Psalm 34:15 | God’s Attention
“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”
Psalm 34:15 ESV
The highest reward for living in righteousness is access to God. This passage isn’t saying that God doesn’t see humans until they live righteously. We can’t become righteous without God, and Christ clearly came for sinners and broken people.
Perhaps this verse is talking about intimacy and friendship with God. Could there be a unique way that God interacts with the righteous? What does it mean for God’s eyes to be on the righteous? What does it mean for his ears to be turned toward their cry?
Wherever righteousness is practiced, God is invested. Much like I believe the Holy Spirit is drawn to inhabit the words of anyone who reads scripture, it seems God is drawn to engage with righteous living. If I long to be in God’s presence, there is no better way than to begin reading the Bible and seeing his face. If I want to live near to God and commune with him, I will have to learn how to live in righteousness.
So what is righteousness? For the sake of time, I’ll bring my understanding of the life of holiness and allow you to turn to the scriptures to discover more.
As I read through Psalms and Proverbs, I find that righteousness and wickedness refer to the condition of the inner world of a person. Proverbs 10:11 ESV says, “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” As I read this verse and many others like it in Proverbs 10, I see the writer describing the quality of what comes forth from the righteous and the wicked.
Religion can fake righteousness for a time, but phony righteousness is hard work without the reward of intimacy with God. It’s hard to sustain that kind of life, so most give up altogether. How pointless is a life of false righteousness?
The aim of righteousness is to know God! To be righteous is to look like heaven on the inside. The evidence will be in the fruit of our lives. We will know we live in it when everything we say is like a fountain of life.
Still, the best way to learn righteousness is more of what we pursue here every day: abiding. John 15:5 ESVsays, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
Receive the invitation to abide, grow in righteousness, and capture a holy God's attention.
Abiding happens daily in his presence. Abiding Daily is a simple and practical reminder to stay connected to the vine. Each prompt is inspired from the scriptures and designed to point you toward prayer and encounter. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. To get the Daily Invitation sent to you every day click this link or text “Daily” to +1 (779) 237-3914.
