God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
Psalm 7:11, 17
I love to meditate on the grace of God. It is a beautiful welcome and, as the song says, endless second chances. I love grace.
But God's grace to me comes at a dear price to him. He is a righteous judge (the one to be truly so), and is provoked by the unrighteous behavior he sees every day, moment by moment. He sits over a world he created to center on his glory and to exist in the atmosphere of his Shalom (his peace, balance, life, and wholeness). But that world has gone crazy.
I can't stand to read the news. The Internet has made the world too small. Every crisis is reported to me before it even has a chance to be played out. Every massacre. Every rape. Every child starving while there is plenty food to feed them. Every self-centered and self-glorifying despot of fame, feeding on the worship of people who hate them but want to be them.
And he sees me. A man who is walking around created in his image but with so little idea of how to be like him - and so many desires that reject him... a man in whom the potential for every evil resides.
So, why would I give thanks for his righteousness when it is the very thing that reminds me that I don't measure up? The very thing that speaks reminds my soul, "You are not God and you fall short of the glory of God"?
Because, while I am not what I am supposed to be, I can see that he is. His perfection is shown in all the areas where he exists in non-tension where I can only see conflict. He is love and justice. He is absolute power and the epitome of meekness. He is the giver of righteous judgment and unending grace.
So when I consider his perfection, even though I am not perfect, I am drawn to praise him for his right-ness. He is what I long to be. He is where I long to be. He is the center around which I was designed to revolve.
Prayer:
Lord, when I try to consider your righteousness, I feel like a non-artist trying to appreciate great art. I can see that you are beautiful in all your ways, but I am so limited in my ability to rightly praise what I see - or even notice the so much of what makes you a masterpiece. Lord, train my eyes to appreciate your beauty, to see, appreciate, and love your holy righteousness. Thank you for grace - without it, I would only exist as a foil to your greatness. With it, I get to be a trophy of your love. Man, that is so cool. Thank you.
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