Psalms 85:1-2. LORD, thou host been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
Let us think of what God has done for his people. He has been very favorable to us in years past. He has lifted up the light of his countenance upon his chosen ones, and made them glad. «Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.» We were in captivity once, exiles far off from God and home; but he has led our captivity captive, and we are now in bondage no longer, blessed be his name! Note again what the psalmist says: «Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people.» What a joy that is! Forgiven sin is enough to make us sing to all eternity. If sin be pardoned, thou hast a mass of mercy in that fact too great for thee to estimate its value. «Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people.» See how the inspired writer puts it again: «Thou hast covered all their sin,-hidden it, put it out of sight with that divine covering of the atonement, which has hid for ever, even from the eyes of God, the sin of his people. There is a happy memory for us,-to see what God has done for us. Let us bless his name for it. Now comes another happy memory.
Psalms 85:3. Thou host taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
«Thou didst stay thy bow even after it was bent. Even when thy right arm was bared for war, thou didst make peace for us. ‘Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.' When it burned like fire, yet didst thou stay it through the great atonement of Jesus «Christ our Lord.» Now comes in a prayer;
Psalms 85:4. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
«Thou hast done all this for thy people; now do this for us who fear lest we are not thy people,-comfort us. Turn us, and then take thine anger from our conscience, and let us be at peace with thee.» How I wish that many in this Tabernacle would pray even now, «Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease!» It is the prayer of a church that is under a cloud; it is the prayer of a nation that is suffering for its sin; it is the prayer of a sinner who sees what God has done for his people, and who entreats the Lord to do the same for him.
Psalms 85:5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
«Surely we have not got into eternity yet. Lord, do not have eternal anger toward us. ‘Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?' Wilt thou not hear our prayers? Wilt thou not have mercy upon us?»
Psalms 85:5. Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
«Shall our children also suffer? Wilt thou not have pity upon them?»
Psalms 85:6-7. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
«We are such poor blind creatures that we cannot see; yet, O Lord, show us thy mercy, make us see it, reveal it to us; and grant us thy salvation? It must be a free grant, a grant of grace, a grant of love, therefore, grant us thy salvation.» Listen to this eighth verse.
Psalms 85:8. I will hear what God the LORD will speak:
«I will be silent. I have spoken to him; now I will hear what his answer is. I will hold my ear attentive to listen to his voice.» O my dear hearers, when you are willing to hear God, there are good times coming to you!
Psalms 85:8. For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints:
There is peace, peace, nothing else but peace for them.
Psalms 85:8. But let them not turn again to folly.
For if they do, the Lord will speak to them by rods and chastisements. They that get God's peace must mind that they keep it. They must walk carefully, or else they will break the peace, and they may themselves get broken in pieces. «Let them not turn again to folly.»
Psalms 85:9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;
When you honour him, reverence him, worship him, his salvation cannot be far away from you.
Psalms 85:9-10. That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together;
At the cross is their meeting-place. There, you shall see God's mercy and God's truth embracing each other over the great sacrifice of Christ. Mercy and truth seem set at variance in the sinner's case till they are reconciled by the blood of Jesus.
Psalms 85:10. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
It seemed impossible that God should be righteous and yet be at peace with sinners; but Christ has taken both parties by the hand, and at Calvary they kiss each other. God is as righteous as if he were not gracious, and as gracious as if he were not just. Yea, his justice and his peace are each of them all the brighter because of the other.
Psalms 85:11. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Carpeted with truth, and canopied with righteousness; what a wonderful scene is before us! Truth is coming out of the ground, as though it had been a dead thing, which begins to live, and leaves its tomb; and righteousness is throwing up the windows of heaven, and leaning out to look down upon the sons of men. «Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.» What a wonderful meeting this is of truth and righteousness,-truth lifting up her hand to heaven, and righteousness putting down its hand to earth!
Psalms 85:12. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.
It is all well when it is well with us in our relation to God. When we are reconciled to him, then all things are reconciled by that fact.
Psalms 85:13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in. the way of his steps.
Lord, hear the prayer of this Psalm, and answer it to us, for Jesus sake!
Amen.
This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 43:22-28; Isaiah 44:1-8; and Psalms 85:1