(upbeat music) - An anonymous listener of the podcast writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, "what constitutes being a righteous person "as referenced over 50 times in the Psalms? "For example, there are promises to the righteous "that God will hear their prayers." See Psalm 34, verses 15 to 22.

So who is this righteous person in the Psalms and how do I become one? That's a really important question because of how many people stumble. We know we're sinners, we stumble over that and therefore we don't see ourselves in that category and therefore we can't make use of those Psalms and that's tragic.

And what makes the question so urgent is that when Paul says in Romans 3.10, none is righteous, no not one, he's quoting the Psalms. - Exactly. - Right? - He's like, oh, I don't think the Psalms are right with all that righteousness talk. He's quoting Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 says, "God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see "and there are none who understand, "there are none who seek for God.

"They have all fallen away. "Together they have become corrupt. "There is none who does good, not even one." That's the Psalms talking who are constantly saying things like this. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are toward their cry. That's Psalm 34. Psalm 37, "For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, "but the Lord upholds the righteous." Psalm 37 again, "The salvation of the righteous "is from the Lord, he is their stronghold." Psalm 55, "Cast your burden on the Lord, "he will sustain you.

"He will never permit the righteous to be moved." Can you embrace that promise? That's the key question. Or Psalm 146, "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, "whose hope is the Lord his God." We are blessed if God is our help. And in that Psalm and elsewhere, help comes to the righteous.

Or Psalm 146, eight, just a couple of verses later, "The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. "The Lord loves the righteous." That's why those two verses together are so powerful. But here's the catch. Immediately before that verse, Psalm 146, verse eight, comes a description of who the righteous are.

And here it is. "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, "whose hope is in the Lord his God, "who made heaven and earth, the sea, "and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, "who executes justice for the oppressed, "who gives food to the hungry.

"Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob." He's describing people here doing those things. So there's no thought in the Old Testament or the New Testament that the righteous are sinless. They aren't sinless. The whole Old Covenant is based on the assumption that people need forgiveness through the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, through the mercy of God.

The righteous know this and turn to God for mercy, mercy, not merit, mercy, and put their hope in Him for forgiveness. And then they live in the promise that God will help them. Fear not, I am with you. I will help you. I will uphold you. I'll strengthen you.

They live in that awareness, and thus they do justice, and they do mercy, and they care for the hungry and the oppressed. I have found Psalm 103 to be really helpful in putting the pieces together. So it begins celebrating the forgiveness of sin. So we can be done with all thought that the righteous don't need their sins forgiven because they don't have any.

That's not true. Verse two, Psalm 103, "Blessed, bless the Lord, O my soul, "and forget not all his benefits, "who forgives all your iniquity." Verse 10, "He does not deal with us according to our sins "or repay us according to our iniquities." So the righteous are people who know that, glory in it, base their lives on it.

And then David adds in verse 17, "But the steadfast love of the Lord "is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, "and His righteousness to children's children, "to those who keep His covenant "and remember to do His commandments." So even though sinlessness is not what righteousness is, and even though forgiveness of sins is continually needed, the righteous do keep the covenant.

They do keep the commandments, not flawlessly. But otherwise they wouldn't need any forgiveness. But as the passion and the direction of their lives, that's the righteous. They're depending on mercy, they're getting forgiveness of sins, they're looking away from themselves to the sacrifice that ultimately is Jesus, and they are then in the power and strength of that, putting to death sin in their lives, and they're on a basic trajectory of obedience to God.

And exactly the same thing is true of Christians today. The righteous in the New Testament are not sinless people, and they are not only people who are enjoying imputed perfect righteousness, as though that's the only way the New Testament talks about the righteous. That's the foundational way. We can't even make any steps in practical righteousness until we are counted righteous by God through faith alone.

But once we are justified by faith alone and counted righteous in Christ, our whole lives are devoted to being the righteous. And that's why in Philippians 1, verse 11, when Paul prays for them, he expects that Christians are going to be found at the last day filled with the fruits of righteousness.

That is how you keep the new covenant. You trust in mercy, you receive forgiveness, you enjoy a perfect standing with God, and as the fruit and overflow of the Spirit, you bear fruits of righteousness. So don't rank, quote, the righteous in the Psalms so high that you can't be one.

Then those Psalms become useless for you. And don't rank the righteous so low that it doesn't require any real moral change in your life. That's a wonderful balance and perspective. Thank you, Pastor John. Well, another full week of episodes comes to an end. This is our 148th straight week of episodes.

That is a lot of grace, and that's a lot of time from you investing in us. So thank you for listening. You can keep up with all of our new episodes, and you can sift through the now over 730 episodes we have in the archive, all through our free app for your phone, of course.

And of course, you can get the apps, and you can send us your questions online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend. We will see you on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)