He whose strength loves justice
He whose strength loves justice
Letters for the Road: June 2022
I’m away this month and next, on an extended, long-awaited visit to our U.S. friends and family. This months’ Letters for the Road is a bit shorter than usual as a result!
Dear reader,
One of my favourite lines from Scripture, and one that we often sing in church, is from Psalm 99:4: “The strength of the King loves justice.”
Much of the news this year has shown an opposition between strength and justice: Russia exerting its strength to try and destroy Ukraine; the Taliban exerting its strength to eliminate all opposition and repress Afghan women; men increasing their strength through gun violence, massacring innocent men, women and children; the SBC leadership failing to protect their churches from known predators. And just this past month in Australia, we remembered the wicked exercise of power in Australia’s forced removal of indigenous children from their families–an injustice that lingers in the disproportionate number of indigenous children who are incarcerated.
A brief list, and one that doesn’t include all the wickedness in the world today. I’m sure you could add more, both ones that have received international coverage and ones that are not public, not finding their way to the news—and yet are devastating nonetheless.
In each of these evils, strength works against justice: strong people and nations use their strength to harm and oppress others.
Culturally, the West is in an age of reckoning with abusive power. More and more, people are speaking up and out against the ways in which those in authority use their power to pervert, rather than promote, justice. Strength is often a threat, as again and again those who have strength use it against, rather than for, others.
To this world, then, speaking simply of God’s strength, of his kingship and sovereignty, of his power and control over our world, is not in and of itself good news. To those who see the way that people abuse power in such horrific, evil ways, we must also describe the form—the beauty—of God’s rule. We need to describe God’s power as a power always and ever exerted for good.
He is a king “whose strength loves justice.” His rule is peace, in his trinitarian life since before time began, and in the consummation of his kingdom at the end of time. His strength loves justice: he doesn’t feel obligated or compelled, but his power is always oriented towards doing what is just and right. When we extend the good news, we extend hope for a king who has never and will never use his power for evil.
My writing elsewhere this month: Seek Above Me for Comment Magazine, and Pentecost Reflection on the blog.
Very exciting news: I am thrilled to share that I have just signed a book contract with 10 of Those. My book, a middle grade children’s devotional, will explore Jesus’ “I am” statements from the Gospel of John. I first started this project five years ago, when I realised that my oldest would soon be growing out of our beloved children’s story bibles, needing something to lead him deeper into Scripture–and there wasn’t much to give him. Lord willing, I’ll be able to share what I’ve written with you in the form of a beautiful illustrated book, tentatively in March 2025.
O Lord, you who set the oppressed free, increase in us a love of justice this day that we might love it as you love it: upholding the cause of the poor, speaking up for the oppressed, defending the weak & rescuing the needy, no matter what the cost.
Amen.
W. David O. Taylor, a prayer for Juneteenth
On the road with you,
Laura