Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. – Psalm 98:8-9

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 8, 2016): Psalm 98 & 99

“I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was. I was much more terrified by my own family and real life, you know?” And with these words, director Tim Burton describes much of his film-making career. For some, Burton is the maker of at least some nightmares, but for Burton all of his movies, from Alice in Wonderland to Sleepy Hollow and from Batman to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Fleet Street are nothing more than escapes from reality. Because that is where the real nightmare lives – with us in the real world.

I have to admit that I totally understand Burton’s take on nightmares. My wife sometimes wonders at the things that I can watch and wonders why I don’t have nightmares, but it is the true stories that threaten to give me nightmares. Fiction is nothing more than an escape.

If it wasn’t for the verses that precede this ending comment in Psalm 98, these might be some of the scariest words in the Bible, especially considering our generation’s record on the environment. I can imagine the mountains and the rivers clapping their hands with delight as we finally get what it is that we deserve – as God comes to judge us with righteousness and with equity – as God finally does what is right. This is the real nightmare, and it lives with us in the real world.

But the words of this nightmare ending of the Psalm are mitigated by earlier words about God remembering his love and his faithfulness. And essentially, those are the best words that I can think of to describe the work of Jesus – an act of God’s love on our behalf. Because of Jesus, maybe the nightmare of the real world doesn’t have to be more than just a bad dream. Jesus love trumps the bad that we have done, and when God judges us in righteousness, it is really the righteousness of Jesus that he sees.

And that is good news for us. In fact, it is the best news for those of us who dare to live in the nightmare of the real world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 100