By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill]. 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. 7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!" 8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who re pays you for what you have done to us-- 9 he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

While all of us like to think about the goodness of God, his love, his protection and constant care for us and the peace he affords us, there is a part of God that cannot be overlooked. That part of God is his justice, demanded by his righteousness. That means that God must punish sin. While we try to ignore this part of his nature, it has been evident since the time of the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve spurned his command to not eat the forbidden fruit. Jesus spoke more often of the punishment for evil doers than the blessings of those who serve God. The apostle Paul tells us about this part of God and the necessity of it in the early chapters of Romans and then describes it more in II Thes. 1. This demand for punishment of sin in no way detracts from God’s enduring love or his compassion. In fact, it is this justice that brings about God’s provision for us to have salvation thru Jesus Christ. In Romans 3:26 Paul tells us that by giving Jesus to die in our place, for our sin, allows God to be just and the one who justifies all who come to him by faith in Jesus. His justice activates his compassion and mercy, which are prompted by his great love for us, which moves him to extend his grace (his offer, which=2 0we do not deserve and cannot earn, to forgive our sin because Jesus died in our place) to all who will come to him in faith. There is little hope in knowing that God is a just God without knowing that his justice is satisfied by Jesus Christ. Jesus gave his life for us; what do we give back to him in return? He wants our love to prompt our service to him.

O God, full of love and compassion but also full of justice and hatred of sin; open my heart and increase my faith so that I may be wholly committed to you. Give me wisdom so that I can serve you according to your will and live for you each day. Help me never grieve your Spirit by the way I live and by my lack of faith but to demonstrate his fruit in my life. In Jesus name I pray.

May God bless each of us as we accept his offer of grace in Jesus.