Hear
me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was
in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
Psalm 4:1 Modern English Version (MEV)
There is an extremely important distinction that I hope most, if not all, Christians know about, even if we don't fully understand it all. God, the True God, is the Righteous One or, we might more properly translate, he is the Faithful One. He is the One, the only One, who can truly be said to be righteous, faithful and just. However, because we are in Christ, in God, and He is in us, His righteousness becomes our righteousness. Did you get that distinction? By ourselves we have no claim to righteousness, but as Christians we are clothed in His righteousness, which has become our righteousness. If this doesn't have us dancing with joyous abandon as David did before the Ark, then we are probably in desperate need of a defibrillator.
There is another point we need to make about this idea of righteousness. Most often, when we think of righteousness, we think of something along the lines of holiness, or even some sort of perfection, and while there are hints of such a meaning in the word, that isn't the full intent. Righteousness, God's righteousness, carries an idea that is closer to justice. God is justice and he gives us justice which, when we think of righteousness in those terms, it provides us with a much deeper understanding of what the Psalmist is referring to.
Psalm 4:1 Modern English Version (MEV)
There is an extremely important distinction that I hope most, if not all, Christians know about, even if we don't fully understand it all. God, the True God, is the Righteous One or, we might more properly translate, he is the Faithful One. He is the One, the only One, who can truly be said to be righteous, faithful and just. However, because we are in Christ, in God, and He is in us, His righteousness becomes our righteousness. Did you get that distinction? By ourselves we have no claim to righteousness, but as Christians we are clothed in His righteousness, which has become our righteousness. If this doesn't have us dancing with joyous abandon as David did before the Ark, then we are probably in desperate need of a defibrillator.
There is another point we need to make about this idea of righteousness. Most often, when we think of righteousness, we think of something along the lines of holiness, or even some sort of perfection, and while there are hints of such a meaning in the word, that isn't the full intent. Righteousness, God's righteousness, carries an idea that is closer to justice. God is justice and he gives us justice which, when we think of righteousness in those terms, it provides us with a much deeper understanding of what the Psalmist is referring to.
No comments:
Post a Comment