I wrote a short little post the other day saying something about a verse that caught my eye during my devotions and said i would post about it... so here i am posting about it!!!
Psalms 37:6
"He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Honestly i was reading, but not taking in the meaning of anything in the first 5 verses of Psalms 37 and then out of the blue, this small sentence jumped off the page and slapped me and said, "pay attention!". So i started over at the beginning of Psalm 37 and these few verses is where i got stuck:
"Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes."
Let's just admit it, we all LOVE verse 4"...he will give you the desires of your heart." I remember a few years ago this was the verse that held my attention. I wanted the desires of my heart, but i stuggled with the idea that i could have them and they be what the Lord wanted. The basics of verse 4 and 5 are easy to understand. Delight in the Lord and Trust in Him. living it out is where we get distracted and scatter minded. Back to verse 6. Verse 6 had a flashing light and was calling out for more attention than the others. And for the last few days it has held my attention and snuck into my thoughts and dreams.
"He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Have you ever been awake at dawn? Better yet; have you been awake at dawn and seen the sun shine over a mountain hit the lake and seen the ducks fly away? The first light of morning is AMAZING!!! In the house i used to live in i had a window facing dead-east! Last summer was full of amazing sunrises hitting my face and telling me that the new day starts NOW! I enjoyed a lot of those sunrises hidden under my covers, my body begging for more sleep. No matter how tight i closed my eyes and how many blankets or pillows i covered my face with, the sun still snuck in!
What would the world around me look like if my righteousness shone like the dawn? I don't think of myself as a righteous person. I try to be right. I see Jesus' Righteousness and strive for it. However if i am committing my way to the Lord and trusting him; then i am pursuing righteousness. If the quality of those things were the shining around me i know i would see things differently. I would surely see people in a different way and i would most likely treat them in a different way. My righteousness needs to shine so bright that people around me want the pillow over their head or the shades drawn around me. I want them to look at me and say, "wow she is different." or "what is it that makes her life so different?".
Now the next part of the verse is the kicker. The Justice of My Cause... like the noonday sun! WOW. Here in Central Oregon the noonday sun can be very bright! What is the justice of my cause? What is my cause? If i have a cause is it just? If it is a just cause is it shining like the sun? How do i find the right cause? Justice? These are just a few of the questions swirling around in my head the past few days. I looked up this verse in a few commentaries and they didn't really help me out at all. I finally realized i do have a cause. It's the cause of Christ. Please don't zone out here and think i am going to be cliché. Not at all. We all are called to the cause of Christ... the trouble we have is mixing up what we want and what He wants for us. Some of us are called to that cause in Politics, some in Business, some in Entertainment, and still some in the church. Now here's where my mind doesn't quite get it all... the Justice of that cause. I know little pieces of why i am here and what God wants for my life. I know even more clearly what i am supposed to focus my cause on right now.... still the JUSTICE of that cause is what trips me up.
jus·tice [juhs-tis] Pronunciation Key –noun
1. the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause.
2. rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice.
3. the moral principle determining just conduct.
Wow.... this is from dictionary.com and it says it all. Check it out in the #1 the word righteousness is there... i think that's just neato. Are we taking what Christ has given us as a cause and making sure it is just? Or are we just holding it in our pocket and pulling it out for show? People who believe in a cause(or a new president) hold signs, mail card, buy adds, knock on doors, and make phone calls all for the sake of a "just cause". What are we doing with the cause Christ has trusted us with??? The light of the morning and the noonday sun. This is what it should be like. Both so bright. Justice and Righteousness in me compared to a BRIGHT SUN!!! I love that each of these verses bring us back to each other. They each hinge on the one above... try reading Psalm 37 backwards and you'll see what i mean. Try figuring out your cause... if it is in line... if it is His heart's desire alive in you. It will shine. You won't even know it's shining. It just will.
