Mountains and Righteousness

          The news of the plane accident in Kathmandu at the end of last month, an accident in which a number of British climbers on their way to the Himalayas died, brought sadness to the whole country.  Having recently enjoyed listening to John Rajiah tell of the work of Eternal Light Ministries in Nepal at the weekly church  fellowship meeting, it was sad to focus on that country in a different way.

          Every year thousands of climbers head for that part of the world, and even though it’s now sixty years since Hilary and Tensing scaled the world’s highest peak, it seems to have lost none of its pulling power.  Here in Wales we too have a fascination with our mountains, even though they are perhaps on a slightly smaller scale!  I remember hearing a lady speaking on Radio Wales once, not long after she had been forced to relocate to Norfolk.  What did she miss the most?  Well, I’m sure you can guess what her reply was.

          The mountains, according to the Bible, provide us with a great picture of spiritual truths.  Just a few Sunday evenings ago we were looking at Psalm 36, and we saw that there David, as he speaks to God, tells us;

“Your mercy O LORD, is in the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the great mountains.” (Psalm 36:5,6)

          Jerusalem, where David’s throne was, was surrounded by the mountains, and as he looked at them he was reminded of God’s righteousness.  Mountains are large, substantial and weighty, unchanging and impenetrable.  They are not things to be taken lightly or dismissed as being irrelevant.  Do that even if you are climbing Mount Snowdon, and you’d soon be in trouble.

          But many people treat God and His righteousness in exactly that casual manner.  They think that breaking God’s law is a matter of little importance.  Perhaps you are like that. Maybe you never think about the fact that God is righteous – always right in everything He says, thinks and does.  Maybe you put to the back of your mind the truth that if you are to stand before Him on the Day of Judgement you will need to be righteous too!

          The good news of the Bible is that God has done something to make that righteousness yours.  He has sent Jesus Christ – Jeremiah calls Him “the LORD our righteousness” ­– and promises that if we trust in this Saviour God’s righteousness becomes ours, indeed we become God’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). So, when God looks at our lives, He doesn’t see the evil things we have done, but sees the perfections of the Lord Jesus.

          In one of the other psalms we read something else that follows, if we have trusted in Jesus Christ, and that too is related to the mountains;

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and even forever.” (Psalm 125:2)  How wonderful is that!