Judgment to salvation

The ideal king of Psalm 72 rules with justice and brings peace, and he does this when he “judges ( shaphat ) the afflicted of the people, saves the children, of the needy, and crushes the oppressor” (v. 4).

The NASB translates shaphat as “vindicate,” a good translation in context. The king judges the afflicted favorably, vindicating or justifying them.

But he does that not merely by passing verdicts but by delivering the afflicted and the children of the needy from oppressors. His judgments are saving judgments (note parallel of shaphat and yasha’ ) because they are neutralize oppressors and so rescue the oppressed.

Psalm 82 uses shaphat in a very similar way.

In that Psalm, Yahweh rebukes the “gods” who judge unjustly and cower before the wicked. Instead, they should be vindicating ( shaphat ) the weak and “doing justice” (hiphil of zadaq ) to the afflicted (v. 3). Their judgments against the wicked should be acts of rescue and deliverance (v. 4). If the word were not loaded with theological freight, it would be quite natural to translate zadaq here as “justify.” And theparallel between “judge” and “justify,” shaphat and zadaq , is noteworthy: Right judgment, which involves delivering the weak and punishing the wicked, is an act of “justification.”

One might call a judgment like this a “deliverdict.”