REST IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

IF YOU LOVE RIGHTEOUSNESS, YOU WILL LOVE THE WORD!

Psalm 119:137-144

Righteous are you, O LORD,

and right are your rules.

You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness

and in all faithfulness.

My zeal consumes me,

because my foes forget your words.

Your promise is well tried,

and your servant loves it.

I am small and despised,

yet I do not forget your precepts.

Your righteousness is righteous forever,

and your law is true.

Trouble and anguish have found me out,

but your commandments are my delight.

Your testimonies are righteous forever;

give me understanding that I may live.

It is interesting to note the way the writer emphasizes God’s righteousness and how it influences all He does. A righteous God makes rules that are right, and all He does and says is righteous.

Growing up, a constant reply from my dad to my complaint over some injustice that I thought was directed towards me was: “David, justice is not part of this world!” How much I resented that statement! But how true it was and is. We humans are incapable of even defining what is just, as we are nearly always driven by self-centeredness. We are indignant about injustices that we see in this world, but is it because we wish to ‘protect’ God’s reputation as holy and just? Or is it merely a desire for our own comfort?

Only our understanding of God’s righteousness can produce godly desire:

Jeremiah 9:23-24

            Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

God finds pleasure in exalting His righteousness, which is foundational to all He does. There is nothing that He allows in our lives that does not promote His righteousness. His righteousness will be magnified by His grace toward His children and His wrath against ungodliness.

Romans 3:21-26

            But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

We have the privilege of knowing Christ and being blessed to have understood how Jesus satisfied the Father’s righteousness. We know that we live in the midst of a world that has rejected the righteousness of God and proposes its own. We rejoice in seeing that God’s Word stands the tests of time and people.

Our certainty is in the fact that God’s righteousness will prevail and stand forever. Knowing this gives us so much peace and assurance. We have no reason to look elsewhere for peace and comfort.

We run for shelter and guidance into the shadow of the righteousness of God. Our only way to evaluate what happens in our lives is to weigh it by God’s standards and then find our peace in Him.

Let us pray that we might live each day in the light of God’s righteousness. It should affect our attitudes, our behavior, and the way we see others.