My dear friend, may God bless you as you reflect on this month’s promise from Psalm 72:2, “May he (the king) judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice".

Yes, the king should Judge his people in righteousness and justice. That’s how God expects His godly rulers to do. We may already be holding a leadership position or He would have planned to give us, it may be a big leadership or small position, He desires that it be exercised with integrity and fairness.

Look at the life of Solomon. When he became king, he asked the Lord, ‘So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?’  And the Lord granted Solomon wisdom beyond measure. God was with him and He blessed his rulership.

In the same way, we are called to lead with righteousness, integrity and justice. Even in our leadership position let us fear the Lord, because God’s trust us and has given us that position and gives us power even at a young age. So we must reap that trust, being faithful in our governance-Faithful in leading all the people correctly without any bias.  

I remember a moment from my school days when I was first appointed as a class monitor. My teacher handed me a badge and said, 'You are not just a student anymore; you are a leader. I trust you to be fair, whether it is your friends or whether it is your enemies or other students you should not show any partiality. And you have to mind the class for me correctly, take the right decisions and discipline all that are going wrong in the class. You have to be a good leader before me and before students.' 

That really opened my mind. How much responsibility comes with a leader! If we are not fair in ruling or fair in governing the people, they become discouraged or oppressed. The way we lead affects the lives of others. So justice is needed and righteous right ways are needed.

'We have also witnessed painful examples of leadership gone wrong. In recent years, an incident in Sathankulam, Tamil Nadu, revealed the tragic consequences of abusing power. It was during the COVID time while a father and his son were running a shop that they exceeded the time limit to close the shop by a few minutes. As they kept the shop open for business the police found that their shop was open and they took them to the police station and beat them mercilessly. They stripped the father and son of their clothes and made them naked and beat them.. For four days the sound of their torture and their screaming was heard by the witnesses around them. They couldn't bear it and there were blood stains all over the police jail room. It was a terrible sight. As a result of this brutal assault both father and son died.  The verdict came just recently from the court on the accused policemen. The court said this is an extreme abuse of power and decreed a death sentence to all those 9 policemen who murdered them.'  

Such incidents remind us how dangerous it is when power is misused. How cruel it is when the people who have the power and the people in leadership mistreat and ill-treat the people, for their own gain or because they didn’t listen to them and they abused the power.

This is precisely why God emphasizes justice. The king is to be leading with righteousness and integrity and justice. Be such a king and a leader in the hand of God, throwing away our personal bias, our personal sight on who our favorable people or people who are not favorable.  

Today, take a decision to fear the Lord, to lead without bias, to treat everyone with fairness, and to do the right things like Solomon did. Then the Lord will fill you with His wisdom and with the spirit of Justice, reward you and make your life a shining light.

May God raise you up as a just and faithful leader.
Walk in His wisdom, and be a blessing wherever He places you.

 

With much prayers,

Samuel Dhinakaran