Bible in 90, Day 10: Purity and the New Temple

Leviticus 27-Numbers 8

Originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 39: Let God arise!

Psalms 1-24

*image courtesy of melisbfly at www.sxc.hu

Did you catch it?  Over and over again in our reading today, a word kept popping up.  I thought I knew exactly what I was going to write about after the first psalm today, but then I heard it.  I kept hearing it.  This word kept finding its way into the text.

Arise.

The writers (David mostly) kept calling upon God to arise (Psalm 3:7, 7:6, 9:19, 10:12, 12:5, 17:13).

).  What exactly does this mean?  Often in the Scriptures, when we “see” God, He is seated on His throne as we’ve discussed before.  Now, when a great king rises up out of his throne, you can bet something interesting is about to happen!  When the King of the Universe rises up out of His throne, the whole of creation pays attention.  David calls upon God to rise up against His enemies on behalf of His people.

Sometimes people have trouble with these psalms.  They are called imprecatory passages, passages where someone calls upon God to deliver judgment on someone else.  The problem some people have is that it doesn’t seem to match up with the God of love that they picture.  But if you read your Bible (and that’s what we’re doing these 3 months!), you discover a different picture of God.  He is a God of judgment as well as love.  He is a God of wrath as well as mercy.  In fact, one of God’s essential attributes, one that is discussed uniquely in the Bible might surprise you.

Holy, holy, holy.

God is holy above all else.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God is love, love, love; or grace, grace, grace; or peace, peace, peace.  The only adjective used in this way is “holy.”  God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and His love is a holy love.  God gives grace (Proverbs 3:24, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5), and does so in a holy manner.  God’s chief attribute is His holiness.

God’s holiness includes His hatred of sin and injustice.  Because of this, He judges sin and sinners.  Peter warns us against forgetting or denying God’s judgment (2 Peter 3:3-9).  He reminds us that God’s judgment will come, and it will be fierce.  God is a just God.  In the end, all the accounts will be settled, and things will be made right again.

This is why I don’t have a problem with David’s words.  We as Christians are supposed to pray for our enemies and bless those who curse us.  However, David appeals to the justice of God, and this is okay.  We should always pray for sinners to be saved, but we do so understanding that those who do not accept Jesus are rightfully condemned and judged (as would we be if we did not accept Jesus).  God is a God who judges sin and corrects injustice.

The good news is that God is also a God who saves.  While we all deserve the wrath of God because of our sin, Jesus died in our place to pay the penalty for us (Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 2:24; John 3:16-17).  But, rest assured that one day God will arise in judgment.  He will set the record straight.

Let God arise!

*originally at Words of Reason