Originally published by The Round Farmhouse on June 20, 2025.
“Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?” (Psalm 71:19, ESV).
“Righteousness”: from the Greek diakaiosune meaning the character or quality of being just; covenant faithfulness; reliable faithfulness.
When I think of God as being righteous, my mind musters up words like “judgement,” “punishment,” and “wrath.” Yes, those words are associated with God’s righteousness. But here’s the thing: we need a judge. And I’m thankful that my Judge is the God of righteousness.
- Because He is a judge who gets angry when His people are mistreated: “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Psalm 7:11, ESV).
- Because He is holy: “But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness” (Isaiah 5:16, ESV).
- Because I need a judge: “Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice” (Daniel 9:14, ESV).
And God is a righteous judge because He is righteousness.
- “As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness” (Psalm 48:10, ESV).
- “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful” (Psalm 116:5, ESV).
- “And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me” (Isaiah 45:21b, ESV).
We see God’s righteousness revealed in the Gospel as proof of His righteousness for those who have faith in Jesus.
- “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17, ESV).
- “This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25b-26, ESV).
And what should our response to God’s righteousness be? Thankfulness. “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High” (Psalm 7:17, ESV). We can be thankful because our God is a righteous God, unchanging are His ways, in our good times and in bad, doing all things for our good, and all things for His glory!
