The Creator God is the source of true justice (2024)

Sojourners founder Jim Wallis, who preached at Resurrection in 2019, captured one implication of Psalm 146 in this comment: “Instead of politicizing faith with a religious right or a religious left, how can faith trump politics and help people find the moral center that could challenge partisan politics on all sides? Instead of what’s right or left, how do we discern what is right and wrong, and especially what will protect the most vulnerable people in our society whom our God calls us to defend?” *

• The great hymn writer Isaac Watts based a hymn on Psalm 146. The second stanza said, “Happy are they whose hopes rely on Israel’s God…whose truth forever stands secure, who saves th’oppressed and feeds the poor, for none shall find God’s promise vain.” The Creator’s promise to give justice to the oppressed made the psalmist “truly happy.” Does it give you joy too? Why or why not?
• The prophet Isaiah faced a society in Israel that created a large gap between a relatively few affluent, influential people and lots of poor, oppressed people (as most of our world still does). In Isaiah 29:18-21, he promised that “in that day” (the day when God sets right all that’s gone wrong) “the poor” and “the neediest” would rejoice, while “the tyrant” and “the mocker” would be no more. How can you, as one of God’s people today, work toward that ultimate godly goal, not against it?

Growing up in the United Methodist Church, I was unaware of how vital justice was to the denomination that formed me. It was not until my first year of college, when I moved from my comfortable suburban home in Katy, Texas, to the unfamiliar Birmingham, Alabama, that I understood how much the call to justice is woven into Methodist doctrine.

I attended various denominations in my search for a Bible-belt church home. Yet, I left every service feeling like the call was to isolate myself, only focusing on reading the Bible and praying.

Although those things are essential in our faith journey, I was reminded of a song from my childhood by Tim Hughes, appropriately titled “God of Justice.” This song calls for the global church to be “filled up and sent out” to “feed the hungry,” “stand beside the broken,” and be “move[d] into action.”

God wants us to be inspired by the splendor of creation, but I also believe God does that to motivate us to serve others. As Christians, we long to see God’s vision of the perfect world realized on earth, where oppression, hate, and judgment of any kind would be abolished.

So bask in the majesty of creation so you might hear how the Creator calls you to serve the created.