Psalms 97:8

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS

"Zion heard and was glad,

And the daughters of Judah rejoiced,

Because of thy judgments, O Jehovah.

For thou, Jehovah, art most high above all the earth:

Thou art exalted far above all gods.

Oh ye that love Jehovah, hate evil:

He preserveth the souls of his saints;

He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous,

And gladness for the upright in heart.

Be glad in Jehovah, ye righteous;

And give thanks to his holy memorial name."

"Zion heard and was glad ... daughters of Judah rejoiced" (Psalms 97:8). The Anchor Bible renders this, "Let Zion hear ... let the daughters of Judah rejoice."[9] It appears to us that the passage is true either way it reads, the "righteous remnant" alone being the portion of Zion that heard and obeyed God.

"Daughters of Judah" (Psalms 97:8) is Hebraic for the towns and villages surrounding Jerusalem."[10]

The big thought in this entire paragraph is the joy and happiness of those who follow the Lord. "The pursuit of happiness" is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence of the U.S.A.; and the major percentage of all human endeavor is directed toward the goal of achieving some measure of `happiness.'

Why is it true that only the righteous are happy? There is actually no mystery about this. "God destined us (all who ever lived) in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:5 RSV). This simply means that all men were destined by God to be Christians; to live otherwise is to live contrary to one's destiny; and that cannot ever achieve happiness for any creature God ever made, not even man. The tiger leaving bloody tracks on the stone floor of his prison in the zoo, the bird in its cage, the fish out of water - are such creatures happy? No indeed! Why? They were destined for another kind of existence. Sinful men find themselves in the same predicament. Men can live contrary to their destiny, all right, but the wretchedness of their lives is the price they pay for it. Man was so made by the Creator that his highest happiness, both in the present existence, and in the world to come are achieved by faithfulness to the will of God.

Let the intelligent ponder a simple question: "If you were Almighty God, would you create an intelligent being such as man in such a manner that he would be happier in the service of the devil, than in serving you?" To meditate upon that questions is to know the answer.

There are further words on this subject in Vol. 6 of our New Testament Commentaries (Romans), under 3:29.

"Thou art exalted far above all gods" (Psalms 97:9). This would include all idol-gods, and all self-esteemed `gods' among the leaders of mankind, the latter being a reference sarcastically to humans endowed with some authority who presume to act like gods.

"Oh ye that love Jehovah, hate evil" (Psalms 97:10). As it stands, of course, this is indeed a valid and binding commandment upon all who love the Lord; however, we prefer the rendition in the RSV, which has it differently.

"The Lord loves those who hate evil" (RSV, Psalms 97:10). However, Kidner warned us that, "RSV's rendition here makes a smoother sentence; but the textual support is scanty, and smoothness is not a criterion."[11]

The necessity for hating evil is obvious. God hates all evil, and those who are born again in the likeness of God invariably find it in their very nature to hate that which is evil. The current false view of God as a namby-pamby, easy-going old grandpa who is so good that he couldn't ever really hate anybody no matter how scandalously wicked, is a very inadequate conception of the God of the Bible.

"Love for God necessarily implies hatred of evil, which is God's antagonist, and which God also hates."[12]

"Light is sown for the righteous ... gladness for the upright" (Psalms 97:11). This is one of those radical figures of speech encountered now and then in the Bible. Light is not actually "planted," buried in the ground. Now what does this mean? Maclaren explained it.

"Darkness often wraps the righteous, and it is not true to experience to say that his way is always in the sunlight. But it is a consolation to know that light is sown, invisible and buried, as it were, but sure to germinate and bear fruit."[13]

Many a man, in the midst of sore trials, has suddenly seen the light sown in his heart long previously by those who taught him the Word of God.

"Be glad in Jehovah, ye righteous ... and give thanks" (Psalms 97:12). Whereas the psalm began with a call for the whole earth to rejoice, it is here an invitation for the individual to rejoice, giving thanks to God.

Does this not say something about the personality of the righteous? Servants of the Lord should be happy people, and that happiness should be evident in their daily appearance to all men. The notion that a Christian is a sad, gloomy, and miserable person is a caricature of the truth. The old cartoon that showed a little girl with her arm around a donkey, saying, "You must be a Christian, you've got such a long face" presented a terrible misunderstanding of the truth.

The manifold obligations of Christians appear in this final paragraph. "Those who rejoice in the Coming of the King, must even in the present time: (1) love the Lord; (2) hate evil; (3) rejoice; and (4) give thanks."[14]

The repeated admonitions here concerning joy and rejoicing emphasize the fact that, in spite of our still being in our probationary existence, still subject to sin and temptation, we should make every effort to live out our lives in the glorious knowledge that the victory has already been won; we should live, and act, and think that we are doing "all things through Christ who strengthens us."