The Hope in the Last Clause

March 27, 2015 / Ocieanna Fleiss / Comments Off

I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence. (Ps. 140:12-13 ESV)

So many are afflicted. Untold multitudes are hurting and persecuted and losing their lives and treated like nothing. Whichever way you turn, another injustice causes broken hearts, broken lives. Not only in the newsworthy causes, but also in our own lives–our families, workplaces, even churches–injustice happens.

This week someone accused me of something I didn’t do. No matter how I tried to work it out, she wouldn’t bend. I had trusted this person, liked her. Her unfair judgment of me hurt deeply, caused tears and anxious thoughts.

Injustice characterizes this place, doesn’t it? Yet I still long for truth to win.

Which is why I’m thankful for the hope in this verse. Someday, maybe not in this life, but someday justice will come.

But as much as I long for justice, I crave more than that alone. I hunger for the promise in the last clause. My heart brims with gratitude for our greatest hope of all.

The upright shall dwell in your presence.

His presence. Restored to that union our first parents enjoyed with our Father in the garden. The Emmanuel promise. Some day–oh how I cling to this hope!–some day I will be with him. Like Adam and Eve I will be naked and unafraid. And all the world’s wrongs will be made right.

And I know I will only enter his presence because of the work of Christ on my behalf. I am only upright because of his uprightness.

The day will come when those he purchased at such a great price will rest in him. The afflicted and needy ones–all of us, me–will be free. The tension between the injustice of this world and our citizenship in heaven will disappear and righteousness will reign. And joy.