Psalm 145:17 NKJV
The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
Holding Fast to the Character of God
MY NOTES
“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.” Psalm 145:17 (NKJV)
“Adonai is righteous in all his ways, full of grace in all he does.” Psalm 145:17 (CJB)
It is incredibly easy to praise God when life makes total sense, when our prayers are answered instantly, and when our circumstances feel comfortable. But what happens when the road gets rocky? What happens when a trial hits out of nowhere, or when the world around us falls into deep confusion?
Naturally, human hearts tend to struggle. When a good person suffers, when an illness strikes without warning, or when the wicked seem to prosper while the faithful struggle, our human nature wants to cross-examine God. We look at the tangled, messy threads of our circumstances and wonder, if He has made a mistake, if He has forgotten us, or if He is treating us unfairly.
Yet, David pens a truth that serves as an iron anchor for a drifting soul: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works.”
This is the truth we cling to when life feels uneven or unjust. This is the truth we preach to ourselves when circumstances shake us. This is the truth that anchors us when we cannot see the full picture.
Notice that David doesn’t say God is righteous in most of His ways or gracious in some of His works. He uses the word all. This means that everything flowing from the hand of God—whether it is a painful pruning season or a beautiful season of harvest—is completely marked by perfect righteousness and tender mercy.
In our human experience, justice and grace rarely sit at the same table. If someone demands strict justice, grace is usually cast aside. If someone shows cheap grace, justice is compromised.
But our King does something breathtaking. He perfectly blends absolute, uncompromising righteousness with boundless, affectionate grace.
The Apostle Paul unpacked this mystery when he wrote about what Jesus accomplished on the cross. On the cross, God did not manifest mercy at the expense of justice. Instead, Jesus fully satisfied the righteous judgment against sin, allowing God to be completely just while simultaneously acting as the justifier of the one who has faith. This is the exact same harmony David is celebrating: a King who is intensely righteous and, at the exact same moment, infinitely gracious.
Sometimes, the ways of the Lord look completely tangled and unsearchable. We see the wicked prospering while the righteous face deep sorrow, and it can be difficult to reconcile what we see with the character of God.
During the dark ages of Roman history, the Emperor Mauricius was forced to watch his own sons brutally murdered by a traitor right before his eyes, just moments before he was carried out to his own execution. Yet, in that moment of ultimate, unimaginable heartbreak, he cried out aloud with his final breath: “Thou art righteous, O God, and just are thy judgments.”
When you realize that God acts with perfect righteousness, you can stop fighting His ways and start resting in His sovereignty.
If a situation in your life feels broken or bad today, remember that God did not design the brokenness—human rebellion did. But God is a master at taking the broken pieces and weaving them into a greater, holy design. If it looks bad right now, the story isn’t over. In His good time, He will bring good out of the chaos and show you that He has been holy, faithful, and deeply loving through every single step of the journey.
Prayer
Abba, You are Almighty God, completely holy, beautifully just, and unstained by any unrighteousness. Forgive me for the times my heart grows impatient and questions Your heart. Forgive me for looking at my current troubles and jumping to the false conclusion that You have been unfair or unkind to me. Today, I choose to tie my mind to the truth of Your Word. Even when Your ways are confusing to my limited sight, I declare that You are righteous in every single one of Your ways and deeply gracious in all of Your works. Thank You for the cross, where Your justice and grace met to rescue my soul. I rest in Your perfect character today. In the faithful name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Cross References (NKJV)
Psalm 145:9
“The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.”
Psalm 119:137
“Righteous are You, O LORD,
And upright are Your judgments.”
Romans 3:26
“…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Psalm 92:15
“To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Psalm 103:8
“The LORD is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.”
Key Takeaways
- God is righteous in all His ways—never unjust, never mistaken.
- God is gracious in all His works—never cold, never harsh, never indifferent.
- His righteousness and grace operate together perfectly, especially in salvation.
- Trusting God means believing His ways are right even when they are hard.
- Worship flows naturally when we see both His justice and His mercy.
- These truths anchor us in seasons of confusion, suffering, or waiting.
Proverb for Today
He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him. Proverbs 18:13 NKJV
Daily Scripture
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. Revelation 21:6-7 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Summary of Commentaries:
These commentaries emphasize that God perfectly harmonizes absolute righteousness and infinite grace across all His laws, decrees, and providential acts. While human hearts often question His justice during unexpected afflictions, the cross of Christ beautifully demonstrates how God remains both a just judge and a merciful savior. Even when His intricate ways seem unsearchable or deeply painful to us, believers can trust that His goodness is constant, flawless, and ultimately working for good.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” His ways and works are both worthy to be praised. Jehovah cannot be unjust or impure. Let his doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous and holy. This is the confession of the godly who follow his ways, and of the gracious who study his works. Whatever God is or does must be right. In the salvation of his people he is as righteous and holy as in any other of his ways and works: he has not manifested mercy at the expense of justice, but the rather he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his Son.
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Enduring Word
The LORD is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works: Throughout this psalm David has spoken much about how we should praise God for who He is and what He has done. Here again David gives us a reason to praise the LORD, recognizing the incomparable combination of being righteous and gracious.
Later the Apostle Paul would write about this idea, how in the person and work of Jesus, God did demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). The combination of being both just and the justifier is much the same as being both righteous and gracious.
(David Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
The Lord is righteous in all his ways – In his own character; in his laws; in his providential dealings; in his arrangements for the redemption and salvation of man. In his own character he is what it is desirable that a God should be; in all his laws he ordains that only which it is desirable should be enacted; in all his dealings with people he does that which it is desirable should be done. He violates no right; he wrongs no one; he demands of no one a service which would be unjust; he makes no arrangements for pardon and salvation which it is not best should be made. It is much for a man to be able to say in all that occurs to him under the divine administration, “It is right;” it is much for a man to have such confidence in God as to be able to feel that all he does in respect to nations is the best thing that could be done. Compare Psalms 89:14, note; Psalms 97:2, note.
And holy in all his works – Margin, merciful, or bountiful. The Hebrew word is merciful. The idea seems to be that righteousness and mercy are equally consulted in his arrangements; that they meet together, and act harmoniously in the divine plans. Compare the notes at Psalms 85:10.
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John Gill
The Lord [is] righteous in all his ways,…. Christ is righteous in all the ways of providence, in which he is jointly concerned with his Father: there are some of the ways of providence, which are now intricate and perplexed, are unsearchable and past finding out, and cannot be easily reconciled to the justice and faithfulness of God, respecting the prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of the righteous; but these will before long be made manifest, and they will appear to be just and true. And so in all his ways of grace, in all his decrees; in the choice of some to everlasting life, and the leaving of others; with respect to either of these, there is no unrighteousness in him: nor in the redemption of men, for which an adequate price is given; and in which mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, meet together; nor in the justification of a sinner, which is not done without a righteousness, but in such manner that God is just while he is the justifier of him that believes in Jesus; nor in the pardon of sin, which is upon the foot of a satisfaction made to the justice of God, by the blood and sacrifice of Christ; nor in eternal life, the gift of God through Christ, which none inherit but righteous ones. Christ is righteous in all his suretyship engagements, which he has punctually performed, and in the execution of all his offices; in doing which, righteousness and faithfulness are the girdle of his loins and reins: and so likewise he is and will appear righteous in his judgments on his and his people’s enemies, in the destruction of antichrist and his followers. And, moreover, he is righteous in all the ways he prescribes for his people to walk in, in all his commandments and ordinances; which are all holy, just, and good;
and holy in all his works; in all his works of providence; doing no evil, though he suffers it for wise ends, and overrules it for good: and in all his works of grace; in election, which is through holiness and to it; in the redemption of his people, which is from a vain conversation, and that they might be a peculiar people, zealous of good works; in the calling of them with an holy calling, and to holiness; in bringing them to glory, which is through regeneration and sanctification. It may be rendered, is “merciful” or “bountiful in all his works”; all he does flowing from his grace, mercy, and goodness.
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Matthew Henry
He does none of them any wrong, for (v. 17) the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and not unrighteous in any of them; he is holy, and acts like himself, with a perfect rectitude in all his works. In all the acts of government he is just, injurious to none, but administering justice to all. The ways of the lord are equal, though ours are unequal. In giving laws, in deciding controversies, in recompensing services, and punishing offences, he is incontestably just, and we are bound to own that he is so.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“The LORD is righteous in all his ways,” etc. The ground upon which praise is here ascribed to God may seem a common one, being in every one’s mouth; but in nothing is wisdom shown more than in holding fast the truth, that God is just in all his ways, so as to retain in our hearts an unabated sense of it amidst all troubles and confusions. Though all acknowledge God to be just, most men are no sooner overtaken by affliction than they quarrel with his severity: unless their wishes are immediately complied with, they are impatient, and nothing is more common than to hear his justice impeached. As it is everywhere abused by the wicked imputations men cast upon it, here it is very properly vindicated from such ungrateful treatment, and asserted to be constant and unfailing, however loudly the world may disparage it. It is expressly added, “in all his ways and works;” for we fail to give God due honor unless we recognize a constant tenor of righteousness in the whole progress of his operation. Nothing is more difficult in the time of trouble, when God has apparently forsaken us, or afflicts us without cause, than to restrain our corrupt feelings from breaking out against his judgments; as we are told of the Emperor Mauricius in a memorable passage of history, that seeing his sons murdered by the wicked and perfidious traitor Phocas, and being about to be carried out himself to death, he cried out—”Thou art righteous, O God, and just are thy judgments.”
—John Calvin.
“Holy in all his works.” God is good, the absolute and perfect; and from good nothing can come but good: and therefore all which God has made is good, as he is; and therefore if anything in the world seems to be bad, one of two things must be true of it.
Either it is not bad, though it seems so to us; and God will bring good out of it in his good time, and justify himself to men, and show us that he is holy in all his works, and righteous in all his ways. Or else—
If the thing be really bad, then God did not make it. It must be a disease, a mistake, a failure, of man’s making, or some person’s making, but not of God’s making. For all that he has made he sees eternally; and behold, it is very good.
—Charles Kingsky, in “The Good News of God,” 1878.
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