MESSAGE – THE PSALMS OF KORAH – PSALM 85 PART 2 - GOD'S WONDERFUL RESTORATION IN PEACE AND MERCY
Psalm 85 For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
In Part 1 we looked at God’s mercy and protection and Restoration and the way God brings back a failed Christian to Himself. This beautiful Psalm continues.
Psalm 85 v 5 Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
Psalm 85 v 6 Will You not Yourself revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?
Psalm 85 v 7 Show us Your loving-kindness, O LORD and grant us Your salvation.
I want to draw attention here to the plural. This is an incorporated prayer; the psalmist is including all the nation of Israel (or maybe all the righteous in the nation) as he prays. It is a concern to him that God’s anger continues, even to the possibility that it will continue to generations in the future. The people had sinned but had they repented? That is the crucial factor, for if the nation had repented unreservedly, God’s anger would have become God’s blessing and acceptance. Who is a pardoning God like Thee or who has grace so full and free?
People expect to have the pleasure of God while they continue in sin. This is nothing more than an appalling lack of understanding of the holiness of God. People think their sins have nothing to do with God, or that God could not care less about them. They are so wrong. In the Gentile world it may appear that God in heaven, way up there somewhere, is not at all interested in what people do, or with their sin,[ in doing it. It could not be further from the truth. These might be the silent years with Gentile nations, and even with Israel, but in the psalmist’s time, God had His nation under His control, and if they rebelled, which they frequently did, then His displeasure would be certainly know.
In verse 6 the request is that God would revive the nation again so the people would have rejoicing in God.
It is a plea for god’s mercy. This request must contain both recognition (of the cause), [verse 5], and a plea for revival in the heart of each one, [verse 6], because the nation can not be revived apart from all the individuals in it. Let us consider the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37. Was it possible to revive those old bleached disorganised bones? The bones could not revive themselves and they only started to move once the breath passed over them, the breath of the Holy Spirit. Those bones represent Israel and there is coming a day when Israel will be revived. It happens during the Tribulation when God calls the Jews to Himself in salvation. That is what the psalmist is praying for even though he did not know it. God did answer that prayer for revival, and the psalmist saw it in part, but it still waits there in the nation’s future, but it is going to happen on a worldwide scale when the bones are made alive; what appears lifeless for God, He will shake and it comes alive again.
There can be no true rejoicing in sin and rebellion; in apostasy and indifference. In fact all that causes depression and misery and a lack of fulfillment. A Christian outside the will of God with stubborn, unrepentant sin lacks true joy and peace. The world may step in to grant a substitute, but it is as substantial as a blown soap bubble that bursts with just one prick and vanishes away. That principle would apply to every individual from the time of Adam onwards, for God created us according to His handiwork, and the aftermath of sin played out in Adam and Eve, because they then hid from God because peace and joy had gone.
“Revive us again” can only happen after repentance and honesty in confession. “Revive” means to bring back to life again, or to infuse life in something that has become lifeless. The dead bones will certainly be revived. Many Christians need to be revived. Many churches need to be revived. It is time to wake up from sleep. Day is at hand. The great revivals of the world past saw dead churches empowered with new life and purpose but sadly, like the Welsh Revival, they don’t last after two or three generations.
Personally, I feel the great evangelistic campaigns have finished. God used these for a few hundred years but from around 1990 onwards they have faded. I believe the world, and certainly Australia, is now closed and hardening towards destruction, but the opportunity is still there for revival among God’s people when they take the faith seriously, repent from worldliness and sin and rededicate themselves to God. It might have to take persecution for that to happen. If the Lord tarries, persecution will come to Australia for anti-Christian hatred is growing very quickly.
In Verse 7 there are two things the prayerful psalmist requests – (1). Show us Your loving-kindness, O LORD (2). and grant us Your salvation. In a dry and thirsty land we desire refreshment, and in dry and thirsty souls we desire loving-kindness (mercy; Strong’s – devotion) from God, and salvation that is real, not illusionary like the rubbish taught in many of the churches today, especially of the charismatic type. God’s lovingkindness can lead to repentance, but God forces no one, but works through conviction where the Holy Spirit works on a life to bring about a confession and repentance. That, we all need from time to time, and sometimes, often. Repentance must not be downgraded.
Psalm 85 v 8 I will hear what God the LORD will say for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones, but let them not turn back to folly.
Psalm 85 v 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him that glory may dwell in our land.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. With that, a wise man seeks God. The writer was willing to listen to God; He wanted to hear the words of life and peace. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus as He explained the mysteries of life to her and taught peace. Jesus ministers individually to us. The body of Christians may be great, but He treats you as if you are the only one. That is what the omnipotent and omnipresent God will do. You will never be lost in the mass of humanity, but you will be in a one-on-one situation with the Lord. God is not so busy in heaven that He ever misses one of His own sheep who has died, but He will be there to welcome each one to His own side.
Are we willing to hear what God says to us like that writer did? Do you pick up the telephone to hear what God says? You can you know. The telephone is the word of God. Dial it up, and do it often. What does God say? I will tell you what He says. He will speak peace and comfort. Are your souls troubled? Are they burdened and heavy laden? Listen to those words as you dial up. He will assure you, comfort you and give you His peace, not a flimsy peace the world gives, but a peace that endures, eternal and which comes directly from the King of peace and the Shepherd of the Sheep, and the Great High Priest.
To whom will He speak His peace? See verse 8. It is to the godly ones, not to the world, not to the outsiders. Verse 8 makes that clear. This is all in the family. We are His family and He speaks to us.
To place this in context, remember the Jews were living in troubled times, for God’s disfavour was upon them. Is it possible they were troubled by enemies, scorned and downtrodden? They were losing heart and resigned to a sleep of complacency. God was distant to those who trusted in Him. It seemed that way. The psalmist knew the Lord and sought Him, but His prayer was for those who were starting to give up, who were finding the battles with wickedness and opposition too much to bear. He encouraged his fellow believers to hear the peace that the Lord was speaking. We too can hear the same. Tune in to God. Put your radios on and listen to the program, “God Shares His Word.” He will speak peace and comfort.
“but let them not turn back to folly.” This folly is stupidity, emptiness, vanity, worthlessness. Can God’s people turn away from God, back into the worthless paths of the world? They are being warned here. It is a personal decision. To turn away from God is a type of apostasy, even a renouncing of what was held dear. Here is a verse along those lines – Hebrews 3 v 12 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” Remember we are told that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We must all be on our guard lest we be led away and enticed by the deceitfulness of sin. Do you remember what happened to Demas? Demas was a travelling companion of Paul but he forsook Paul because he loved the world of his time.
There is a warning for older people I must give - when people get older they can become entrenched in their ways and laid back. They can live for Christ but in the past. Their walk might be 20 years in the past because they have become apathetic and careless and their faith becomes lifeless, just going through the motions. This also is an unbelieving heart leading away from God, and turning back to folly. Renounce it and be determined to reject those notions that lead away from the Lord.
Repeating Psalm 85 v 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him that glory may dwell in our land.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and the path to salvation. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Those who reverence God and seek Him will always find God. That is a promise. Those who seek will find. Did you note the word “near” in that verse – “His salvation is near to those”. God is not hiding somewhere in the dark shadows at the end of a maze. He is near to those who call on Him. James 4 v 8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
The ideal is that the whole nation fears God as they were told often in the Old Testament and these are but two verses - Deuteronomy 4 v 10 “Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children,’” and Deuteronomy 10 v 12 “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
God’s glory is not associated with wickedness and a distasteful walk in the eyes of God. It is connected with the fear of God. A reverential awe and respect for who God is, as your ever constant Saviour and friend. For the Jews, god’s glory could only be present when the nation was right with him, and that rarely happened.
Australia is Ichabod and is increasing its “Ichabodery”. The USA and the UK is going the same way. Any glory that was there once and here for God has taken wings and fled. We march on towards the judgement of God, but also our lighthouse is the Rapture that is somewhere before us, not too far away. Glory has departed but will return in the Millennium.
Psalm 85 v 10 Loving-kindness and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalm 85 v 11 Truth springs from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven.
These two verses are among the loveliest in all the bible. Four of the attributes of God are here mentioned, fixed characteristics if you like, the very essence of God. There are two others not mentioned in these verses in the NASB and they are equally important, love and holiness. I do not think it is wise to compare these qualities as if one is more important than another. Without every one we would not have our magnificent God.
We might wonder why these particular four were chosen by the Holy Spirit and penned through the writer. When we look at the theme of this psalm it begins with the problem of being in and out of God’s favour. It covers the contrasts of God’s forgiveness of His people, but also His continuing anger with them, and as if that is too much for them, the writer requests that the Lord would revive them again, showing His loving-kindness and salvation. What the psalmist has been writing on is contrasts – from anger to forgiveness; from rejection to restoration. We looked at that in the last message.
This matter of contrast continues into verses 10 and 11 with these four outstanding words. In the NASB they are loving-kindness, truth, righteousness and peace. In the NIV they are love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace. The ESV is similar but with “steadfast love” and Holman with “faithful love”. For that word in Hebrew, Strong’s gives these words for it, “goodness, faithfulness, kindness”.
Let us take the first two mentioned in verse 10, “love and truth”. It says they have met together. That is like two waring parties coming together to reconcile with each other. Love holds its ground, and truth holds its position. How can they possibly come together? Love is all for acceptance where God wants to include everyone. With human beings, love can be wishy-washy and misplaced. In the name of love humans can overlook underlying faults and sin and bad things, and just claim love like a covering. I don’t think that is good but my wife would disagree as might Zandra.
However, on the other hand truth stands firm. Truth deals with facts and justice and holiness and pardon and penalty. Imagine a person in the dock of God. Love says the person must be excused; everything is overlooked, and all is forgiven. The prosecutor is truth, and he says truth must be satisfied and the person found guilty and therefore must be condemned. Can you see the dilemma?
This word “truth” means “firmness, faithfulness, sureness, reliability”. Love is allied to compassion. Here is a story, an illustration. In days gone by an Irish farmer had two sons, and on market day he gave each son a pig to take to market with express orders that they had to get there to sell the pigs. One son began the journey and then started feeling sorry for the pig and let it take its time, but of course he arrived at the market too late and the pig sale was over. The other son was careful about his father’s request and belted the pig along the path and got to the market with time to spare. One son was compassionate but he was not faithful to his father’s orders. The other son was truly faithful to his father’s wish but was not very compassionate. Love and truth; love and faithfulness; love and mercy – they can be opposing qualities and human beings usually fail on one side or the other.
Let us look at the other two in verse 11. Righteousness and peace are the next two in contrast. To be on the side of right (or truth) often means you are not at peace with the opposition. When you stand for truth, you make enemies. Biden has just been elected President of the USA. There are now calls from the Democrats that lists be made of all the Trump supporters. That would include a lot of Christians. The child of God can not be at peace with the world unless he compromises. God is righteousness and we are sinners; therefore we are enemies of God. There is no peace. How can these two qualities be reconciled with perfect harmony and without compromise? The verse says righteousness and peace have kissed each other. This was an ancient custom in the Middle East for greetings and enemies could not kiss because they were not at peace. However it is all reconciled in this verse because enemies are now able to kiss. How can this be so?
There is only one way the love of God can be satisfied without the righteousness and truth of God being compromised. There is only one way love can be expressed and righteousness be satisfied. God’s love says, “Whosoever may come”. God’s righteousness, truth and holiness says, “The sinner must be condemned for his sin that can’t be overlooked.” Can the two positions be reconciled? Not by human beings they can’t, but in God they can. The solution is Calvary.
It was at Calvary that God’s embracing love and God’s immutable justice against sin was satisfied. It was in Christ who satisfied the love and justice of God. It was at Calvary where love and truth met together and righteousness and peace kissed each other. Jesus is the Great High Priest, our faithful and merciful Great High Priest. Taking those pigs to the market would have been no problem for Jesus as He reconciled both faithfulness and mercy; except it would have been a problem for He was a Jew.
Include the Ark and the Mercy Seat and the Cherubim. May not be time but that is lovely.
Psalm 85 v 12 Indeed, the LORD will give what is good and our land will yield its produce.
Psalm 85 v 13 Righteousness will go before Him and will make His footsteps into a way.
Verse 12 – Israel enjoyed God’s goodness when it walked in obedience with God, and all its blessings were in the land. That will always be true. Productive yields result from a godly walk.
Verse 13 – this is a great verse and has promise of the future blessing for Israel which happens after the Second Coming. The “Him” of this verse is Jesus Messiah. The nation will be righteous when the Lord returns to His people and His righteousness will go before Him in establishing His people.
May the Lord bless His word
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
Gone gone gone gone now my sins are gone.
Revive us again the redeemer has come.
• Breathe on Me Breath of God
• Into My Heart/ Have Thine Own Way.
