Life Project Blog

I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, Lord, I will sing praise.
I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?

Psalm 101:1-2a

At first this may seem to be quite simple but look closely and you’ll see a hidden complexity that often confounds people. In the first line, we read of singing of God’s love and justice; an interesting combination. Consider for a moment His great and amazing love, so boundless, so unconditional. His love is so great that He was willing to do amazing things that we might be redeemed from our sins against Him. Yes indeed, contemplating God’s love is something we like to do. Yet in this line, we are singing of His love and justice.

Sometimes we think of justice as fairness, and that is true enough, yet we must admit that it is a little incomplete, for justice is more than just fairness, because when most people apply fairness to themselves, it ends up meaning whatever they want at the moment, forgetting all about what is fair to the other person. If we consider the totality of our sin against God, what is just or fair about redemption?

Nothing, nothing at all, and that is why it is grace.

Now we can see why singing of God’s love and justice together results in praise. Of course, when we see that God’s love resulted in His paying the price for our sin to satisfy His justice, resulting in grace, we sing praises, but the next line shows how we respond to His grace; we endeavor to lead blameless lives. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? We’ve received grace, so great was God’s love for us, so why wouldn’t we resolve to do the best we can to live lives that are pleasing to Him? This isn’t because of any rule or regulation, but it is the natural expression of our love and gratitude.

In the last line, David asked a question that we have the answer to, for He has come and He has left us with His Spirit by whom we can come into His presence any time we like; how is it that we should delay another moment entering into His presence with confidence and joy in our hearts to give Him the thanks and praise He has coming?

The sun is soon coming up and here at my kitchen table the coffee is fresh, and the day is young, but alas, my mind is flying all over the place. This seems to be one of those mornings when I start to wonder if anything in this world can be trusted. People seem to have lost touch with reality, down is up, right is wrong and wrong is right.

Or maybe I’m not quite awake yet, still half dreaming. Yes, maybe it’s just me.

Then it came to me…

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Psalm 1:1-3

Our world may have lost its grip, institutions may have slipped, injustice may seem to prevail all too often; logic itself may be under attack.

Whatever happened to those ‘good old days’?

Yet back in the good old days when the world seemed so much more sane than it does to me right now, my father longed for another set of good old days when things were sane. I remember saying to him one time, “Weren’t those good old days the Great Depression?”

OK, that didn’t go over all that well, as you might imagine. Of course, my good old days are the days of Vietnam, Watergate, stagflation…

Maybe it’s just a matter of perspective, who really knows?

There is one thing I do know for certain: No matter what this old world of ours is up to, God is trustworthy, faithful and true; we can always depend upon Him. We can choose to focus on everything we think is going badly, we can even choose to be part of the problems if we want to, but we can also make a better choice.

We can make a choice to focus on the things of God; we can choose to value our relationship with God and to be like that tree planted by streams of water. Yep, that’s what I will do this day, safe in the knowledge that whatever may come, He is my rock and my salvation.

Yes indeed, this is going to be a great Lord’s Day!

Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
    against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
    and throw off their shackles.”

Psalm 2: 1-3

Whether you follow the international scene closely, or if you prefer the study of history, these words are likely to sound familiar to you. It seems that the things that nations are doing today are at least as old as the Scriptures; there’s nothing new under the sun.

Yet the machinations of Men aren’t the only things going on out there:

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
    on Zion, my holy mountain.”

Psalm 2: 4-6

Although the kings and rulers of this earth feel pretty sure of themselves in their plots, schemes and pointless struggling and striving, they are being watched by Almighty God, who isn’t all that amused by their misdeeds. It would seem that He favors an altogether different King. Perhaps the next few verses will sound most familiar of all:

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
    today I have become your father.
Ask me,
    and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with a rod of iron;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

Psalm 2:7-9

In these verses, quoted by the Hebrews author, God is speaking to the King of kings and Lord of lords, who also happens to be God’s own Son. While these verses were prophetic when they were first written, we know that He, the Son, has indeed come. He reigns even now at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, heir to all things in the universe. We also know that we, His followers, are His co-heirs to everything, and that in the fullness of time, He will put an end to this fallen world and redeem all of Creation, putting away sin, rebellion, war, suffering, pain and tears. Every human will receive their just due, whether it is a positive or a negative reward: Justice will prevail in this universe― of that we can be certain.

What amazing promises we have; what great hope we possess. Hold on to this, and this will no doubt be a wonderful weekrnd.