“He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Ps 24:5 AV)
If you could ask and receive anything from the LORD, what would it be? Would it be enough riches to satisfy all needs and desires? Would it be success in the goals of life? Would it be a spouse or children? Grandchildren? Health? Wisdom? What would it be? Verses three and four reveal the key to residing in the presence of God. Our verse above reveals the cause for desiring that presence. We key in on the first reason. Blessing. We all want the LORD to bless us. We want all those things listed above. But what if the LORD said you must prioritize blessing and righteousness? Which would come first? What if the absence of blessing, which would be a blessing in itself, brought righteousness? Would we still desire righteousness more than blessing? What is it we want most of all from a God who can give us the desires of our heart?
Note in particular that righteousness is received. By nature, we are not righteous. We are wicked. Thanks to our first parents, we were born with a predisposition to sin. That is our natural desire. It is not that we are completely incapable of doing the right thing. God holds all souls accountable for the choices they make. Only if we were free to make those decisions would we then be made accountable. It is just that we prefer, overwhelmingly, to choose the wrong thing. Therefore, for righteousness to come, it must come from God. By nature, it cannot come from us. This is accomplished in different ways. The first and most obvious is the offering of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ died for our sins, and we accepted Him as our offering for that sin, the Father gave to us the righteousness of Jesus and gave to Jesus our wickedness. When the Father looks upon those who have trusted Christ, He sees us as holy and as righteous as His own Son!
But we often forget that practical righteousness is given with equal grace as saving righteousness. We participate in saving grace by forsaking (repenting) of our sin and trusting by faith that Jesus paid our debt. It isn’t that much different once we are a child of God. To live in divinely granted righteousness, we must forsake our sin and trust the LORD to lead us into righteousness. Living righteously in our own strength and devices is just as impossible as saving ourselves from sin by living in righteousness. We simply do not have the ability. It is something God does for us and through us. Righteousness is a gift given by grace. Righteousness for salvation, and righteousness for living. If that is the case, I will pose the question again. What is the most important desire of your heart? If we hate sin as we say we do, then righteousness should be at the top of the list. The previous two verses mention the manner in which someone gains audience with God. It is by righteousness. If we want the presence of God, being right and living right is the highest standard. Yet is there something higher than simply living right? I believe so.
The child of God, if he truly does love God, seeks to please Him. The motive for righteousness isn’t a sense of self-worth. It is not to escape the guilt or embarrassment of failure. The purest motive for seeking righteousness is that we might please the Father by being so. Desiring righteousness should be the highest aspiration in the heart of God. The greatest of all motives should be to who appreciation for the Father and express the deepest level of love. Righteousness. No greater possession can a soul have than the permanent state of perfect holiness. All other blessings aside, Christlikeness is the greatest of all. That is for what David wished. It was not the kingdom. It was not many wives. It was not children. It was not wealth or health. What David wanted the most was to possess and live in the righteousness of almighty God.
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