Your Righteousness is Righteous Forever

Psalm 119:137-144 – Tsadhe
137Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules.
138You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.
139My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.
140Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.
141I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.
142Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.
143Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.
144Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.

Today we ponder the all-consuming righteousness of God. How often do we take a moment to consider that He is perfect in His holiness, completely righteous at all times? Never has He made a mistake or lost focus. While God may be well acquainted with our sin, He knows none of His own, for His righteousness is righteous forever.

As I was researching this portion of Psalm 119, I stumbled across some ancient rabbinic tradition connected to the Hebrew letter used as the acrostic for this stanza. Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) maintained that God created the world by beginning with an act of voluntary withdrawal or contraction in order to make room for His creation. He “humbled Himself” so that there was room for us and all of His creation. His righteousness is so all-consuming concession had to be made so that we (and the rest of creation) could exist. That’s amazing and fascinating.

While recognizing God’s perfect righteousness, the psalmist is also painfully honest about the fact that he is small and despised (not by God but by his foes) and experiences trouble and anguish. Again, we find the perfect juxtaposition of God and His fallen creation. He is righteous and we are most definitely not. Yet His righteousness and His perfect love demanded that He fix our mess, which He did through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. His perfect righteousness is now ours and we join the psalmist in asking that He give us understanding that we may live.

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