He will judge with equity

Psalm 97-98 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

97 The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; Let the many islands be glad.
² Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
³ Fire goes before Him And burns up His adversaries round about.
⁴ His lightnings lit up the world; The earth saw and trembled.
⁵ The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
⁶ The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory.

⁷ Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images,
Who boast themselves of idols; Worship Him, all you gods.
⁸ Zion heard this and was glad, And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced
Because of Your judgments, O Lord.
⁹ For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰ Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones;
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
¹¹ Light is sown like seed for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart.
¹² Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, And give thanks to His holy name.

A Call to Praise the Lord for His Righteousness.

98 O sing to the Lord a new song, For He has done wonderful things,
His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
² The Lord has made known His salvation;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.
⁵ Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of melody.
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the horn Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.

⁷ Let the sea roar and all it contains, The world and those who dwell in it.
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy
⁹ Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.

Today’s text begins saying:  The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice…Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. And ends:    He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.      The rest of these two psalms are primarily focused on praising God. Many people rather than praising God because He will judge the world and the peoples, reject Him. They are willing, at least they claim to be willing, to accept a god who loves unconditionally, but they think that love and judgment cannot coexist. In truth, they judge God. They judge Him according to their own standards, their own perception. They judge God based on their own inability to judge fairly. Part of human nature is that we are all prejudiced. Whether we will admit it or not, we all judge others and we all prejudge based on what we perceive. We don’t necessarily judge negatively, but we do judge. We determine whether someone is happy or sad by the way they look. We determine whether someone is rich or poor, by the way they dress or by what they drive. We judge their weight, their attractiveness, their parenting, all within a few minutes of seeing them.

Judgment is not a religious thing, it is a human thing. We wrongly judge God if we limit Him, believing He is like us. The psalmist says: God judges with equity. God is not concerned with our physical appearance, our height, our weight, the color of our skin, whether we drive a Rolls Royce or ride a bike. God says:  “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature …for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7) We think we judge a person’s heart based again on what we perceive, how they act, what they say etc. God judges a person’s heart based on what He knows. God is omniscient, He knows everything. He says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5) Here is what God knows: Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)    there is no distinction;  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23)    That is the reality, the truth about what God knows about us. It not unfair, we all begin in the same condition.

Still many people reject the notion that God would judge, because we know our own hearts and how unfairly we judge others. The psalmist says:  The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice… Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Rather than rejoicing though, many reject God as ruler and the one who reigns, foolishly thinking that by rejecting God’s authority, they will escape His righteous judgment. Because God is not like us, because He judges fairly, righteously, with equity, He made a way that we could all be judged equally. You see each person’s life is different, their circumstances are different. It would not be fair, equitable then to judge people based on their actions. Instead God says: “before you were born I consecrated you”    Because of His great love, His righteousness and His equitable judgment, before we were even born, before we were subject to the circumstances of our lives, God consecrated us. He did that by sending His Son, to be judged in our place.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) It was the only fair and equitable thing for God to do, to provide one way for all to be saved.

Jesus Himself says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) Many reject that as arrogant and unfair, to think that there is only one way to God. In truth though, it is the only fair and equitable way God could judge us all righteously, to judge us according to what Jesus did, dying on the cross for the sins of all people, rather than judging each one according to their own circumstances and actions. The psalmist says:   The Lord has made known His salvation. It’s not up to us to question and judge God. It’s not up to us to determine how He will fairly reveal Jesus to each person. That’s up to Him. We though can be certain that He will do it, He is not like we are. The psalmist says: Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.  Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of melody.  With trumpets and the sound of the horn Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.  Let the sea roar and all it contains, The world and those who dwell in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy
Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.     Revelation 19:2-6 says: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;  because His judgments are true and righteous… And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”  And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”  Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Thank You Lord God, that You reign and You judge with equity. You judge not according to what we have done, but rather by what Jesus did. Hallelujah!   Amen