Psalm 85
Let’s hear God’s word together
from Psalm 85. This is one of the Psalms of Korah, the sons
of Korah. And it says this, Lord, you are
favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of
Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all
their sin. You withdrew all your wrath and you turned from your
hot anger. Restore us again, oh God of salvation
and put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry
with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to
all generations? Will you not revive us again
so that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast
love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God
the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and
to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his
salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness
meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness
springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from
the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will
yield its increase. Righteousness will go before
him and make his footsteps away. Amen. This is God’s holy and
inspired word. May he bless it to our minds,
our hearts, and our lives. If you know the history of Israel,
maybe one of the most repeated events in warnings would be,
don’t be like the Israelites who were, I think one of our
prayers, we heard it tonight, they were stiff-necked. There
was a family. Several years ago, they were
doing one of the ARP Sunday afternoon spiritual life conferences. I
think it was the Carson family, and they were talking about the
value and the benefit of family worship. And they talked about
the value of reading the Bible as a family. And one of the kids,
when they came to the Old Testament passage, it said the Israelites
were stiff-necked. They read it, they were stiff-naked.
And so that… was memorable for that family.
But very often the people of God become stiff-necked, not
stiff-naked, but stiff-necked. I guess stiff-naked is what happens
when you die. But stiff-necked, stubborn, as the psalmist puts
it, like a horse that will not take bit or bridle, a horse that
will not be led. or steered. And so in the wilderness,
when the people of God rebelled against the people, they fussed
about the food, they fussed about the accommodations, they fussed
about God’s lack of provision. So they saw it and so he was
impatient with them. But as Israel got into the promised
land and as their generations settled in the promised land,
another significant period or epoch or time of the life of
Israel was when God sent prophets over and over and over to warn
the people follow God, no idols, obey the commandments, or I will
remove my presence from the temple and I will remove you from the
promised land. And so likely, it’s not definite,
it’s not for sure, but very likely this psalm is written after the
Israelites return from exile into Babylon. Remember in about
the year 586 or so BC, the Babylonians came and they destroyed Jerusalem,
they destroyed the temple, they destroyed the city, they knocked
down its walls, and they hauled many of the people off to exile
in Babylon. And after about 70 years or so,
after the prayers of Daniel and others were answered, and after
God’s appointed time for his people to be in exile, they began
to return. They returned under Ezra, they
returned under Zerubbabel, and they returned under the leadership
of Nehemiah. And they came back and they began
to build the foundations of the temple. And then they kind of
put a stop to that for a while, about 15, 20 years, till the
prophet Haggai spoke to them. But they built their own houses
and then Nehemiah came and they rebuilt not only the walls, but
they rebuilt the temple. And so Israel was returned to
their land. They did not build back as glorious
and as grand as had been before, but nevertheless, they came back
and they built and they began to worship God at Jerusalem again. And so this is a Psalm that remembers,
that remembers God’s goodness. It remembers God’s mercy, but
it also remembers that God was hard. God was harsh. And so what can this Psalm teach
us? What can it teach us? And I want you to think not necessarily
as individuals, and I want you to not think necessarily as a
nation, particularly in the United States, but think how God can
be gracious and merciful to his church, his church that very
often forgets who she is and who gives us are marching orders. This is a prayer for a church
in shambles. This is a prayer for God’s people
in need of restoration. And so it begins in verses one
through three with a recounting of God has been good. So if ever
you’re down in the dumps, if ever you think God is not at
work in the world and that the church is not prevailing and
shining enough light in the world, remember how good God has been
to his people. Verses 1 through 3 tell us, Lord,
you were favorable to your land. You were favorable to the promised
land. You restored the fortunes of
Jacob and you forgave the iniquity of people, of your people. You
covered all their sins and you withdrew all your wrath and you
turned from your hot anger. If you flip through, Your TV
channels, you will for sure stumble on those good old health and
wealth preachers. Gotta have a positive attitude. Don’t think
negative thoughts. Work hard. Do positive things
and God will bless you. And so we get a stomach full
of health and wealth preaching. We get a stomach full of promises
that life will be really good if we just think positive thoughts
and happy thoughts. You know, this Psalm reminds
us that that is not the way God wants to bless us. It does say
here in verses one through three, God was favorable. He restored
the people to the land, but what’s the bigger blessing? The bigger
blessing is having iniquity forgiven. The bigger blessing is having
your sins covered. The bigger blessing is propitiation. The bigger blessing is that God
and his wrath has figured out a way for someone else to pay
for our sins and they do not fall upon us. And it’s good to
remember God has been good. Yes, we had our Wheaties this
morning. We had our cups of coffee. We
lived under our shingled roofs. We had heat. If we needed it,
we probably had water for a shower. And this all a week after our
primitive living with no cable and No electricity with the hurricanes. But God has been really good
to us, hasn’t he? In material ways. He gave to the Israelites
the promised land. What did we hear this morning?
He gave them water from cisterns they did not dig. He gave them
grapes and olives from plants they did not grow. He gave them
houses full of good things that they did not themselves accumulate
or earn. He gave them all the blessings
of the covenant promises in the land. And he’s done that for
us. He’s given us homes and many good blessings that we can live
a prosperous life here on earth. But most of all, God has been
good to us because he has restored us. He has forgiven us. He has
covered our sins. He has withdrawn his anger and
he has turned his wrath away from us. And let us not forget
to sing amazing grace. Let us not forget God’s goodness.
That’s the first stanza. The second stanza we find in
verses four through seven. And it’s really a request that
God put back what was taken. You’ve heard the phrase before,
may God restore to us what the locust have eaten. May God give
back to us what was destroyed. May God give back to us. And
you know, the Israelites, they went back to the promised land
after being exiled in Babylon. They went back and the walls
were down, the temple was down. Their houses had squatters in
them. You remember Nehemiah’s nighttime
ride and he went and the city was broken down. It was in shambles.
The people were lethargic and would not rebuild. They were
more interested in, as Haggai put it, their own paneled houses
being in good shape. but the temple still remained
in ruins. And so this is a request that
God would put back what has been taken, put back what has been
broken. We have to remember that sin
wreaks havoc. It’s one thing to commit a sin,
it’s another to repent of it, but it’s another to clean up
the mess. And it comes in different shapes and forms. We see the
ugliness of sin every day in our lives. We see war on the
television. We see terrorism. We see sickness. We see epidemics. We see cancer.
We see friends and loved ones close to us who go through hard
things. And we see the effects of sin. It’s part of the world
we live in. But I’m thinking more so here
specifically the sin that we commit and how It affects others. There’s a little question in
our shorter catechism that asks this, are some sins more heinous
than others? And it says some sins, or it
says all sins are heinous in the sight of God. So understand
that all sin is sin. All sin is an affront to the
holy God. All sin is breaking God’s law.
All sin is transgression. But it says this, some sins by
reason of their aggravations are more heinous in the sight
of God than others. Think about King David. He was
not off at war with his men. And he was up on the rooftop,
and he saw over on another rooftop, and he saw something he wanted.
He went and got it. He took it. He lied about it.
He killed for it. And he really brought national
disgrace on Israel. He brought hardship to Uriah’s
family. He brought hardship on generations to come. And so we
have to understand that sin wreaks havoc. We also understand it
from maybe some of the penitential Psalms. Think of King David when
he repented in Psalm 51. What does he say? Take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. One of the effects of sin we
often don’t think of is we get a distance from God. We get estranged
from one another with our sin, but we get a distance from God
and we need that closeness restored back to him. So put back what
was taken is the prayer. If you pick it up in verse four,
it says, restore us again. Oh God of our salvation, put
away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us
forever? Will you prolong your anger to
all generations? Will you not revive us again
that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast
love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. There’s two key words
here. There’s the word restore, and
there’s the word revive. We’ll take the word revive first.
It’s kind of a resurrection word. hear of people being resuscitated.
They’re brought back from the dead. Their heart has stopped
and they get their heart started again. And so they are revived. They are resurrected. We hear
that word often, maybe in, I don’t know, 19th and 20th century American
revivalism, bring back to life what’s dead. Then there’s that
other word, restore. You might think it literally
means and best means that God turns us back to him. He helps
us repent. He helps us turn back towards
him. So revive us, restore us, bring
back to life that which has been dead. Make us sincere for Christ. Why should God answer that prayer?
That’s the $64,000 question though, isn’t it? Why should God answer
that prayer? I mean, Israel’s after all been unfaithful. They’ve
just returned from exile. I mean, it’s like the kid that
comes out from his room after he’s been sent to it because
he’s in trouble, saying, do nice things for me. Why should that
happen? Why should the children of God
be blessed by God? Well, verse seven tells us, because God is
a God of steadfast love. and he is a God of salvation.
And the only appeal we have is that God will show his character
in his response to our prayers. So verses one through three show
us that God has been good and we should remember that. That’ll
get us out of our downward thoughts. Second in verses four through
seven, we pray that God will put back what was taken, put
us back The third point here, verses
eight through nine, the third thing this passage teaches us
that when we call upon the Lord, sometimes we just have to wait.
And that’s the third point here, just the word wait. Verses eight
and nine tell us, let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace. He will speak peace to his people
and to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. And then verse nine, surely his
salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. We simply have to wait. We’re
a culture that ask, actually we don’t ask, we demand customer
service. We want it and we want it now.
We want an instant answer. And the word wait is not in our
vocabulary. The practice of waiting is not
in our repertoire. And it’s often required of the
people of God. We have to wait. And one of the
things that we can do is we wait. if we’ve recalled all that God
has done for us, if we’ve prayed and asked him to restore, is
we can think about who God is. He says in verse eight, let me
hear what God the Lord will speak. I mean, just the expectation
that God, and notice the Lord, God Yahweh, will speak. He’s not gonna be mute, he’s
not gonna be silent, he’s not gonna slumber or sleep. He will
speak and he will speak peace to his people. He knows the answer
is gonna be good. He’ll speak peace to his saints.
And there’s a reminder there at the end of verse eight, when
we’ve repented, when we’ve asked for God to restore, let us not
turn back to our folly. That’s the problem with Israel,
isn’t it? That’s the problem with the church. That’s the problem
with us as sinners is we hear God say, return to me. We hear
God say, obey me. We hear God say, love me, keep
my commandments. And we come back to God and say,
oh, we’re so, so sorry for our sins. And here we are again,
we repent of them. And then before the shine of
his mercy has even worn off, we’re back at our folly if we
are not watchful. He continues to wait on God,
verse nine, surely his salvation is near to those who fear him. Don’t you think, don’t you understand,
don’t you have that experience in the Christian life that if
you stay near God, you stay near his people, you stay in the church,
You stay connected to the means of grace, the word, sacraments,
prayer, fellowship. You endure suffering well. That
when you stay close to God, even if he hasn’t answered you yet,
you’re so near to him and his people that it’s not a bad waiting
process. It’s not a bad waiting room to
be in. And so we wait. We don’t turn
back. We keep going for salvation is
near. And then the last thing this
psalm shows us. I wrote these words, and this
is not in the spirit of romance, this is in the spirit of God’s
character and actions. I simply wrote meet and kiss.
Okay, this is not Hallmark. Fall movies, you know, those
are on now, they’re all cheesy, they’re all the same, just different
characters in a different small town. A different set of pumpkins,
I think, or Christmas trees. They’re good wholesome movies,
though, usually. But meet and kiss, verses 10 through 13. Steadfast love and faithfulness
meet. Righteousness and peace kiss
one another. Faithfulness springs up from
the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes,
the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away.
Can you imagine what it would be like if you were the folks
who returned from Babylon? You had squatters in your house.
The wall of the city of Jerusalem was broken down. The temple was
not there. And for sure, if the temple wasn’t
there, you couldn’t have your cultic worship and your sacrifices
and all that you had been accustomed to. But it was a dangerous place.
It was a sketchy place to be. And so the pioneers, the radical
ones who went back, had a hard task ahead of them. But they
had to have a little vision. They had to have a little vision
to see that if God has brought us back here and he wants us
to dwell in the land, he wants us to build the temple, and he
wants us to put the worship of Yahweh back in the house of God
at Jerusalem on his holy mountain, that for sure good things will
come. And they remember, verse 12,
yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield
its increase. You know, sometimes Sometimes
when you think through the history of the church, we look back and
hear about what people did, but sometimes we have to look forward,
right? We all have to be the forward lookers. And we have
to realize that God loves his church. God loves his people.
God loves his church’s ordinances. He loves worship. He loves preaching.
He loves fellowship. He loves missions, evangelism.
He loves the sacraments. He loves us suffering together. He loves all those things. And
we have to say, you know, the world may think small things
of us. The world may say, this is small potatoes. This is nothing.
But we don’t see with worldly eyes, we see with eyes of the
scripture. And so we understand that even
if it is a day of small things like it was for the exiles who
returned, God, as verse 12 says, will give what is good and our
land will yield its increase and righteousness will go before
and make his footsteps away. But back to this Phrase of verses
10 and 11. Steadfast love and faithfulness
meet, righteousness and peace kiss one another. You know, in
theology, a lot of people have a lot of trouble with how can
God be a God of wrath and justice, yet also be a God of mercy? Remember
Martin Luther? We studied a good bit last year.
And what was Martin Luther’s dilemma? How can a unholy person
have a right standing before a holy God. And remember, Luther
was tormented by his sins, he was tormented by his unfaithfulness,
and he couldn’t understand how a holy God could expect us to
live a holy, righteous life and have that standing before him,
and it tormented the poor monk. But we understand, as Martin
Luther did, that righteousness and peace, steadfast love and
faithfulness, they meet, they embrace, they kiss one another. How does it work? Jesus fulfills
the law’s demands. The law is not abolished. God
will still have his righteous demands met. It just won’t be
by us, but it’ll be met by a law keeper, one who can keep God’s
law perfect. And so his righteousness, his
laws demands, his justice are all met in Jesus who obeyed God
perfectly and sacrificed perfectly. And so verse 10 is one of the
great poetic verses of the Old Testament of the Psalms that
speak of Christ. In Christ, steadfast love and
faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss one another. Justice and mercy in Christ come
together. And this is a great blessing.
And as you read on through verses 12 and 13, you know, for sure
the exiles would have looked ahead and seen God is going to
bless the promised land as it is entered and rebuilt. But how
do we look ahead? How do we look ahead and say,
God will surely bless his people and give them a land? You know,
we are not, well, I probably shouldn’t say this, but we’re
not dispensationalist, right? We’re people who believe in a
new heavens and a new earth, and we believe that God has a
greater promised land. He has a greater new creation
for us. And so in the new heavens and
the new earth, we see a great fulfillment. The Lord will give
us what is good. Our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before
and make his footsteps away. There is something greater to
come and it’s not our church building, it’s not Jerusalem,
it’s not Vatican City, it’s not the most beautiful church on
a hill in some great city in America and all that’s wonderful
and great. But our greatest hope, our greatest longing is for the
new Jerusalem. the Jerusalem that will come
down from heaven. And surely God, in his grace and mercy,
as he restores all things, particularly this fouled creation that’s been
marred by sin, he will bring it to a fulfillment in that new
heavens and new earth. Let’s pause and pray together.
Our Lord and God, we are grateful that You do not leave us in our
sin. You don’t leave us in our trespasses.
You do not leave us exiled. You do not leave us as strangers,
but you will bring us near to your holy city, to your holy
presence. And we can’t wait for that day.
And we know that in Christ, your righteousness and your peace
and your justice and your mercy and your steadfast love and your
faithfulness, they do embrace, they do kiss one another. And
we see that in Christ. And so help us as we look at
the world, as we look at our troubles, as we look at our hardships,
even as we look at our own sin, to be reminded that we can always
come to you. And you will be favorable to us. You will restore
us. You will forgive us. You will cover our sins. You
will put away your indignation toward us. And in Christ, you
will speak peace to us. Lord, this is a great thing.
It’s greater than any blessing, any material blessing we could
ask for. And we long for the day when we’re in your presence
and the lion will lie down with the lamb and in the new heavens
and the new earth, the groaning of creation will cease. And we
look forward to that day. And we say with the apostle and
others who’ve gone before us, come Lord Jesus, come quickly
and make all things new. We pray in his name. Amen. Revive thy work, O Lord, thy
mighty army bear. Speak with a voice that makes
the dead, and make thy people hear. Revive thy work, O Lord, We bide thy word, O Lord. We age so just for thee, and
hungry for the bread of life. O may our spirits be. We bide thy word. ♪ Thanks on thy precious name ♪
♪ And by thy holy ghost our love ♪ ♪ For thee and thine inflame
♪ ♪ Renite thy work, O Lord ♪ ♪ Make Pentecostal shards ♪ Go in peace.