Let Joy Ring Out?

‘We give thanks to you, Almighty Lord God, He who is, He who was, for assuming your great power and beginning your reign. The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for all those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.’  Revelation 11: 17-18

Let the sea make a noise and all that is in it, the lands and those that dwell therein. Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD, when he comes to judge the earth. In righteousness shall He judge the world and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98: 8-10

I simply never think of Judgment Day as a good thing. It sounds dreadful- The Great White Throne, the books being opened and read aloud to all of humanity, the goats being separated from the sheep.  What about this sounds like a time of “ringing out with joy”?

Because all that is wrong will be made right.  The brokenness will be healed.  Small and great alike will be rewarded for those acts of goodness done in secret.  Equity will at last be put in place.  By a loving God who hunted down the last reluctant stray who would be found.

And even though I cannot grasp how every tear being wiped away justifies the long trails of despair in Somalia, or the trainloads to Dachau, or the 92 in Norway, or even the anguish Amy Winehouse has suffered in her short explosive life– He who created the very concept of justice, who is Justice, has declared it so.

Therefore I give thanks to You, oh LORD Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come into all Your glory.