Tsade

You are righteous, Lord, and Your judgments are right.  Psalm 119:137  NASB

צַדִּ֣יק אַתָּ֣ה יְהֹוָ֑ה וְ֜יָשָׁ֗ר מִשְׁפָּטֶֽיךָ

You are righteous, O Lord, and Your judgments are upright.

צִוִּיתָ צֶ֣דֶק עֵֽדֹתֶ֑יךָ וֶֽאֱמוּנָ֥ה מְאֹֽד

You commanded Your testimonies, [which are] righteousness, and they are exceedingly faithful.

צִמְּתַ֥תְנִי קִנְאָתִ֑י כִּי־שָֽׁכְח֖וּ דְבָרֶ֣יךָ צָרָֽי

My zeal incenses me, for my adversaries have forgotten Your words.

צְרוּפָ֖ה אִמְרָֽתְךָ֥ מְאֹ֑ד וְעַבְדְּךָ֥ אֲהֵבָֽהּ

Your word is very pure, and Your servant loves it.

צָעִ֣יר אָֽנֹכִ֣י וְנִבְזֶ֑ה פִּ֜קֻּדֶ֗יךָ לֹ֣א שָׁכָֽחְתִּי

I am young and despised; I have not forgotten Your precepts.

צִדְקָֽתְךָ צֶ֥דֶק לְעוֹלָ֑ם וְתוֹרָֽתְךָ֥ אֱמֶֽת

Your righteousness is perpetual righteousness, and Your Torah is true.

צַר־וּמָצ֥וֹק מְצָא֑וּנִי מִ֜צְו‍ֹתֶ֗יךָ שַֽׁעֲשֻׁעָֽי

Distress and anguish have overtaken me; Your commandments are my occupation.

צֶ֖דֶק עֵֽדְו‍ֹתֶ֥יךָ לְעוֹלָ֗ם הֲבִינֵ֥נִי וְאֶֽחְיֶֽה

The righteousness of Your testimonies is eternal; enable me to understand and I shall live.  (Chabad translations)

 The Constant Gardener

Right – We have no problem with the claim that God is righteous (ṣaddîq).  He would hardly qualify as God if He weren’t.  Our issue is with the second part of this verse.  “Your mišpāṭim are yāšār.”  Of course, there’s no copula in the original, so we should translate “Your judgments upright” as an equivalence.  In other words, it isn’t possible that any of God’s decision are not perfectly in line with the good.  Everything that God does is perfectly straight.  And that’s the issue.  As Westerners, our concept of “good” is abstract, a kind of theoretical idea that is above and outside of any particular action as a standard.  Our law is based on this Greek idea.  Our legal system (when it is working) holds everyone accountable to this external standard, whatever that standard might be.  The Greeks argued that “Good” had a kind of universal and eternal quality which could be determined by reason.  As a result of this paradigm, we imagine that God is also accountable to some higher notion of Good, and therefore, His acts that appear not to meet this standard become stains on His character.  All of this raises the constant and formidable question, “Why does a good God allow evil in the world?”  If we accept the fact that God is good, then the existence of evil which seems unchecked challenges God’s power.  So, the logic of the argument concludes that either God isn’t all good or He is powerless to do something about some evil.  Either way, He’s not the kind of God we expect.

The biblical view isn’t the same as the Greek view.  That huge difference is revealed in this simple equivalence, yāšār’ mišpāṭê’kā (“upright Your judgments”).  In other words, the standard for Good is not our rational abstraction.  It is the actions of God whatever they might be.  There is no absolute to which God is held accountable.  He is the absolute.  Whatever He does (or doesn’t do) is the standard.  We might have trouble reconciling His acts with our idea of Good but that only means that problem is with us, not Him.  Wiseman writes:

יָשָׁר (yāšār). Upright. The attributive adjective is used to emphasize an attribute of: a. God, describing his reign over his people (Deut 32:4), his ways (Hos 14:10), words (Ps 111:8), and judgments (Ps 119:137); b. especially qualified persons, as a parallel to the righteous (Ps 33:1) or the perfect (Job 1:1, 8). It is a quality of heart and mind (Ps 7:11; 11:2, et al.) which enables the upright man to keep loyally to any legally binding agreement (II Kgs 10:15). It is not always possible to be sure whether the “level” path (Jer 31:9) or “straight” foot is to be understood as an ethical appraisal of the way of life or literally. Certainly the nouns meaning “uprightness” are used of a moral quality of heart (yōšer, Deut 9:5; I Kgs 9:4), as often in Prov (2:13; 4:11) which results in “right paths,” i.e. right both morally and practically (Job 33:23). This was a characteristic of David’s life (I Kgs 3:6, yĕšārâ, only here). It is used both of words spoken (Job 6:25) and written (Eccl 12:10).^[1]

As Westerners we chafe at this concept.  We’re so used to moral abstracts that we find the phenomenological approach logically flawed.  We want certainty in our evaluation of actions, not the flexibility of a collection of case studies.  But we’ve forgotten that ancient Israel was tribal, and the chief of the tribe wasn’t just the leader.  He was also the moral and ethical authority.  His word was law.  This is the basis of the biblical approach.  Trying to force-fit it into a Greek mold doesn’t work.  We might not like it, but that’s the way the Bible thinks.  Get used to it.  You’ll need a paradigm shift if you want to understand this text.

Topical Index: good, straight, upright, moral law, standard, mišpāṭim, yāšār, Psalm 119:137

^[1] Wiseman, D. J. (1999). 930 יָשַׁר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 417). Moody Press.