The biblical psalmists possess the uncanny ability to counterpose the joy of the righteous to the desolation of the wicked without actually inciting anyone to slaughter. Engaging Israel’s soul in ideological self-definition relieves her of the need to carry out vengeance on those who love evil or, in some cases, those who hate Zion.
YHWH will concern himself with vengeance, the psalms seem to say. Our duty is to maintain righteousness.
And to exult in YHWH.
A psalm like the ninety-seventh is full from start to finish with that extremity of jubilation that sees the earth itself rejoicing, the coastlands brimming with gladness. While touching upon the most sober realities, Israel finds herself incapable of modest emotion. Rather she bursts into dance.
All worshipers of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.
Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O God.
For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods. (Psalm 97:7-9 NRSV)
It would be wrong to absolve the psalmist of the kind of aggressive nationalism that we find distasteful. Yet it would be equally misguided not to take note of the function of such psalmody in its wider context. Israel is given license by a psalm like this one to celebrate YHWH’s care for her in the midst of unrelenting enmity from the surrounding nations. If she breaks into a grin upon news of the idolater’s downfall or catastrophe fallen upon some neighboring people, she also longs in other poems of this anthology for the nations to join her gladness.
The psalmist’s rhetoric is unguarded and flirts with indecent exaltation of his tribe. Yet it is also the language of the powerless who know escape only when YHWH acts for them since they have no recourse of their own:
The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
Some words incite their hearers to murderous deeds. Others assure the defenseless that God is on their side.
There is joy in the latter for the downtrodden faithful, dancing for the whole earth.
Canter Bridge 
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