New Warhorn Media post by Alex McNeilly:
From CS Lewis, “Reflections on the Psalms”, a quote which seems apposite here:
… The ancient Jews, like ourselves, think of God’s judgment in terms of an earthly court of justice. The difference is that the Christian pictures the case to be tried as a criminal case with himself in the dock; the Jew pictures it as a civil case with himself as the plaintiff. The one hopes for an acquittal, or rather for pardon; the other hopes for a resounding triumph with heavy damages.
Interesting. I think Lewis makes an overly simple dichotomy there. King David was pleading for an acquittal in Psalms 51, 130, etc., not damages. There’s also the Christian reality of expecting rewards for the things we do for the Lord, which I think is much of what the Apostle Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 5:10. And 2 Thessalonians 1:5–12 and Revelation 6:9–11 sound more like damages than pardon.
Generally, Lewis’s work on the Psalms is not a great source of theology. One area it is particularly bad is in rightly understanding what the psalmists mean when they call on God to judge their enemies. He draws too clear a distinction between what it meant for an OT Jew to appeal to God for vindication and for NT Christians to appeal for the same.
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