Nougat 5

Today’s Holy Nougat offers an interesting ‘how’ for our praise-song to God.

Psalms 33:5 NIV

[5] The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.

Righteousness, Justice, & Unfailing Love 1

In 1992, a Baptist preacher, Gary Chapman published a book that would become an international bestseller. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, a Christian self-help for couples, is centred around five actions (love languages) used by many persons in expressing love in their relationship. Whether proven empirically or not, the book has revitalised romance in several spaces, while helping others think about how love languages influence interactions with others even in platonic relationships.

Self-Check

Do we know what our love language is, and does it take us to our ‘happy place’ when received?

Digging Deeper

As I pondered our Nougat, the thought struck me that it is worth considering whether we’ve tried to discern what God’s love language is. I don’t know that it’s the only one, but we can deduce from Psalm 33 that praise is one of God’s primary love languages. It is worth learning some of the ‘dialects’ as we reciprocate love to God.

In contemplating the how of pleasing God, it is easy to think of the practical actions of music and song. Our psalmist encourages us to offer God those things that God desires – righteousness, justice and unfailing love.

Whew! That’s not as simple as singing or playing music. Those require thought that precede and influence our actions.

Righteousness, from a human perspective, involves our intentional integrity before God and with others, regardless of what others are doing. This isn’t about human ethics or integrity, it’s about working according to what God loves. It requires that we make God’s way our yardstick or standard by which we conduct ourselves and all forms of business both personally and professionally. It may even require that we opt against working with/in some organisations.

Before you join me in thinking that it is humanly impossible, I urge us to consider the life of God’s faithful servant Job. Not Steve Jobs, the late tech giant of Apple fame, but Job, the biblical character who was described as blameless and upright … feared God and shunned evil. Job didn’t just live in that way for himself, as Job 1 explains, Job insisted that his sons observed rites of spiritual purification after feasting. He also interceded for them daily, lest they had offended God in words or deed (see Job 1:1-5).

Siblings, we can’t do all that Job did – he lived when burnt offerings were literally about animal sacrifices. We don’t sacrifice animals anymore.

Yet, we can also offer sacrifices daily to God as we seek to live according to God’s righteousness. We can offer ourselves, which the Pauline writer tells us in Romans 12:1-2 will result in us being aligned with God’s will. In so doing, we are not only walking in God’s purpose on purpose; but we walk with purpose: to please God, because we know that God loves acts of righteousness. We do so knowing that living with integrity is part of our praise song to the Lord our God.

So, what say we siblings – are we speaking God’s love language of praise with our righteous acts today?

Point to Ponder

Have we ever turned a blind eye to behaviour that hurts God’s heart in exchange for material or social gain? Is it time to repent?

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May all we seek be found in Christ