Zephaniah 3:5 - Daily Justice

Grant Village Sunrise, Yellowstone National Park (7/18/2007)

The hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" is based on the King James Version of 
Lamentations 3:22–23 (KJV 1900) "It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

His mercy and His faithfulness is renewed to us every morning. Each day we need God's mercy to forgive us and God's faithfulness to protect us.

There are some people who don't experience God's mercy every day because they deny that they need to be forgiven. They don't experience God's faithfulness because they are willfully ignorant that they need Him. 

Their lives parallel the description of Jerusalem in her most rebellious days:
"1 What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime! 2 No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction. It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God. 3 Its leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims. Its judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey. 4 Its prophets are arrogant liars seeking their own gain. Its priests defile the Temple by disobeying God’s instructions. 5 But the Lord is still there in the city, and he does no wrong. Every morning (NASB95; NLT says "day by day") he hands down justice, and he does not fail. But the wicked know no shame."(Zephaniah 3:1–5, New Living Translation)

Sometimes wickedness is just a gnat buzzing around our head--a minor irritation.

Other times wickedness is like a roaring lion, a ravenous wolf. Violent, arrogant, shameless, and defiant against a God who, by contrast, "does no wrong."

Every morning, we need mercy for our own sin.
Every morning, we need God's justice to rescue us from others' evil.

Father, whether we look to You for mercy or we look to You for justice, awaken us to Your great faithfulness. We need it, we need You ... every morning. Amen.