Tuesday 29 June 2010

Background

"Righteous" is one of those 'religious' words that we often findin hymns, prayers and, of course, the Bible. In Christian languageit has come to have all kinds of complicated meanings to do with anindividual's status before God (such as "being declared righteousthrough faith"). But in the Bible it tended to have a much simplermeaning. The righteous do what is right, rather than what is wrong.God is righteous, because God does what is right. God's people arecalled to be righteous.

So, therefore, the 'unrighteous' are "the wicked" and "evildoers".And for the purposes of this psalm, the wicked are those who don'tlive in Judea or worship in Jerusalem.

This psalm or Song of Ascents would have been sung by processionsgoing up to the Temple in Jerusalem, reminding the people that Godwas protecting them from their enemies. The northern kingdom ofIsrael, with its wicked kings, may have fallen to its enemies, butJudah was secure. Other tribes may have "turned aside to their owncrooked ways" and as a result been led "away with evildoers", butGod would "do good ... to those who are good" and who are "uprightin their hearts". At least, that was the theory.

While the north suffered and the south flourished, this simpletheology served Judah well and encouraged people to do what wasright. That happy situation was not to last, though: 125 yearsafter the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians,Judah was to suffer a similar - even a worse - fate at the hands ofthe Babylonians. Doing the right thing is certainly what Godrequires of God's people, but it's no guarantee that nothing badwill ever happen to them.

To Ponder

Righteous means 'doing what is right'. Do youagree? Why?

How can those who know they are righteous avoidseeming smug?

How do we explain why God does not always seem todo good to those who are good?