Psalm 119:144 Righteous Understanding

Your statutes are always righteous;
give me understanding that I may live.

Psalm 119:144

Which statutes do I strip clean of their righteousness?

The statutes of God don't stand on their own, a bare set of words and phrases connected together.

When you dissect and analyze the scriptures, do you dive deep into the definition and historical usage of the words? Diagram the sentences and the relationship between phrases? Great!

But are you ignoring the statutes' roots in the righteous character of God? Are you failing to place the context in the righteous history of God at work in the world? Not great.

When you study the last half of Romans chapter one, do you get lost in the list of sins, building a systematic doctrine of right and wrong? There's certainly a place for understanding what each of those sinful acts means. But if that's all you do, they can become nothing more than bricks in your personal wall of  religious opinions.

Look more closely at those verses in Romans 1. Search for the heart of God in what Paul is saying. See how that list is a reflection of God's righteousness, both his wrath against sin and his compassion and patience toward people.

These verses are not so much about a list of forbidden acts, but instead a description of a God who has revealed himself to us at many times in various ways (Hebrews 1:1), only to be willfully ignored. It's the story of a God who step by step gives people up to go their own way, hoping their deepening mess will jolt them into awakening from their self-imposed ignorance and will turn them back toward him. If they continue to run away from him, he finally lets them go all the way.

When you encounter people who have depraved minds, so depraved they do what ought not to be done, people who have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity, ones who are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice, are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, people who invent ways of doing evil, who disobey their parents and have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy ... how do you respond?

With judgment only? Or also with compassion and patience? Is your reaction limited to the wrathful side of God's righteousness? Or do you seek out ways to righteously show compassion and build bridges of reconciliation?