January 27, 2022 -- Psalm 72:1-4 -- Grappling with justice and righteousness

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Give the king your justice, O God,
     and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he judge your people with righteousness,
     and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
     and the hills, in righteousness!
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
    give deliverance to the children of the needy,
    and crush the oppressor!
Psalm 72:1-4 ESV

There is a beautiful interplay between the words justice and righteousness. Both of these are covenant words. Both of these are important terms for the Christian, however, justice seems for many to be the default word and priority. David Griffin, in his reflection on justice and righteousness, gives a number of reasons why so many in the church opt for justice, rather than righteousness.

1: It gets the church a seat at the table of public engagement. Bishops can argue for justice for the poor with governments, but not for greater righteousness.

2: It functions as a ‘natural law’ equivalent: that is, it functions as a universal form of moral language that enables all religious and secular people to talk meaningfully to each other.

3: It is popular amongst educated millennials in their fight against exploitation and oppression of people in the two-thirds world. It has a ‘cool factor’.

4: There is disenchantment with excessive inward piety or personal righteousness.

5: It has no ‘wowser’ factor like the word ‘righteousness’. [Note: Wowser is an acronym for We Only Want Social Evils Removed. Perhaps if we put ‘injustice’ instead of ‘evils’, getting Wowsir, we might be onto something? No?]
Justice and righteousness - Ethos

Notice in Psalm 72 how justice and righteousness are intertwined. They belong together. There can be no true justice without reference to the righteousness which the LORD of Heaven and Earth requires of His people. The Father in heaven has declared that the believer who is in Christ, is no longer guilty. His justice has been satisfied. That is where many people would like to stop. However, how then should the believer live? In true righteousness—setting aside sin and choosing the path to God. Righteousness is a joy for the one who is in Christ—just as a man deeply in love his wife will set aside all temptations and lusts which do not honour his bride, so a Christian will joyfully set aside all temptations and lusts to sin which do not honour Jesus, the Bridegroom and Captain of Salvation.

Fellow Christian, give thanks to God for His great justice and righteousness, and live out loud in this world as those carrying forward justice and righteousness.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
   Who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be His glorious Name forever;
   may the whole earth be filled with His glory!
             Amen and Amen!
Psalm 72:18-19

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