Regretting punishment

I appreciate Patrick's thoughtful post about John 11:35, particularly his suggestion that Christians might "offer their best witness by mourning, as Jesus did, the consequences of justice, which lead to punishment, sometimes even to death."  It seems we are presented with a challenge:  to embrace, on the one hand, the truth of Patrick's observation that Christians "engaged in punishing (sometimes unto death) are engaged in a business that the God who desires the salvation of all must sorrow over" and, on the other, the Psalmist's love of the law (but perhaps not his loathing of the lawless?) (see Psalm 119).

Rick