As a kid, my sister and I used to get excited to go to the playground. We had a few favorites that had forts to climb in and tunnels to run through. These were great for playing hide and seek. One had really tall swings, that would tickle your stomach because you were going so high, and merry-go-rounds, that at a certain RPM, would sling us off when the centripetal force pulled our sweaty little hands off the metal handles, flinging us spiraling to the ground. This was back before the cushioned, rubberized playground coverings and soft mulch, so we got some playground rash raspberries coated in dirt. Some places had seesaws. I always thought the seesaws would be more fun. My sister would get on the other side and because she was older, she weighed more than my skinny childhood self. She had to push a little harder with her legs to make my side go down, so eventually she got tired and just jumped off to go play something else, slamming me to the ground, jarring my whole body, causing me to bite my tongue or clack my teeth together.
In Proverbs 21:21, the wisest man to ever live says,“The one who pursues righteousness and faithful love will find life, righteousness, and honor.” There is a balancing act with this verse between righteousness AND faithful love. If we get it right, there are blessings and life is good! But if we are out of balance, someone gets slammed to the ground like a pile driving teeter totter. Having only righteousness leads us to a fear based, pharisaical self righteousness that is arrogant, narrow minded, and judgmental and God is sure to humble us for not having love for others. But having only love can lead us to accept, embrace, even celebrate sinful behavior, and in doing so, we disrespect God. We and others are harmed because we are going to break ourselves against the Rock Solid Truth of God’s Word. Jesus reminds us of this balance when He says, the greatest commandments are to love God and love others. He also says, if we love Him, we will obey His commands, and interestingly, He additionally gives us a new command to love others as He does.
I’m no Hebrew scholar, but my research led me to some interesting discoveries. The Hebrew Word for righteousness is… tsedaqah. You can remember it by remembering the American Pop singer, Neil Sedaka (Breaking up is hard to do). Tsedaqah is right living, right behavior, right thinking, being right with God in all things. It’s the way God’s people act and think when we belong rightly to Him. The Hebrew word for faithful love is hesed. It is a complex word that has several elements: God gives hesed freely, it is Who He is. It is His loving attachment to us. There is an expectation that God’s People will reciprocate this love back to Him. Hesed also has the expectation that God’s people will share His hesed with others. Faithful love does not end, it is forever. Hesed is unconditional, it is the “I love you no matter what”kind of love. Hesed is a way of living, it permeates life and involves mercy, grace, kindness, favor… in love.
So Soloman says, pursuing a balance of righteousness (tsedaqah) and faithful love (hesed) come with a promise that we will discover life, righteousness and honor. The Hebrew word for life is chayyah. Its plural form, chayyim and is used as a blessing or toast today. Chayyim also has complex meanings: life, health, longevity, refreshment, nourishment, and maturity or growth. We have already looked at righteousness (tsedaqah). The Hebrew word for honor is kavod, meaning glory, honor, respect, distinction, and importance. The word actually means heavy or weighty. When someone has kavod, they are the person others turn to when important answers are being sought.
The truth is we are not capable of living right or loving right unless we have a relationship with Jesus, who is perfect in both of these things. He is perfectly righteous and perfectly loving. He is our righteousness and He is love. As we belong to Him and we belong to those who belong to Him (the church), we begin to mature and act more and more like Him. Apart from Him we can’t do either of these things. As we grow in Him, He blesses us with more life, righteousness and honor. So, let's ask God to balance our righteousness and love teeter totter. We gotta be careful not to disrespect God, by embracing or celebrating the sins of those we love. God's Word is the Rock Solid Truth and it doesn't end well when we say wrong things are right to try to please people. We also, havta be careful love people and not to become self-righteous and judgy. The last time I checked God says we've all messed up.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
