Zephaniah 3:1-5: in context

Zephaniah turns his woe on Jerusalem itself, and the charge sheet is grim. She would not listen, he says, would not take correction, would not trust the LORD or draw near to her God; four refusals, a whole relationship declined. And then he walks through her institutions and finds every one of them turned predatory. Her officials are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing to gnaw by morning. Her prophets are reckless and treacherous. Her priests profane what is holy and do violence to the law. Top to bottom, the city that was supposed to be the house of God has been hollowed out.

But the prophet sets one sentence against all of that, and it changes the air. The LORD within her is righteous, he says; he does no wrong; every morning he brings his justice to light; he does not fail. In the middle of the corrupt city, God has not left, and God has not been corrupted. Day after day, faithfully, morning by morning, he keeps bringing justice into the light, never once failing, even when not a single human institution around him will. The only sorrow Zephaniah adds is that the unjust take no notice, they know no shame, unmoved by a righteousness that shows up every single dawn. The rot is real and everywhere. And so is God, still just, still there, still working every morning.

Even in a thoroughly corrupt city, God was still righteous, bringing his justice to light every single morning. When the institutions around me fail, top to bottom, am I watching for the God who is still faithful and just each dawn?