we might be safe forever in the shadow of the Almighty Archer.