Righteous vengeance as praiseworthy

God’s identity is characterized by salvation and glory and power. These attributes define who he is. The evidence that such qualities describe who God is in turn receives illustration through what God had done with Babylon (and continues to do with every Babylonic iteration throughout history). The demise of kings and kingdoms and civilizations on the one hand, and the survival and growth of God’s church on the other, is repeated illustration throughout the new dispensation of God’s essential identity as salvation and glory and power. This item of faith provides a most encouraging manner of observing history and assessing the news.

Among the more challenging questions facing pastors and theologians is the place of imprecatory psalms (e.g., Psalm 58:6). Jesus told his disciples not to knock out an opponent’s teeth but to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), because vengeance is God’s department, not man’s (Deuteronomy 32:35, Deuteronomy 32:41, Deuteronomy 32:42). So the saints under the altar (Revelation 6:9–10), martyred for the faith (injustice!), impatiently called out to God for justice and vengeance. In Revelation 19:2 the multitude of heaven declares that God has avenged on [Babylon] the blood of his servants, in keeping with the promise of Deuteronomy 32:35 and in answer to the petition of Revelation 6:9–10. More, so fallen is Babylon that she is thrown down with violence (Revelation 18:21), in line with petitions of the imprecatory psalms. God fulfills his promises in punishing sin, that is, “his judgments are true and just.” The present passage teaches that precisely this righteous vengeance is cause for infinite praise.