A Rule of Law and Justice
Psalm 93:1–5
Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days, O Lord. Psalm 93:5 (NIV)
Psalm 93 closes with two characteristics of God’s kingly rule: it is a kingdom of law and it is a kingdom of holiness or justice.
1. A rule of law. God’s rule is a rule of power. It is also a rule of law, which is what the important word “statutes” in verse 5 refers to. God’s statutes are his decrees, above all his laws. What this means is that God rules his people by his Word. By reminding us that the statutes of God “stand firm,” like the world and even the throne of God itself, the psalmist is saying that those of us who profess to know God and confess him as our God must know and obey his statutes too—if we would be actually ruled by him. Let me put it another way. The Lord Jesus Christ rules his church by guiding its destiny sovereignly, of course. But the way he specifically rules his people within his church is by the teaching of the Scriptures. It is there that we learn what he would have us do and what he would have us be. We cannot claim to be ruled by Jesus Christ unless we know what he has told us to do in the Bible and are doing it.
2. A rule of justice. There are two obvious ways that human rule can be perverted. It can be by the whim of those in power and not by law. Or even if it is by law, it can be by unjust laws that exist only to legitimize the oppression of the weak by those more powerful. God is guilty of neither of these perversions. First, his rule is by law. Second, it is according to holiness or justice, for the law of God is perfectly upright, which is what the last sentence of the psalm asserts: “Holiness adorns your house for endless days, O Lord” (NIV).
Everything associated with God is holy, from which it follows that we must be holy too. If we are not holy, how can we adorn the house of God? We cannot! We do the very opposite. We dishonor it—and the God we profess to serve. If we strive to live holy lives, as we must, then we honor God and prove that he is indeed ruling us as his holy people. Peter wrote, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.