Traits of a Righteous Person

Hallelujah! Happy is the man who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commandments. (Ps. 112:1)(HCSB)


Are you a righteous person? One who is in right-standing with God? I hope so because God has many blessings and promises for the righteous. Of course, in and of ourselves, none of us could ever hope to be good enough to be labeled as righteous. God's Word makes that clear. (Rom. 3:10; Ps.143:2) But praise God, we can attain righteousness through Jesus, the only man who ever followed God's law perfectly, who was the sinless Lamb of God and whose sacrifice for our sins placed us in a position of right-standing with God when we follow him as Lord of our lives. We will be happy when we fear the Lord, taking great delight in His Word as we try to live the christian life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 112 shows us some traits of a righteous person. Let's look at some of these traits or characteristics that the righteous can experience:

• v.2--his descendants will be powerful and blessed
• v.3--wealth and riches are in his house
• v.4--he is gracious, compassionate and righteous
• v.5--good will come to he who is fair in business
• v.6--he will never be shaken, but will be remembered forever
• v.7--he confidently trusts in the Lord, not fearing bad news
• v.8--he looks in triumph over his foes
• v.9--he helps the poor and will be exalted in honor

In Psalm 112:10, we see the contrast of what the wicked man experiences: The wicked man will see it and be angry; he will gnash his teeth in despair. The desire of the wicked will come to nothing. (HCSB) This should encourage us all to turn from everything wicked or unrighteous and whole-heartedly seek after godliness so that we can experience the traits of the righteous that we've just looked at in Psalm 112. We can be assured that even though it doesn't seem like it at times to our natural eyes, the way of the wicked leads to ruin but God watches over the righteous. (Ps. 1:6) I like the way that David puts it in Psalm 37:25---I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned (HCSB)

So I encourage us all to keep fighting the good fight of faith and to stay on the road of righteousness. If we do, we have God's promise that we will never be shaken (Pr. 10:30) and that we can experience true happiness when we worship him with due respect and reverence. (Ps. 112:1)

Singing His Praises,
Joey C.