“For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.” (Psalm 112:6, ESV)

Sometimes while reading through the Bible, one verse, a verse you’ve read countless times, will jump off the page in front of you. You see it in a whole new light, finding depths which before went unnoticed.

Psalm 112 was one of my devotional readings this morning. It is a Wisdom Song, and psalm that extols the man who fears the Lord, focusing on the moral character, and benefits, of those who delight in the commands of God.

Standing right in the middle of this Psalm is a message of tremendous promise: “The righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.” I’d like to take just a moment to unpack that small verse.

The first question we must ask is this, “who is the righteous one?” This psalm praises the one who fears the Lord, who delights in His commands, but who could that be? Throughout the scriptures, we are reminded of the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jer. 17:9), how all have turned from God, how no one seeks Him, no one is righteous, no not one (Psalm 53).

That’s the problem, isn’t it? There are wonderful blessings for the righteous, but righteousness is unattainable.

Except that God has made a gracious way to righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. The Shorter Catechism teaches, “Justification” (God declaring a sinner to be righteous) “is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”

God, in His grace, gave us His Son, who fulfilled the righteous demands of the law, and yet also suffered the wrath of God for sin upon the cross. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are reckoned righteous in God’s sight, because Jesus was reckoned cursed for us. By this gracious exchange, we are declared righteous by God.

By faith in Jesus, we are declared righteous. What God has spoken is sure. It is declared, and therefore unmovable. God cannot, will not, go back on His word. If God did, He would cease to be God.

Not only that, the righteous one, those who are declared righteous, are secure unto the end, remembered forever. In theological circles we call this the Perseverance of the Saints. Those who are declared righteous, whose whose name is in the Book of Life will never be blotted out, never be forgotten (Rev. 3:5). He will not lose one that he has given him (John 6:39-40).

“He is not afraid of bad news…” (Psalm 112:7) The Psalm goes on to describe the practical application of the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God in salvation. Because of this grace which has been so lavishly poured out upon us in Christ, because the sovereign God has called us righteous, and the righteous shall never be moved – because of this I can rest secure.

The Heidelberg Catechism frames this confidence this way:

“My only comfort, in life and in death, is that I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.”

There is a lot that he world is throwing your way right now, things that would cause terror and dismay. When that voice of fear stalks you, remember this promise! “The righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever.” Know that by faith in Jesus Christ, you are counted among the righteous, declared justified in God’s eyes, and you will be remembered by Him. Stand firm, be filled with joy and peace of believing.

SDG