The psalms of grievance in the Hebrew Bible, not to mention the book of Job, are shot through with the felt need for God's justification. Justification, that is, in the sense of vindication before one's peers, in the court of history, and/or in the court of ultimate truth. At stake is an active principle of justice deity is expected to uphold and bring to bear on specific situations. The psalms of grievance, the protests of Job and prophets like Habakkuk and Jeremiah, speak from the point of view of an innocent sufferer and construe matters in precisely this way: when justice is done, salvation has come.
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