In the summer of 1937, just as the Gestapo was arresting Bonhoeffer's friends, the pastor preached about God's judgment in Psalm 58 -- but he didn't say what a modern American might expect.
The wicked are perverse from the womb; liars go astray from their birth. ... O God, break their teeth in their mouths; pull the fangs of the young lions, O LORD. Let them vanish like water that runs off; let the arrows they aim break in two. ... The righteous will be glad when they see the vengeance; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. And they will say, 'Surely, there is a reward for the righteous, surely, there is a God who rules in the earth'" (Psalm 58.3, 6-7, 10-11).So how did Bonhoeffer preach that psalm?
Is this fearful psalm of vengeance to be our prayer? May we pray in this way? Certainly not! We bear much guilt of our own for the action of any enemies who cause us suffering.He continued:
How then should we, who are guilty ourselves and deserving of God's wrath, call down God's vengeance upon our enemies? Will not this vengeance much more strike us? No, we cannot pray this psalm. Not because we are too good for it (what a superficial idea, what colossal pride!), but because we are too sinful, too evil for it!Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Let he who has the ears to hear, listen.