We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death,

in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father,

we too might walk in newness of life.

Healed marriage – New Life in Christ – New life in her womb.

Looking at Psalm 140 this past Sunday we saw, again, that there are no perfect people – none are all-righteous. To say it like the Bible does in Romans, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God.” (This same theme is also found in Psalms 14, 53, 5, 10, and 36).

Now when we looked at Psalm 140 however, this may not have seemed to be the case. Psalm 140 is a cry of David to be delivered from evil men – not a cry that he is an evil man. So, when we get to verse 13, “surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence,” we might exclaim with David, “Thank you God that I am not like the people I see on the 10:00 news!” (Is news still on at 10:00? With my iPhone and iPad I get so much news that I don’t watch it on TV anymore). And do you know what, that’s the problem: “i”. It’s so much easier for me (i) to notice other people’s faults and wrongdoings than it is to examine my own (i). But more than that, it’s so much more self-justifying (i)! I can make myself (i) feel a lot better about my (i) problems, my (i) anxieties, my (i) sin, and my (i) life by finding fault, or placing blame on others and not myself (i).

This is why finding the Gospel in every scripture we preach is so important. While the Gospel is Good News it’s surely preceded by Bad News. The Bad news, as we’ve already discovered, is that no one is righteous – not even one. It’s not enough to say, “Eh, yeah well, no one is perfect.” We all know that, and we use it as part of our self-justification. We must face the fact that, first of all, we have been created. Secondly, that our rebellion isn’t just against each other – it’s chiefly against God. Thirdly, we will be held accountable for this rebellion. This is exactly how the Bad News is spelled out in Romans 1-3. It’s important to notice how Paul refers to God here – as creator. Point: You are not your own and you have rebelled from the one who, in love and in His image, made you. The answer then to verse 13 of Psalm 140 – who are the righteous that shall give thanks to your name, who are the upright who shall dwell in your presence? – one is righteous, yes, only one.

There is only one person who could sing this Sacred Song without being convicted. Jesus. In a sense Psalm 140 isn’t so much a Psalm of David as it is a Psalm of Jesus. Can you hear Jesus singing this Song to the Father. “Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men…” If we see Jesus rightly, as God in the flesh, then there is no more evil event in history than the Death, Burial, and Resurrection – and surely coupled with that, the betrayal, beating, and mocking of Jesus. Can you hear Jesus, then, singing this song maybe in the garden the night he was handed over, maybe while He was being tried, maybe while He stood nearby Pilate as the people shouted, “Crucify.”

Jesus the Messiah – Savior and King – is the only One who could sing this song, truly, because Jesus is the only perfectly righteous person who has fulfilled all righteousness.

The Good News is that while Jesus is the only One who is upright and able to dwell in the presence of God the Father, through His death on the cross Jesus offers Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice. In our place He dies paying the full penalty of our unrighteousness – in His place we stand being credited with all the righteousness He has earned. Jesus, through His death, secures salvation for the Church. It is only in Christ, then, that we can proclaim with David “You are my God!” And it is only in Christ, too, that we will dwell in the presence of God.

One thing, very practical, that we should take away from this is a lesson in how to live in community.  We live in a world where everything you can think of has been “relativized.” This isn’t as bad as that; blah blah blah. This is how we get the idea in our heads that “I’m not that bad.” I say something pretty frequently when I preach, “If you’re not that bad than your god can’t be that good.” But relativism puts something before this primary truth. Relativism says, “If that person is pretty bad than I must be pretty good.” Relativism is fundamentally broken because it removes the supreme thing (in this case a perfect, flawless, transcendent, Holy God). Relativism is broken because it removes the standard – the “what” that everything else ought to be examined against.

Forget relativism – we need reality. The reality is, God is the standard. If He created us we’re not our own, we’re His. If we’re His we must live and behave according to His standard. (By the way, His standard is not overbearing or burdensome – Love God, Love People). Practically, when God is the standard, we realize that all of us have issues. Instead of expecting perfection from each other which, when that perfection isn’t met, we may think thoughts that lower our value of others, may say careless words that damage others, or may do lousy things that ruin relationships. (Or, sometimes we don’t say or do, but keep the thinking bottled up inside us). This doesn’t give us license to be sluggards and cause trouble, nor does it serve as some kind of handicap and make us to have no expectations for people. Surely, also, where sin is involved it needs to be met with repentance and return, not dismissal. This all helps to make us to live in community (inside and outside the church) seeing Jesus and the Gospel as the only all-sufficient answer to our ever-insufficient lives. The heart of the Gospel is that God has been gracious to us – and, thus, we ought to be gracious to each other. When we remember that God is the standard, that we have all failed to meet that standard, and that Jesus alone has met that standard on our behalf we will all be much more humble people who are eager to let the small disappointments we have against other dissolve from our minds and the big disappointments, after conversations of clarity, repentance, and forgiveness, dissolve in the blood of Jesus.