God's Love Is Fair

Psalms 103 : 6
The Lord performs righteous deeds,
And judgments for all who are oppressed.

The purest application of hate is to ignore. The writer of Psalms confronts us with his belief that the Lord God of Israel loves his people because He takes righteous, good or supportive actions. This writer, probably David, is reflecting on the history of his people who were nurtured from a call to one man into a Kingdom. At just the right moments, God would prove His love and care for Israel by taking righteous action.

The question should be asked of this verse, does this hope for God's actions have a broader focus than national borders? Most readers through the centuries have assumed that this Lord was taking righteous action for them as well. Even today this verse ignites a hope for the future in times of trouble all around the world. Believers in every culture have been rewarded by experiencing this Lord’s supportive action.

“The Lord” (v. 1.) is an approximation designation for the one awesome, all powerful presence in the world. A presence whose name in Hebrew was so respected that it wasn’t to be uttered verbally. This name is used most frequently in the prophetic traditions where the ways of man are subject to the will, the plan and the judgments of this presence. The beginning parables use another Hebrew name for God but when the divine creative activity turns to the human form, the name used is “Lord”.

The biblical revelation is that the Lord operates and has authority first with individuals, then through tribe or national identity and finally amongst all of humanity. Perk up world, the Lord has been taking action through the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth, the prophet Samuel, King Saul, King David, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus King of Prussia, Nehemiah, Ezra the Priest, Esther, Job, the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, etc., etc. Jesus of Nazareth, the named disciples and those unnamed, St. Peter, St. Paul, and John the Beloved. The list goes on and on through the post resurrection millennia to this very day.

The recorded persons influenced are eclectic and diverse. The Psalmist uses the little word “all” to describe this gathering. What does he mean by all? Go to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance where you will find approximately 3500 uses of the word “all” through David’s writings, almost 6000 are in the entire biblical record. It appears that “all” means “all”. The Lord works great deeds on behalf of individuals but His intentions are to prove himself to “all”. The biblical record has been gifted to us to validate that fact, the ever widening influence of the “Lord”.

This amateur theologian is supportive of those few voices that extend divine influence to a universalist definition. All of human kind is in the process of accepting by faith the presence of the Lord God of all time and all space. Death is but a visible marker for this reality beyond which the Love of God will have other expressions, new opportunities to accept His influence. This is the best definition of Love generated by an all powerful big God.

The activity of God, His Love, is for “the oppressed“. Jesus preferred to use the word picture of a burden carried on an ass. Life is replete with a host of burdens; loss, isolation, starvation, violence, greed, rejection, disease, prejudice, poverty, hatred and death itself. The beginning parables describe these troubles as the deserved “curse” of all our lives lived in ignorance of God's Love.

We can make the choice to accept by faith the love of the Lord yet the troubles remain. The difference is that now we experience His escort through the entanglements of this world of woe. Having made the choice for the love of the Lord, these troubles will mellow or dissipate in the next reality, we hope.

The really good news is that even beyond the grave new opportunities for all men to choose aright may be given.

Is this not fair?

G.Goslaw