[This is part 7 in an article series on Sin, Repentance, and Revival. See part one, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

We have already looked into the Hebrew word rasha’ (transliterated) that is often translated as “wicked” in the Old Testament and have explored its connection to the rulers of the world and their supporters. However, I did not cover the Psalms in that article in order to address them separately here. The Psalms are full of this theme of a conspiracy against mankind, which has necessarily always been a statist one where men have been preyed upon and enslaved by the human rulers of worldly governments — for the most part justly, as a recompense for the sins like idolatry and covetousness that led them under the thumb of these men, who nevertheless are evil enslavers.

Anyone with even an ounce of discernment should recognize who these wicked and evil men are when reading Scripture in light of the world around us. It should not be difficult for anyone to look at the surveillance/police-state around them and realize how scripture speaks to us today when reading that “the wicked watch the righteous and seek to slay them” (Psalm 37:32). Are we to think it is no longer the case that wicked men on high watch the people of God and look to destroy them? Are we to think the centralized conspiracies against mankind have come to an end?

However, to be sure that statist idolaters—those whose worldly political ideology shows they lack the Holy Spirit and Law of God written on their hearts—cannot accuse us of relying on our own supposed discernment to charge that the main predators in our world have always been the rulers of human governments, let us make this case through scripture itself. It is not merely our own wisdom that shows us this, but the direct sense and context that terms like “wicked” are used in scripture that show the stalking, harassment, predation, plunder, plots on our lives, and conspiracies to be of a far greater and more powerful nature than that which is perpetuated by mere private criminals or wicked individuals among the population.

By looking at the basic context in which these words appear—men who are called “wicked” alongside references to those who do violence, shed blood, or pervert law and justice—it becomes clear that the “wicked” described in Scripture are not merely personal sinners or private “bad guys,” but the people who have organized, institutionalized, and legalized their violence and call themselves “the government.” When we dig into the context of the Hebrew word rasha’ (רָשָׁע; Strong’s H7563), which describes the kind of evil or wicked person we are dealing with, it becomes very clear how fitting these descriptions are for the people who rule over other men through systems of human civil government (e.g., presidents, legislators, police officers, and soldiers alike). It is these types of men who participate in a vast political plunder conspiracy that preys of upon whole populations of people to rob them, snatch them away for their jails and prisons, or even kill them if their wicked hearts so desire.

The wicked in the Psalms 

There are “the wicked” (rasha’) in Psalm 10 (v. 2, 3, 4, 13, 15) who “pursue the needy” (10:2), whose “mouths are full of violence” (10:7), who “lie in wait near the villages in ambush [to] slay the innocent” (10:8), and who “lurk to seize the oppressed” and “catch the lowly in his net” (10:9). Need we even mention police checkpoints, regular patrols that are ostensibly for “public safety,” or the heightened surveillance and predatory behaviors of these police forces under security states like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union?

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 17 (v. 9, 13) who “have tracked us down,” “surround us,” and whose “eyes are set to cast us to the ground…like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush” (Psalm 17:11-12). Need we even mention the federal agents who operate the intelligence apparatuses used to spy on the people and manufacture charges against them? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 26:5 who are described as “men of bloodshed, in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes” (Psalm 26:9-10). Need we even mention the judges, lawyers, and police departments who run schemes on the public to take them for their property and their lives? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 28:3 who are described as “workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts.” Need we even mention the presidents and congressmen who campaign on bringing peace and order to the country—their gospel message—but whose true intentions are expand the power of the State and widen its ability to enslave men? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 31:17 who the psalmist says “conspire against men and plot to take my life” (Psalm 31:13). Need we mention the global elites who perpetrate worldwide pandemic psyops that seek to vaccinate billions of people and reduce the global population down to their ideal level through genocide and mass murder? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 37 (my favorite psalm) who are mentioned over ten times, and it is very clear who they are: the statists of the world who “scheme against the righteous” (37:12), who “draw their sword and bend their bow to bring down the poor and needy” and who “slay those whose ways are upright” (37:14), and who “lie in wait for the righteous and seek to slay them” (37:32). 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 73 (v. 3, 12) who “pride is their necklace and a garment of violence covers them” (73:6), who “speak with malice” and who “with arrogance threaten oppression” (73:8). Need we even mention the people who say they exist for “public safety” and “law and order” but whose whole purpose is to plunder men under the name of the law?  

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 94 (v. 3, 13) who “crush” and “oppress” (94:5), who “kill the widow and the foreigner” and “murder the fatherless” (94:6). Need we even mention the tyranny of federal agents against immigrants or the kidnapping and trafficking through agencies that claim to be “child protective services”? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 109 (v. 2, 6, 7) who the psalmist says “attack me without cause” (109:3) and who “pursued the poor and needy…even to their death” (109:16). Need we even refer to the system of human government and central banking in general, whose whole purpose is to keep the poor down and transfer property to themselves and their political allies in industry and elsewhere? 

There are “the wicked” of Psalm 119—a chapter about keeping God’s Law—who are shown to be the people who do not care for it (119:53, 155). Need we even refer to the misnomer of the “Department of Justice” that exists to do violence against the people and fill the dockets of their courtrooms with men? Or the police who are immune from the law they supposedly uphold and steal and kill with impunity? 

We also have “the wicked” men of Psalm 139:19 who are described as “bloodthirsty men.” Are not all those who rule over systems of human government and serve as their police and soldiers out for blood? 

Then there are the “evil men” of Psalm 140 who are shown to be the “men of violence, who devise evil in their hearts, and stir up war all the day long” (140:1-2), as well as “the wicked” of verse 4 who are again said to be “men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.” Need we even refer to the endless schemes of law enforcement agencies who are always hatching up new plots to catch the people in their nets and ensnare men in their traps? Need we even mention the executive decisions to launch air strikes against other men around the world? Or the people who give us “world wars” in order to shape the global order to their liking?

The Psalms today

It is clear that some of the psalms take place under captivity to statists, such as Psalm 137, with the Judean exiles in Babylon who are weeping over their bondage. Psalm 79 laments the destruction of Jerusalem under the Babylonians (79:1) and calls upon God to forget their sins and save them (79:8-9). This shows just how relevant they are to men today, because we are a people who have found ourselves in bondage to statists for the same sins the people of these times had fallen into. We are under the eyes and grips of men who surround us and look to destroy us in the same way the psalmists felt it around them.

As these psalms speak to us today — a people who find themselves preyed upon, stalked, and living in captivity to human rulers — they speak in reference to the political plunder system that stands above us as one giant, legalized extortion racket that keeps men as their slaves. It is state rulers — the false gods of the world who have been exalted to positions of power — and their supporters who stand as the main enemies of God, His anarchistic Kingdom that is not of this world and its kingdoms, and the children of God who seek this Kingdom in repentance from the sins of statolatry that have led to bondage under human governments. They are the people who set up and further systems of human civil government that prey upon and plunder the masses and keep men from seeking the Kingdom of God, which operates on faith, charity, and love and represents the pure religion of mutual service to one another, as opposed to the authoritarian systems of the world which are based on violence, force, and coercion. 

Though some like to argue that the context of Scripture and its specific lessons were meant only for the original writers or figures of that time—as if Israel’s evil and sinful demand for a human king applied only to them, and not as a warning to all who commit the same sin—when we read the Bible today, we see just how much it speaks to a people who are in bondage and slavery to human rulers in every age. The Bible is a freedom manual for all people of any time whose sins have landed them in the bondage of Egypt and who need to become aware of their own sins, repent for these specific acts of iniquity, and turn back to the Lord as their only King if they hope to be delivered from their shackles. The Bible is an anarchistic manifesto for all people of any age who have found themselves enslaved to statists and who need to see that it was their own idolatry and covetousness that wound them up under the sword and boot and that repenting and seeking the Kingdom of God will be the only way out. We are in desperate need once again for the people of the earth to realize that their own sins, like trusting in rulers and armies to save them, have wound them up in Egypt and to begin calling upon God to liberate us from the curse of human government.

“Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance. We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness” (Psalm 106:4-7).

As much as the psalmists’ sense of being hunted by wicked men and their desperate pleas and prayers for God’s deliverance were also relevant in their own case, such feelings of being stalked and spied on are also the reality of the peoples of the earth today, who contend with what may be one of the most evil and powerful governments and global political systems that the devil has ever cooked up. Scripture does not lose its force and relevancy just because it was written about a people of a past age who dealt with these same things. Indeed, one may argue that the words of the Bible are more relevant and urgently needed than ever before, given how deep in bondage men have found themselves due to their own sins like idolatry for these very human rulers, who they regarded as their saviors but who God has used to terrorize their wicked works of setting up human rulers and trusting in men rather than God. Scripture speaks not just of the people of the age in which it was written, but to a people of all ages who find themselves under the Babylonian boot for the same errors of the people of the Bible, like setting up princes and kings behind God’s back and against His will (Hosea 8:4). All Scripture is profitable for correction and reproof, and was given to all men of the earth in any age who find themselves living under Pharaohs and Caesars, that it might help expose the terroristic predators who call themselves the “government” and lead them to see that they are in urgent need of returning to the Lord their God if the captivity is to be undone. The Book of Psalms in particular stands as a living testimony to the thoughts, tears, and cries that every man will inevitably experience once he awakens to his own captivity and recognizes that he is ruled by wicked men who—contrary to the “public servant” narratives fed to us by our brainwashed and idolatrous neighbors—seek to devour him and his people.

That professing Christians today are largely a bunch of Roman idolaters who think the next Caesar is going to “save America,” that soldiers are men who “fight for our freedom,” or that police officers are people who “keep the public safe” and “uphold law and order” in society, shows just how far they are from the Psalms and the rest of Biblical counsel. If men who claimed to know the Lord today were more like the psalmists they would be praying to the Lord to break the arm of the evildoers, rather than praising these men as their heroes and saviors.