Psalm 143: Unfeeling Laws
The pain of judgement with no empathy
“Please don’t judge me,” the psalmist writes, “for no one can be innocent in front of you” (143:2).
In 2018, there were more than 1.4 million people arrested for drug possession in the United States. Of those, more than 660,000 were arrested for marijuana related violations. More than 52% of adult Americans have used marijuana at some point in their life, though people of color are disproportionately arrested.
“My foe crushed me into the ground, and made me dwell in the darkness, like those long dead” (143:3).
There were nearly 68,000 deaths from accidental drug overdoses in 2018 (though none from marijuana). How many more are living in pain, in darkness? 80% of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids. Most initially started their addiction to alleviate “legitimate” medical pain.
How do you even consider judging someone when they are already knocked down?
“I thought about all Your deeds, and recounted the work of Your hands” (143:5).
Like an algorithm, God has no empathy. Empathy requires someone to understand the situation, to understand the pain. There is nothing more terrifying after having a “failed spirit” and a "numbed mind” (143:4) to remember that you are being judged by someone who has never experienced what you are going through.
“Free me from emotional distress” (143:11).
“Destroy all the things that cause me emotional distress” (143:12).
Perhaps the thing that causes the emotional distress is the act of judgement itself.
Perhaps when the psalmist begs God to free him and destroy the causes of emotional distress, he is referring to the algorithmic, unfeeling laws; the mandatory minimums in sentencing; the treating of issues legalistically instead of from a standpoint of mental health; the removal of laws that exist only to control and not to empower; the culture of “law and order”, as opposed to one of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.