July 2, 2023 Bible Study — For Those Who Fear the Lord, His Judgement Is Cause for Joy

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 98-104.

The psalmist calls on us to sing to the Lord because of the marvelous things He has done.  In fact, he calls on all creation to sing and praise the Lord because He comes in judgement.  Now here’s an interesting thing.  Reading other parts of the Old Testament we see them prophesying God’s terrible, and terrifying, judgement upon our society for its many sins.  Yet, the psalmist writes that we, and all the earth, should joyfully praise God because His judgement is coming.  The psalmist sings of God’s love and His justice.  God is good and His love for those who fear Him endures forever.  God reigns and He has established equity.

This was not the first time the psalmist referred to God establishing equity, and since that word is used a lot in today’s world I wanted to look at what the psalmist means.  Most people today who use the word equity mean “equality of outcomes” when they use the word, but that is not what it means.  Equity means things being just and fair.  Which makes it hard to see how God has established equity, because the world around us often seems unfair.  So, let us look at some of the other things the psalmist says in today’s psalms.  He said that he would conduct the affairs of his house with a blameless heart, and would not look with approval on anything vile.  How many of us can truly say that we have lived up to that standard?  Do we even aspire to doing so?  He also said that he would have no part in what faithless people do, and have nothing to do with what is evil.  Do we do business with people we know do evil because they offer us the cheapest product?  Do we follow the psalmist’s advice to look for the faithful in the land and spend our time, and money, with them?  God will respond to the prayer of the destitute, and will bring about equity.  If we strive to do the things which I just pointed out, then we too will rejoice to see God’s judgement coming.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.