BY GREG CRUM
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11
Psalm 84:11 is an amazing promise—the promise from God of every good thing to be given, but there is a condition to this promise. The only way to ensure the release of every good thing is to “walk uprightly.” Now, I know what some of you are thinking, “You had me until the condition, I was excited for a moment, but now I know it’s just a pipedream.” These are the shared thoughts of so many in regard to Psalm 84 that it sounds great but that they could never qualify. Why? Because they’ve realized that no man can walk “uprightly” before a Holy God! Well, they’re right, and they’re wrong.
It is true that we can never be justified before the Almighty based on our own works, the Bible is very clear on this matter, but thankfully, God’s judgment of us is no longer based on our own works! We are “right” with God, not based on our own merits, but based on the merits of another, and as unfair as that seems, it’s the only way we could ever hope to atone for our sinful thoughts and deeds. The New Testament Scriptures speak of a righteousness with God that man can enjoy, and the implications of that, how it happened, and why it matters is a knowledge that every Christian should hold dear.
When thinking about this matter, first, we need to understand that it is absolutely true that God is a Holy God, and He will not, no, cannot, tolerate sin in His presence. God is love, and He loves humanity, but He is also the Judge of the whole Universe and will judge every man according to their words, thoughts and deeds. Ever since God created man, He has always desired fellowship with mankind, but He can’t hang out with sin. So, unless we took care of the sin problem, there was no future with God for humanity. The big issue with this was that we (humanity) could never effectively take care of the sin problem! We needed to be made righteous, but we couldn’t do this on our own.
“Righteous”— the word is more than a slang term from a bygone era; it was the condition mankind needed to find itself in to communicate with a Holy God. Yet, what does it mean to be righteous? There are plenty of definitions of the word that you can find out there, including “that which has been deemed right so as to have force of law,” and “a judicial decision or sentence,” but for our context, I think the most applicable is “the favorable judgment by which God acquits man and declares them acceptable to Him.” This is what we needed to qualify for Psalm 84 (and John 3:16 and many other promises of the Word) but couldn’t produce on our own.
Brothers and sisters, that’s why Jesus stepped out of Glory and into this world to become the fulfillment of prophecy and to save all that would believe on his name! Romans 3:21-22 states it this way, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” II Corinthians 5:21 agrees with this truth as it declares that God “…made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Do you get it? Jesus became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus took care of the sin problem for all that would believe in his avenue of Salvation. He was the bridge that spanned the gulf between God and man, so now we can enjoy a real relationship with God and receive from Him the good things that He desires for us to have in this life.
Greg Crum is pastor of Calvary Temple Church in Lovely.