King of all

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne,

Love and faithfulness go before you.

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,

Who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.

They rejoice in your name all day long;

They exult in your righteousness.

For you are their glory and their strength,

And by your favor you exalt our horn.

Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD”

(Ps. 89:14-18).

I was walking home in a beautiful Texas spring day, flipping through a packet of verses. Before long, my thoughts joined in with the thrill-trill song of the birds and the bowing adoration of the paperwhites and irises as I prayed through Psalm 89.

Beforetime, the Lord formed the creation, establishing the order of things based on his character. His love for justice, care for the weak, and righteousness is grounded in the foundations of creation. He is King because he remains true to himself—true to the way he set up creation. In righteousness and justice, he deals in right relationships with all. This is the unchanging God we trust, whose throne is set on righteousness and justice.

Love and faithfulness go before him—even though we have rebelled against him, broken our “righteousness” with him, fallen far short of his justice and righteousness, he deals with us in love and faithfulness. It is his love and faithfulness that we first meet, that we first see. Only when we continue to reject his held-out hands do we feel his wrath.

Blessed—it is himself, his presence that blesses. It is only his presence that satisfies. This is the goal of our salvation, to see him and be in his presence. This is what Christ died for, so that we would be reconciled to God for the praise of his glory. How often we forget that awe, that we now in Christ can come before the Holy, Holy, Holy God! This is blessedness, and no other good gift short of that.

It is because we are with him that we can rejoice all day long—no matter what comes, no matter how we feel, there is cause for rejoicing because God is God and we, through Christ and in Christ and by Christ, can be in the light of the presence of the Lord God Almighty. We exult in his character, in his righteousness, for this provides the basis. We know he will not change, we know he will do righteousness because it is his character. This brings a joy that does not change in the whirlwinds of life.

Glory, strength, horn, shield—we are utterly, utterly dependent on him. He is the one who exalts and gives power and strength (1 Chron. 29:12; Ps. 68:35). Everything we depend on, take pride in, build our lives upon—our clothing, bread, security, shelter, victories, intelligence, talents, skills, gifts, power, strength, breath—all come from him. Our shield, our strength, belongs to the Lord. He is our glory—what we exalt in, take pride in, reflect.

O LORD. O KING.

POST SCRIPT

If you want something more to chew on, this is a theological attempted-reflection on justice and creation. My mind wanted to join in with the adoration of my heart.

Justice is linked with creation in that:

 1) It is the Lord’s design for the world based on his character—he is the Creator and therefore the world is based on his image. Creating as God, he has infused the world with his morals, order, and law based on his character as the standard and foundation (Ps. 119:89-91; Ps. 93). All that he does flows out of his character and who he is. 

 

2) Justice has been and will be his character since the beginning. 

 

3) Injustice is, simply, opposition against God—and when one is opposed to God, harm to other human beings will result (Ps. 10; Ps. 83).

 

4) Justice will be part of the restoration and fulfillment of the eschatological consummation of the Lord’s plan. As N. T. Wright says, “If you want to understand God’s justice in an unjust world, says the prophet [Isaiah], this [the ultimate redemption and consummation, specifically as described in Isaiah 61] is where you must look. God’s justice is not simply a blind dispensing of rewards for the virtuous and punishments for the wicked….God’s justice is a saving, healing, restorative justice, because the God to whom justice belongs is the Creator God who has yet to complete his original plan for creation and whose justice is not simply to restore balance to a world out of kilter but to bring glorious completion and fruition to creation” (N.T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, 64). He adds, “It is not enough to say that God will eventually make a new world in which there will be no more pain and crying; that does scant justice to all the evil that has gone before” (96).

 

Psalm 96 also links justice to creation: “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’ The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (Ps. 96:10-13; cf. Ps. 97).