Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Psalm 119:39

"Turn away my reproach which I dread,
for Your judgments are good."

and verse 52
"I remembered Your judments of old, O Lord,
and have comforted myself."

and verse 62
"At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
because of Your righteous judgments."

Is this the judgment of a God of wrath who's waiting to zot transgressors? Or is this the judgment which Jesus talked about to His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed?
"And when the Holy Spirit has come,
He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
of righteousness, because I go to My Father;
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."

"The Lord's judgments are good" (119:39). Is this comfort to a sinner (119:52) and cause for a sinner to give thanks (119:62)?

Only if the sinner believes what Jesus said in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday. Only if the sinner knows that a God of love poured out His judgment against sin onto His Son, His only Son whom He loved. Only if the sinner knows that the judgment is that Satan's power has been defeated because God's Law (the power he had over sinners) has been fulfilled in Christ's death for the unlovely.

God's judgments are good and comforting and a cause for thanksgiving
only if we believe the judgment is the judgment of innocence declared in the confessional: "I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

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