Friday, June 10: Psalm 101- Love and Justice.

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?

I will conduct the affairs of my house

with a blameless heart (1-2).

Love and justice… I was struck by this pair. God’s love garners lots of thought. People sing of it and preach on it. God’s love carries me through many difficult times. It is wonderful to ponder and consider the love of the Almighty, especially the love of the Almighty toward me.

Justice, however, is a different attribute. Far less frequently does it make it into verse or sermon. And I know that I am not as quick to meditate on God’s justice.

And yet, the Psalmist loads his prayer with these two rounds… love and justice.

This is a good reminder for me to remain balanced in my meditations on God. Yes, God is love but He is also justice. Holding the two keeps me from tipping to extremes in either direction.

In this Psalm, thoughts of God’s love and justice lead followed immediately by the Psalmists’ pledge to live a blameless life. This theme is developed throughout the remainder of the Psalm.

Maybe it was love for God that led him to lead a blameless life.  Maybe it was the recognition of God’s justice that caused the Psalmist to lead a blameless life. I suspect that the latter is more probable than the former. But the longer I sit with this thought the more I think it is the balance of the two that motivates the Psalmist to lead a blameless life.

Love is a great motivator, but sin can push love into realms of carelessness and laziness. Oh, God will still love me if I do xyz…”

And justice can put the fear of God in us, but living a life constantly looking over our shoulder for the cop is anything but a life of care and love.

But when the two are in balance, knowing God is always there for me but God also desires me to live righteously.  There is desire and commitment to live rightly.

Well, today I will set myself in balance and ponder both God’s love and justice, and God’s justice and love. And my prayer is that as I do I will live righteously in my world. 

Oh, God, may my life honor You this day and every day of my life. I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart.  Though Jesus, I pray. Amen.

 

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