Judgment, Vindication, and the Brink of Death Text: Psalm 141:6-7
Introduction: The Great Reversal
We live in a world that is upside down. The wicked are exalted, they sit in the high places, and they make decrees from their seats of power. The righteous, on the other hand, are often afflicted, hunted, and slandered. To the watching world, and sometimes even to our own wavering hearts, it can appear that evil is winning, that God has forgotten His people, and that the cause of righteousness is about to be extinguished entirely. This is the world David inhabited when he wrote this psalm. He was on the run, hunted by Saul, and his circumstances looked utterly bleak.
But the Scriptures are given to us to teach us how to see. They are God's prescription lenses for our spiritual astigmatism. They teach us to look past the apparent reality to the ultimate reality. And the ultimate reality is this: God is on His throne, and He will not be mocked. There is a great reversal coming. The day is fast approaching when the tables will be turned with such violent and final authority that all creation will see the justice of God. The wicked who now judge will themselves be judged. The righteous who are now silenced will be vindicated. This is not wishful thinking; it is the iron law of God's moral universe.
In these two verses, David gives us a snapshot of this great reversal. He shows us the end of the wicked and the desperate condition of the righteous just before their deliverance. It is a picture of catastrophic judgment for God's enemies and a portrait of utter dependency for God's people. This is a hard-won confidence, prayed from the very brink of the grave. It is a lesson we must learn if we are to remain faithful in our own crooked and perverse generation. We must learn to see the end from the beginning, to trust God's promises even when our bones feel scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
The Text
Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are pleasant.
As when one plows and splits open the earth,
Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
(Psalm 141:6-7 LSB)
The End of Tyrants (v. 6)
David, having prayed for deliverance and for integrity in the face of temptation, now looks forward in faith to the guaranteed outcome for his enemies.
"Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the cliff, And they hear my words, for they are pleasant." (Psalm 141:6)
This is a prophecy of a future, certain event. "Their judges," the corrupt leaders who are persecuting David, will face a sudden and violent end. The image is one of being "thrown down by the sides of the cliff." This is not a peaceful retirement. This is a catastrophic, public, and decisive judgment. The word for "thrown down" is the same one used when Jezebel was pitched out of the window to her death. It is the end that awaits all who set themselves against the Lord and His anointed.
This is a necessary comfort for the people of God. We are not to be vindictive, but we are to be lovers of justice. And true justice requires that unrepentant evil be punished. When we see wickedness enthroned, we are to pray, as David does, for God to act. We pray for their repentance, of course, but if they will not repent, we pray for their removal. This is not a bloodthirsty prayer; it is a prayer for righteousness to be established in the land. It is a prayer for the cliff to do its work on those who abuse their authority to harm the innocent.
And notice the result of this judgment: "And they hear my words, for they are pleasant." Who are "they"? It is the people who were formerly under the thumb of these wicked judges. Once the tyrants are gone, the people will finally be able to hear David's words, the words of God's chosen king. And they will find them "pleasant" or "sweet." Why? Because truth is sweet to those who have been force-fed lies. Righteous leadership is a balm to those who have been crushed by tyranny. David's words are the words of God's covenant; they speak of law, of grace, of order, and of peace. Under the boot of the wicked, these words were drowned out or dismissed. But once God removes the oppressors, the truth will suddenly become clear and attractive.
There is a lesson here for us. Sometimes we wonder why our gospel message falls on deaf ears. Often, it is because wicked judges, cultural gatekeepers, have the people's ears. But we must trust that God, in His time, will throw them from their cliffs. And when He does, the words that once seemed harsh and foolish will suddenly be recognized as the sweet words of life. Our job is to keep speaking them faithfully, knowing that their vindication is tied to God's judgment.
At the Brink of the Grave (v. 7)
But this future vindication is contrasted sharply with the present reality. David is not speaking from a position of earthly strength. He is speaking from the edge of the abyss.
"As when one plows and splits open the earth, Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol." (Psalm 141:7 LSB)
This is a startlingly graphic image. David looks at his situation and that of his followers, and he says it looks like a massacre has already occurred. Their bones are not just in the grave; they are "scattered at the mouth of Sheol," the place of the dead. It is a picture of complete and total defeat. It looks like the battle is over and they have lost. The image of a plow splitting open the earth is one of violent disruption. That is what their lives feel like, a field torn apart, with their very bones, their structure, their lives, strewn about as though they were nothing.
This is the honest language of faith in the crucible. David does not pretend that things are fine. He does not put on a plastic smile and say he is "blessed" when he feels like his bones are scattered. He looks his desperate situation squarely in the face and reports what he sees. It looks hopeless. It looks like death has won. They are on the very brink of destruction.
And this is precisely where God loves to work. He brings His people to the end of their own strength, to the mouth of Sheol, so that there is no doubt who is responsible for the deliverance. He let Israel get pinned against the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army thundering down on them. He let the disciples get caught in a storm that was swamping their boat while Jesus slept. He let His own Son be laid in a tomb. And it is from this place, the place of scattered bones and certain death, that He brings about His greatest victories.
This verse is the necessary setup for the next. It is because their bones are scattered, because they have no hope in themselves, that David can say in the very next breath, "But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord." True faith is not a denial of the facts. It is a refusal to let the facts have the last word. The facts may scream "death," "defeat," and "despair." Our bones may be scattered. But faith looks up from the mouth of the grave and fixes its eyes on the God of resurrection. The condition described in verse 7 is the precondition for the kind of radical trust we see in verse 8.
Conclusion: The Logic of the Gospel
These two verses, taken together, give us the logic of the Christian life. We live between the reality of our own weakness and the certainty of God's coming victory. We are, at the same time, those whose bones are scattered and those who know that the wicked will be thrown from the cliff.
This is the story of the gospel in miniature. The central event of all history was a moment when it appeared that the bones of the righteous one were scattered at the mouth of Sheol. On Good Friday, the Son of David was not just on the brink of death; He entered into it. His enemies, the wicked judges of Israel and Rome, presided over his execution. It looked like a total and final defeat. The cause of righteousness was dead and buried. His followers were scattered, hopeless.
But God had a cliff waiting for those judges. And more importantly, He had a resurrection morning planned. He reached into the mouth of Sheol and brought His Son out, vindicating all His sweet and pleasant words. And in doing so, He secured the final victory for all of us whose bones are, in this life, scattered by sin, by persecution, by sickness, and by death.
Therefore, we can look at our own desperate circumstances, our own weakness, our own sense of being overwhelmed, and we can be honest about it. We can say, "My bones are scattered." But we do not stop there. We look to the coming judgment of the wicked, and we look to the resurrected King. We fix our eyes on Him. Because He was thrown down into the grave for us, we will be raised up with Him. And on that day, when all the proud judges of this world are finally and forever thrown from their cliffs, we will hear His words, and they will be sweet.