Faithbase

Psalms 23 verse 6, David says, surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow me all the days of my life. Now that word surely right there is not a question of whether or not it's going to happen, it's a statement of faith. David is saying that the Lord is going to bring two things into his life constantly. The first thing he says is goodness, and another word for that is righteousness. Now David finds out in 2 Samuel after he sins with Bathsheba and kills Uriah and commits all these sins that the righteousness of God can be both a positive and in our view sometimes a negative, but that negative in our view is actually not a negative, what it is, it's discipline. That the righteousness of God is designed to keep us on the right path, to make sure that we stay in a right relationship with him, and when we're living lives of obedience that the goodness or righteousness of God is a blessing towards us, and when we get off the path as David did in 2 Samuel chapter 11, the righteousness of God brings us back. So again, sometimes it feels like a negative because when we're being punished or chastised as Hebrew says, it feels negative, but it's not negative, it's a positive, and David is saying I am confident, surely I know that God's righteousness and loving-kindness, that word actually means his mercy, and mercy is when we don't get something we do deserve, that God and his mercy doesn't give us the punishment that we deserve for our sin, and David said God constantly lavishes both his grace and his mercy. Grace is getting something we don't deserve and mercy is not getting something we do deserve, and the cross is all about both those things. The cross is all about the righteousness of God being taken upon Jesus and then imputed to us so we could be his family. You can go back and look at our study of Romans chapter 8, but it's also about his mercy, that the punishment that Jesus took on the cross was actually meant for us, but because of his loving-kindness, because of his mercy, because of his righteousness, because of his grace, he took those things for us. So I want to encourage you today, don't forget about the righteousness of God that keeps us on track, the loving-kindness mercy of God that doesn't give us the things that we do deserve sometimes, because God loves us, and let's live a life today of gratitude back towards him by serving somebody else, by showing somebody else mercy, by showing somebody else grace today. Listen, if I can do anything for you, shoot me a message, let me know. God bless, have a great day.