Getting Up

 June 24, 2021

For many reasons, Psalm 37 is one of my favorites, but its division of mankind into wicked and righteous bothers me. I don’t like to think of myself as wicked, but I hardly can claim to be righteous. The psalm doesn’t answer my dilemma; I have to look elsewhere, and fortunately, I find the answer in Jesus Christ. Having no righteousness of my own, my only hope is the righteousness of Christ credited to me when I placed my faith in his sacrificial death on the cross. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans is the foundation for my hope; the fourth chapter spells it out: our faith is credited to us as righteousness. When according to Ephesians 6 I put on the armor of God, every piece is a description of Christ, including the breastplate of righteousness.

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.”  —Psalms 37:23-24 

Being a righteous person is not the same as being perfect. This psalm makes this perfectly clear. The righteous or good person can (and probably will) fall, but will not be utterly cast down. In other words, through the grace of God, he gets back up. It’s like when Peter was walking on water and began to sink—Jesus reached out his hand, and Peter took hold of it. Tonight I am thankful that whenever I have fallen, God doesn’t let me stay there. He upholds me with his hand, enabling me to get back on my feet.