This Psalm begins with the Psalmist stating what he’s singing about. Verse 1 says, “I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.” Loving kindness, mercy, and grace often seem at odds with Justice. I’m always wrestling with these two in how I relate to others and even to myself. I seem to be off balance most of the time. I usually don’t think so at the time. It’s only in reflection that I realize I’ve blown it again.
Do you struggle with this also? I’m afraid I’ll never get it right. Every time a major action is called for, I can look back and see how I could have improved on my response. I’m either too lenient, too critical, to severe, or just too non-caring. I don’t suppose I’ll ever get it right.
But I know someone who did. Jesus was the most perfectly balanced person in the world. The Bible attests to his perfection often. Peter says “he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.” Even his enemies had to acknowledge that truth. Pilate said “I find no fault in him.” John Piper describes Jesus’ life this way: It was a “life of perfectly balanced joy and sorrow, tenderness and toughness, justice and mercy, grief and anger, speech and silence, prayer and action. This life, of all the lives that have ever lived, was the most valuable life. It was the most worthy of living, the least worthy of dying.”
I’m overwhelmed when I realize that this perfectly balanced life is the life that was given to save me. Even when I try to do right, I fail. Yet, Jesus gave himself for me, the perfect for the imperfect.
I too will sing praises to you!
Chuck
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre.” (Psalm 92:1-3)