Lutheran Brethren Church of Nampa

Our text for today begins with the Hebrew letter, “Ayin.” Ayin is an interesting little letter. It’s a consonant that the English language doesn’t have in its alphabet, but it’s a consonant we use often. It’s the stop at the back of your throat when you begin a vowel sound, like how we begin words like, “after,” and, “item,” and, “every.” We do that stop in the back of our throats without even thinking about it, but Hebrew, and some other languages as well, have a letter for that. Here, it’s Ayin. And more importantly, the letter starts the phrase, “I have done justice.” See, even the word, “I,” starts with that sound! But the psalmist here starts by proclaiming that he has done justice, and adds on to that that he has done righteousness as well. And the reason he’s telling God this is because he sees injustice around him. Namely, that the arrogant are oppressing him. Despite doing what is just and right, he’s got people doing to him what is unjust and wrong. Seeing this, he does exactly what he should do: cry out for God to do what is just and right.

What is Justice

And so, what is this justice the psalmist is talking about? If we’re going to understand what’s going on here, we need to understand that word. And we really need to wrap up the ideas of justice and righteousness together, because they really are two sides of the same coin. Especially because justice and righteousness are inseparable attributes of God. Attributes that always go together.

Now, when we think about justice, probably the first thing to come to mind is a courtroom where a judge is hearing cases, punishing the guilty, and letting the innocent go free. And really, that’s a pretty good way to understand the idea of justice. But it’s even more active than that. For God – and we need to talk about God first before we talk about how we humans do justice – but for God, justice means that He is actively seeking to bring evildoers to their punishment and to reward those who do good. In that, justice is also about protection. In God’s courtroom, his justice is also concerned about those who are weak: widows, orphans, the poor, and the foreigners. Those are the big four that God’s word often talks about when He concerns himself with doing justice: widows, orphans, the poor, and the foreigners, because those are the ones who are most vulnerable. So justice not only includes making proper judgments, but also protecting those who need to be protected. And we do see this to a degree in our own justice system, don’t we? We apply punishments that are intended to serve as deterrents to people committing crimes, in the hope that people would be protected. Rulings have been made that allow police and others to step in to prevent crime, like when a cop pulls over a suspicious car in a known drug area. That’s all part of doing justice.

Now, when it comes to righteousness, this is where character comes it. It takes justice and widens its scope in order to also do what is best for a person. So, for God, righteousness also factors in attributes such as love, mercy, and long-suffering. If the character of God were such that He were only just, none of us would have the slightest chance. Your first sin would result in the earth opening up and swallowing you whole. Your first lie, your first act of disobedience, your first lustful thought, and God would immediately squash you like a bug. But justice is not the whole character of God. And since He loves His creation, he extends mercy, forestalling justice in the hope of repentance. He exercises long-suffering, being patient with the sinner in the hope that the sinner would come to know Him. Righteousness puts the good of a person first; exercising swift and terrible justice when necessary, no doubt, but righteousness seeks the healing and restoration of a person first and foremost.

And we’re called to do the same thing. We’re called to have in mind the character of God as we live out our lives on earth. We are both called and empowered to do justice on the earth. God has instituted and maintained the power structures here on earth that have the authority to punish evildoers and to reward those who do good. For example, at the beginning of Romans 4, we’re told that rulers have been appointed by God to bear the sword against those who do evil. Given that, those of us who are not in that kind of ruling authority are told not not oppose those who are because then we’re opposing the ordinance of God. But far from being only about governance, we’re also told to do justice in our own homes, raising children who are punished when they do wrong and rewarded when they do good. For example, Proverbs 13:4, that says whoever withholds the rod hates their son, but whoever loves his son disciplines him diligently.

And right there, you can see how the idea of righteousness blends right in. We’re called to do justice not simply because it’s good to punish evil and reward good, but because it’s good for the people who receive justice. Justice protects the people that evildoers would harm, and it punishes people for the sake of discipline, teaching them the harm of their ways and encouraging good instead.

Doing Justice

So, with that understood, let’s look at how exactly justice is done. As I mentioned a moment ago, God’s justice can be swift and terrible. In comparison, think about the worst thing that can be done to an evildoer by our own justice system. Depending on what you value most, the worst thing could be spending your entire life in prison. Or, it could be being put to death. For some people, one way the death penalty is carried out might be worse than another: electrocution, lethal injection, or firing squad. Whatever you think is the worst form of punishment, I guarantee God’s is worse. See, no matter what is done to a person here on earth, it’s being done to them on an earth that is still under the care and control of God. There is still a modicum of comfort and provision given to that evildoer. Not to mention, all of these punishments are temporary. But when God punishes, He removes Himself entirely from them. A person is left with no comfort and provision, in a place were the care and control of God doesn’t exist. Such a place is described in scripture as being a place where the fire does not go out and the worm doesn’t die. Where there is absolute darkness, non-stop torment, wailing, crying, grinding your teeth. And where here on earth the most we can do to a person is lock them up or put them to death, these things aren’t absolute and they aren’t eternal. God’s punishments are.

And, because justice includes rewarding those who do good, we see that as well. Now, in terms of our earthly, worldly way of rewarding people, these rewards might be things like money, or food, or honor. If you know me at all, you know that food is probably my favorite reward! So again, what would be the best reward someone could give you? Let’s say you did something just really fantastic and Trump calls you up and says, “Anything in my power to give, it’s yours.” What would it be? Enough money to retire in luxury today? A great house… swimming pool, indoor theater, game room, all of that? Maid services for life? Or best yet, a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport with the 8-liter, quad-turbo V16 cranking out 1,578 brake horse power. All of these things would be wonderful to receive, but just like earthly punishments, earthly rewards are temporary as well. Even if the money doesn’t run out, the house burns down, or you don’t wrap your Bugatti around a tree, you’re eventually going to die and leave it all behind. God’s idea of reward is eternal as well. For God to reward good, that means an eternity spent in His presence, separate from all the evil, disorder, and pain this broken and sinful world assaults us with. An eternity in nothing but pure peace and bliss. So, with that, we’re called to do justice with an eye to how God does justice. But only within the purview of the authority we have. Using the earthly methods we’re given, we can, and we should, punish evildoers and reward those who do good.

But just like I mentioned before, if justice were our only concern, we’d be missing the point. Think of it this way. No, think of it how the psalmist here is thinking about it. Why are the arrogant oppressing him? Why are evildoers allowed to continue doing evil while the psalmist, who is seeking to do good, is not enjoying his reward? For the time being, we’ll put aside the fact that the psalmist hasn’t actually done justice and righteousness perfectly and deserves punishment as well. That’s important, but we’ll get to that in a minute. But same for you. Why are those who do evil able to continue doing evil? And why are those who do good often the ones who suffer? It is because God is not doing justice alone, but righteousness as well. See, for the evildoer, justice, again, would be God’s immediate and eternal punishment for their sin. He has no only the right to do that, but the ability as well. Why doesn’t He do it? Because God, in His righteousness, would rather not punish the evildoers, but would rather turn them into people who do good so that He can reward them instead. It is not God’s desire to punish, but to reward. He will punish – being just means that he absolutely will punish evildoers – but that is not His desire. His desire is that all would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. So for God, doing justice is allowing evildoers to continue existing so that they would hopefully do good instead.

And why do those who do good continue to suffer? Well, that answer comes from a number of different angles. Remember that when God rewards, its an eternal reward. So for those who do good, that reward will come. It just won’t be during this temporary life. But God will allow someone to do good so that His own goodness would be made manifest to the world. It’s one of the way God cares and provides for this broken world of our: through the good works that people do. And especially, someone who is doing good for the sake of God, knowing that their reward is in heaven, they will continue to do good despite how people treat them, because they’re not looking for an earthly reward, but a heavenly one. The temporary, earthly things don’t matter. The eternal, heavenly things do. And along those same lines, those who do good get afflicted by the evil in this world so that the brokenness of this world would not be forgotten. I mean, how easy would it be to forget God and fall in love with the world instead if everything always went well and nobody ever hated you? Suffering, instead, has a way of turning our eyes away from the world and back onto God, which is exactly what He wants for us.

God’s Justice

But there’s an element of God’s Justice we haven’t touched on yet. And this is where we need to talk about the psalmist’s shortcomings. See, if the psalmist really had done justice and righteousness perfectly, all of his life, well he wouldn’t have to be asking God to teach him His statutes, or asking him for understanding. He wouldn’t be longing for salvation and for God’s righteous word. He wouldn’t need any of that because he’s already got it all figured out. Instead, what scripture says about there being no one who does good, that all have sinned, and all of that – those apply to the psalmist as well. Despite him earnestly seeking to do justice and righteousness, despite succeeding in doing so, maybe even often, his justice and his righteousness has not always been in perfect alignment with God’s justice and righteousness. Because of that, he is no better off than the arrogant who oppress him, at least in an eternal sense. Sure, it may be unfair that he’s being oppressed despite trying his best to do good, but he deserves God’s swift and terrible punishment as much as anyone. And we’re in the same boat. No matter how earnestly and consistently you’ve tried to do justice and righteousness in this world, you still have sin, and plenty of it, meaning that you have likewise earned God swift and terrible punishment. And yet, here you are. Alive and well. Why didn’t the earth open up and swallow you whole the first time you sinned? Because of God’s righteousness, that desired your salvation over and above your punishment. And praise God for that.

But there’s a problem there in that if God is truly just, He will punish you nonetheless. It doesn’t matter how long-suffering and merciful God is, His justice demands your punishment. So where does our hope come from? The key to the intersection of God’s Justice and God’s Righteousness comes to us from verse 122 here: “Be surety for Your servant for good.” Be surety for Your servant for good. What does that mean? Well, surety is something that stands in your place and pays a debt for you when you can’t. Think of it like a co-signer on a car loan. If you’re young or you have bad credit, the bank may ask someone to co-sign your loan with you so that if you don’t make the payments the other person becomes responsible for those payments instead. So when the psalmist asks God to be surety for him, He’s asking God to take on the debt of his sin for him. He’s asking God to pay the price of death and hell for him.

And guess what? That’s exactly who Jesus Christ is. He is our surety. He is the one who paid the price of sin – death and hell – for us. This is how God is able to be perfectly just – how He is able to do perfect justice – without condemning sinners like you and me to an eternity in hell. He Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, came and because surety for us. He became sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That’s 2nd Corinthans 5:21. But in the context of God’s justice, nowhere in scripture is the intersection of God’s justice and righteousness made more clear than in Romans 3:23-26. Listen to this: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” ok, see, we’ve already talked about that. We’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which means we are evildoers deserving God’s punishment. But let’s get the whole thing here: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation bin His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Did you hear that? Just and Justifier. That’s who God is. God takes his own justice and does what nobody would expect: He fulfills his own justice through his own work. So that rather than simply ignoring justice, becoming unjust by not punishing sinners, he becomes just in the extreme, laying the fullness of His own justice on His own son. All so that us evildoers would indeed be turned into people who do good, people he can reward for eternity.

And how do you receive this perfectly just, not-guilty verdict from God’s courtroom? That’s right: faith alone. Since it’s all been done by God, there’s nothing left for you to do. God simply asks that you take Him at His word. Praise be to God, who is just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Let’s pray…