Day 6: The course of the just
The Lord... guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones (Proverbs 2:8).
Our Father in heaven, Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; love and faithfulness go before You (Psalm 89:14).
We have seen Your great regard for the weak, the poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed. The psalmist declared, Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You preserve both people and beasts (Psalm 36:6).
Father, You hold us to account—individuals, groups, nations, and governments—for the way we treat each other—the way we treat the downtrodden, the widow, the orphan, the infirm, the marginalized, the outcast. You established laws of justice and mercy from ancient times, instructing Your people:
“‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly"' (Leviticus 19:15).
You reproved those who made a great show of religious observances while exploiting workers, and ignoring, or participating in injustice and oppression (Isaiah 58:3-5, 9-10). You disdained their show of religion, declaring,
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).
In the past, You described a day of reckoning (Isaiah 10:3) for those who perverted justice: Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless (Isaiah 10:1-2).
Unchanging God, You still defend the weak and the fatherless [and] uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed (Psalm 82:3). You still secure justice for the poor and uphold the cause of the needy (Psalm 140:12). And You will continue to do so through all ages—Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom (Psalm 45:6).
Father, You explained to Your people that injustice and oppression are reasons for unanswered prayer (Isaiah 58:4, 6-9). So as we step forward into the future praying for You to show us now Your way—for our individual lives, for our families, for our communities, for our nations, for our world—help us to choose the course of the just in our outlook, in our alignment, and in our actions.
Keep us from complicity in injustice and oppression through the blindness of "causes", carelessness, or complacency. Keep us from the fate of those who turned a blind eye to suffering—preoccupied with their own luxuries and self-indulgences (Amos 6:1, 4-7).
Give us love in place of judgment, mercy in place of exacting demands. Give us wisdom and discernment amid all the difficult choices and tangled webs. Remind us of Jesus' statement, "whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47). Impress on us the underlying lesson that we are not in the place of judgment, considering how much we have been forgiven.
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