Psalms 58:10

The psalmist's declaration that 'the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked' is one of the most disturbing imprecatory passages in the Psalter and has generated centuries of interpretive controversy. The verse reflects a world in which justice was so rare and oppression so total that divine retribution was experienced as liberation — 'the righteous' rejoicing in vengeance is less about vindictiveness than about the finally vindicated order of moral reality. C. S. Lewis noted that the imprecatory psalms represent genuine, undisguised moral outrage before God — their honesty is their theological value even when the sentiments expressed are not directly applicable to Christian ethics. Revelation 19:2 ('for true and righteous are his judgments') and 6:10 ('How long, O Lord?') preserve the same vindication-longing in canonical form.