Justice and Righteousness

I have done justice and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.  Psalm 119:121  NASB

Ayin

¹²¹ I have done justice and righteousness; Do not leave me to my oppressors.

 עָשִׂיתִי מִשְׁפָּ֣ט וָצֶ֑דֶק בַּל־תַּ֜נִּיחֵ֗נִי לְעֹֽשְׁקָֽי

¹²² Be a guarantor for Your servant for good; Do not let the arrogant oppress me.

 עֲרֹ֣ב עַבְדְּךָ֣ לְט֑וֹב אַל־יַֽעַשְׁקֻ֥נִי זֵדִֽים

¹²³ My eyes fail with longing for Your salvation, And for Your righteous word.

 עֵינַי כָּל֣וּ לִישֽׁוּעָתֶ֑ךָ וּלְאִמְרַ֥ת צִדְקֶֽךָ

¹²⁴ Deal with Your servant according to Your graciousness, And teach me Your statutes.

 עֲשֵׂ֖ה עִם־עַבְדְּךָ֥ כְחַסְדֶּ֗ךָ וְחֻקֶּ֥יךָ לַמְּדֵֽנִי

¹²⁵ I am Your servant; give me understanding, So that I may know Your testimonies.

עַבְדְּךָ־אָ֖נִי הֲבִינֵ֑נִי וְ֜אֵֽדְעָ֗ה עֵֽדֹתֶֽיךָ

¹²⁶ It is time for the Lord to act, For they have broken Your Law.

עֵת לַֽעֲשׂ֣וֹת לַֽיהֹוָ֑ה הֵ֜פֵ֗רוּ תּֽוֹרָתֶֽךָ

¹²⁷ Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above pure gold.

עַל־כֵּ֖ן אָהַ֣בְתִּי מִצְו‍ֹתֶ֑יךָ מִזָּהָ֥ב וּמִפָּֽז

¹²⁸ Therefore I carefully follow all Your precepts concerning everything,
I hate every false way.

עַל־כֵּ֚ן | כָּל־פִּקּ֣וּדֵי כֹ֣ל יִשָּׁ֑רְתִּי כָּל־אֹ֖רַח שֶׁ֣קֶר שָׂנֵֽאתִי

Justice and Righteousness – Can we make this claim?  Have we done justice and righteousness?  We might first ask, “What do you mean?  What is ‘justice’ and ‘righteousness’”?  mišpāṭ and ṣedeq.  By this time you’re quite familiar with mišpāṭ.  It is the divine governance of the created order.  God does that, for sure, but how can the psalmist claim that he’s done mišpāṭ?  The answer is fairly straightforward (and elaborated in the second verb).  To do mišpāṭ is to cooperate with God in bringing His order to the world.  It is to extend the Garden to the rest of creation, a task, by the way, that was given as the Prime Directive in the Genesis account.  “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”  “Rule over” does not mean exploit.  It means to care for, to tend to, to cultivate, to nourish, to protect—it means precisely what God does and would do with His own creation.  Insofar as you bring God’s “rule” into your world, you do mišpāṭ.  Notice please that this is active involvement, not theoretical or passive contemplation of engagement.

What about righteousness?  ṣedeq “. .  refers to an ethical, moral standard and of course in the ot that standard is the nature and will of God. ‘The Lord is righteous (ṣaddîq) in all his ways and holy in all his works’(Ps 145:17)”.^[1]  So, all we need to do is follow God’s ways.  But what are those?

In summary, you find them in Exodus 34:6-7.  In detail, you’ll need to read the entire Tanakh.  It is really a discussion of the ways of God among men.  For our purposes here, we can begin with the summary.  God is (in the order presented in Exodus 34:6-7 which we have examined several times) benevolent, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, full of ḥesed(no English equivalent), truthful, preserving ḥesed for generations, forgiving, providing oversight.  We can add a few more from the opening chapter of Genesis: creative, setting boundaries, bringing order to chaos, doing good.  Anything on that list you can’t do?  Now, of course, you’ll need the details, and the Tanakh provides them, often quite specifically.  You will notice that there is really no division between “spiritual” and “secular.”  What the Tanakh provides is a handbook to a way of life, not a creed or doctrines.  In the end, doing justice and righteousness is a lifestyle committed to being a complete representative of the Creator as much as humanly possible.  The first century word for that is “agent,” and Yeshua is a full expression of what that means.  As you can tell,  justice and righteousness flow together.  That’s why Genesis 1:26 offers two words about the image of God in man: identity and purpose.

Topical Index: justice, mišpāṭ, righteousness, ṣedeq, ḥesed, Psalm 119:121

^[1] Stigers, H. G. (1999). 1879 צָדֵק. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 752). Moody Press.