Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

We live in an age where integrity, faithfulness and doing right have essentially gone down the drain. If it feels good do it, is more the prevailing philosophy of life. The problem is that my doing what feels good too often impacts others negatively. For example, the ease with which we trash relationships because it is “not working for me,” pays little attention to the devastation of the children from such relationships. We excuse it of course, saying that it is better for them not to be in a situation where there is tension and fighting. It never seems to occur to us that we need to deal with the fighting and the selfishness that lies behind our “feel good” culture.

When we have suffered enough, and caused others enough pain, we may be open to the incredible mixture of love, faithfulness and righteousness that is offered to us in the Gospel. Love, faithfulness and righteousness meet supremely in the cross, where for those who will receive it, the penalty for our sin and selfishness is paid in full. Here, by taking the penalty upon Himself, God can be both just (righteous) and loving at the same time. Seeing this in the future, the Psalmist rightly declares that love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace kiss in God's incredible act of unselfishness. It should break our hearts, so we turn to Him in repentance and so receive this indescribable gift.