Many people have the wrong idea about the Bible and what it says and doesn’t say. I see that it tells a big story from beginning to end about identifying evil in the world and what to do about it. All this turn-the-other-cheek stuff is not my cup of tea. The references to “he without sin may cast the first stone” stuff is for the birds. I would say, and the Bible makes a good argument for it, that you should live your life to cast the first stone, and that when you run up against evil, wicked people, you damn well should. This opens the door for one of my favorite passages in the Bible; it’s from the Book of Psalms, specifically 58:10,  “the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”  Now Psalms is a big book with many segments, which is essentially a collection of prayers. Some of the most familiar passages that you hear quoted at funerals and Sunday morning philosophy come from the Book of Psalms. Many common quotes are present here, such as Psalm 23:4, the walking through the valley of death, I will fear no evil stuff. Psalms are the continuation of a prayer against the footholds of evil that goes on for quite some time. It is in Psalm 37:11 where the famous quote, “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.” This all comes across as more of a hope than an observation.

Lots of people wrote Psalms, King David being the most significant contributor, and it’s interesting how much of the text comes almost as a prayer to God and a battle cry against the wicked who are plotting against King David. But by the end of it, it’s more reflective of the power and miracles of the almighty God leading the whole book to a kind of positive reformation on spiritual hope. Yet what I like about that 58:10, “the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,” is that it contains several essential value judgments that are necessary for the perpetuation of the human race, and I think it is the key to a value-driven society. When you look around at the nonsense that is going on currently, which is well on purpose and part of a larger grand strategy of liberalism, it is the failure to adhere to these values that has led to so much misery and destruction. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. We know the recipe for success in life, and the Bible is filled with lots of the fundamental essence for all of them. I’ve read the Mahabharata, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Book of Hopi, all the Greek myths, the Gods of Egypt, and many hundreds of lesser-known books on religion, morality, and social outlook, and I can say that out of all of them, this quote from Psalms is my favorite one, and the Bible, in general, does the best job of dealing with an ancient problem, how do humans survive and grow in the world. It’s not a matter of one religion or another as a preference; in this case, it’s the Bible and the points that Cleon Skousen made with his great book, The 5000 Year Leap, distinguishing success from failure. 

To be “righteous” means that a person must already have made a value judgment to do good as a society measures good consciously. You can’t throw out the measurement and expect to have a good society. But to expect to see vengeance given to the good is a whole new matter to contend with. This isn’t just Gilgamesh seeking immortality for the sake of living forever. This is to expect justice to be important in life. And to satisfy the good person, the enemies of goodness should be slaughtered so that the good can relish in the concept. “the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” I know many have felt this joy recently in my home school district, where the community has come together in great ways as truly vile displays of evil were displayed audaciously, and that level of wickedness was actually poking us all in the eye with its splendid grandeur. The enemy of our times has all read in some fashion Saul Alinsky who dedicated his book Rules for Radicals, a favorite of Hillary Clinton, to Lucifer, and that book says explicitly that Christian people are easy to beat because they will essentially turn the other cheek. Because many people allow their interpretation of the Bible to be quoted for them by lazy preachers and slow-minded church personnel, they often miss the good stuff, such as Psalms 58:10. We don’t have to put up with evil. We don’t have to make friends with evil people. And when they are slaughtered, we are to be expected to wash our feet (metaphorically) in their defeat. I know there were locally several steak dinners that were enjoyed in the wake of great evil being destroyed that showed how good life could be when wickedness is stood up to and beaten. 

If I can be said to have an addiction in life, I would say that Psalms 58:10 describes it. I enjoy nothing more than defeating wicked people and washing my feet in their misery. I look for every opportunity to do it, and I think the simplicity of Psalms 58:10 captures the complexity of a really difficult subject; what ingredients go into making a prosperous society? I think you must make a personal decision to be “righteous.” Then you have to make a point to look for opportunities to measure values with a vengeance if something is done wrong. And it’s not that it happens in some faraway land; you have to take the responsibility to see it for yourself. Then, of course, you must take physical action from the slaughter of the wicked and bathe in the glory of the task. “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” It’s a beautiful passage and is stated in the Bible many times, especially in Psalms; there is a lot of talk about bathing in the blood of a defeated enemy. And I think that’s wonderful. It’s the kind of stuff that makes me get up out of bed every morning. I am addicted to bathing in the blood of my enemies, so to do such a thing, you have to have enemies. Lots of them. Because it takes a lot of blood to stay clean in an evil world, and there is no shame in rejoicing upon their downfall. I never get tired of it. I look for opportunities to do it every minute of every day. And there is no shame in it, contrary to what many people believe about religions from many cultures. Anybody who says otherwise is lying to you because they intend bad things to flourish in the world. And it’s our job to stop them and to bathe in the blood of those victories.

Rich Hoffman