Righteous Through Refuge in the LORD

“³⁹The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;

he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

⁴⁰The LORD helps them and delivers them;

he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,

because they take refuge in him.”

— Psalm 37:39-40 (ESV)

The righteous are not righteous because they do righteous actions. They are righteous “because the take refuge in him”, the LORD.

Bad actors do things that seem righteous. Think of the tyrant that gives to charity. Or the billionaire that stops on the street to lift up a vagrant. And think of the authoritarian that shows up at the plant owned for a visit and gives everyone a company t-shirt. Are these to be considered righteous. I say no, as when they occur once, they are the anomaly and serve more as ego photo ops as opposed to righteous actions done out of love. Don’t get me wrong, I do not take away from the actions and the impact they have, I only take issue with the thought that these actions are somehow righteous.

It is the righteous actions that come from the heart and in response to the will of God that He sees, hears, delivers, and saves. The actions themselves are good in the moment and will impact in that moment. It is the response to the will of the LORD that really does the work. The righteous do not take action for themselves, they take action for the LORD. It is the dwelling place of the LORD in the heart of the individual that leads to the righteous action.

The righteous focus their attention on the LORD and seek His guidance into where to focus energy for His glory. His glory will likely come at sacrifice to the individual, yet that sacrifice is not even noticed as the righteous see only the work for the LORD and not on themselves.

Bad actors are more concerned with their own “appearance” and lose sight of the glory of the LORD. The righteous find refuge in the LORD and are not concerned with how things look to the outside world. This is where the LORD takes up delivering the righteous from the world and provides the safety and security of His glory.

From where are your actions coming? Are they coming from you desire to be viewed in some way? What if you were to find your actions in the glory of the LORD as you dwell with Him?