Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
I have noticed the trend to throw away relationships. It seems that love doesn’t last, like the fading aroma of a freshly baked apple pie, it fades once it is baked. The smell is wonderful and filled with life, but then it seems to dissipate as it extends around the house. One of the old realtor tricks is to bake a store-bought apple pie before an open house to fill the house with ‘home’ aromas.
Relationships can often heat up fairly rapidly, but then seem to suddenly fade without much warning. People seem to be surprised when there is the announcement that they have “fallen out of love” or “no longer love you.” What we find out later is that there has been a breach in faithfulness. Conversations that should have happened between the partners happened with outside parties leading to the breach in trust.
In our Psalm, the love and faithfulness of the LORD is a repeated theme. He has a loyal love for His people. He never wavers in that commitment to us. His attentions never move to another. This loyal love is summed up in the covenants, the promises He has made with His people. His character is connected to His covenants which are sustained by His loyal love and His faithfulness.
Our text has two pairs of words that are frequent bedfellows in the text of Scripture. Righteousness and justice form the bedrock on which His reign is characterized. And it is His love and faithfulness that the world sees. They are the outworking of His righteousness and justice.
But this is not what I would expect when I read about righteousness and justice. I expect lightning bolts and a split earth policy proposal. When standards are written down, I think about the penalty for not upholding those standards. I think punishment.
But the Psalmist pairs love and faithfulness with this foundation. This does not seem to fit. But that is probably because my love and faithfulness are not so loving and not so faithful as the LORD’s. My love and faithfulness tend toward breakage. Like hot glass that is pulled to create long thin stings of glass, my love gets stretched too far and is easily shattered by the smallest pressures.
The LORD’s love can never be stretched to the point of breaking. His loyal love is coupled with faithfulness. He will never betray that love. He made covenants with us to demonstrate that faithfulness. And He demonstrated it repeatedly down through history.
But more than that, He put on flesh and connected with us in a way that prevents rupture from His side of the relationship. He will never have a flirtatious glance or secret conversation. He is righteous and just. He can’t violate His own nature.
So, as you relate to those around you, take notice of your own internal dialogue. Is it governed by righteousness and justice? Is the outworking of that righteousness and justice evident in the way your loyal love and faithfulness get expressed?
I know mine isn’t always so. How about you?
The Arnold Journey 