Today's readings (Psalm 4; Job 34:1-15) are both concerned with justice. The psalmist looks confidently to receiving deliverance from his enemies from God, who "makes me lie down in safety. Elihu continues his rebuke of Job and his friends, affirming that God "will not do wickedly."

It's a difficult word, justice. For most people it seems to be tied up with vengeance or retribution -- making the guilty pay. The current Government of Canada seems to be of that mind. "Do the crime and do the time" is one of their slogans. While I have nothing fundamentally against getting the crime rate down, and making our streets safer, I also believe that justice has much more to do with doing the right thing than with making those who do wrong pay.

I believe, with Elihu, that God will not do wickedly, but desires only good for all people. Walter Brueggeman has described the Hebrew Bible's concept of justice as "determining what belongs to whom, and then returning it to them." That is, far more than just sending bad guys away, justice involves the building or re-building of community, in which everyone's needs and desires are respected. Why do "bad guys" roam our city streets? Call me a soft-hearted liberal, but I can't help feeling that most people turn to crime out of a sense of desperation. The kind of life that I enjoy has been denied them, and crime becomes, if not the only option, certainly a viable one.

God does not do wickedly, but people do wickedly, both individually and societally. Evil actions lead to more evil, and the cycle continues, broken only by the grace of God, working in people who work to do good.