All right, we're in Psalm 85
tonight. This is our first time in Psalm 85, and I wanna look
at this with you. This is a short psalm, relatively
short. It's only 13 verses, so we'll
dive right into that tonight. Let me read through it first
of all. It's probably very familiar to you. I know this psalm, as
I look at it, is one I've read many times and have taken great
comfort in it and also have referenced it many times. So let's read
this psalm from verse one. It says, Lord, thou has been
favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all
Thy wrath. Thou hast turned Thyself from
the fierceness of Thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause Thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt Thou be angry
with us forever? Wilt Thou draw out Thine anger
to all generations? Wilt Thou not revive us again?
that thy people may rejoice in thee, show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in
our land, Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him, and shall set us in the way of his steps. All right,
so this is a comforting psalm, isn't it? And the title, I always
give these titles just the name of the psalm, Psalm 85 in this
case, but the subtitle I've given this one is A Gospel Psalm. Actually, all of the psalms are
gospel psalms, but this one seems very clearly to be a gospel psalm. And as I was thinking about that,
you know, sometimes when we look at scripture, at least in my
own experience, When a text is obscure, and I don't see the
meaning of it, and after some labor and prayers, I begin to
see something about it, I'm always amazed, I'm always surprised
that there's something of God's truth that comes shining forth
through that obscure scripture. But on the other hand, when a
scripture is clear, or at least it seems clear, I'm surprised
in the other direction that I don't appreciate it like I ought to.
and that in fact I am unable to communicate it as well as
it should be communicated. I want to be able to explain
the simple things simply and to rejoice over them in the clarity
that God has given us as he has here in this psalm. And yet I
find myself lacking in both directions. So we're dependent upon God's
grace and I always ask the Lord to help us, to give us insight,
to cause us to understand. We can't understand the things
of God unless he does so, and so we're entirely dependent upon
him, and so that's the case in this particular psalm. But it's
clear as we read through this just at the outset that it is
a gospel message. It's good news, and it's good
news from heaven. This psalm celebrates God's grace,
It celebrates God's salvation. The salvation that he speaks
of and his grace here is spoken of to his people. It's a special
people, a specific people, a distinct people. And it's also spoken
of throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament as grace
and salvation and favor that is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, for example,
in Isaiah 45, it says, in the Lord shall all the children or
the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. And so that's
an example. In the Lord shall they say, I
have righteousness. They'll say, in the Lord have
I righteousness and strength. And that's Isaiah 45, 24 and
25. So you can see even in the Old
Testament, there's an emphasis on in the Lord. And in the New
Testament it's clear that it's in the Lord that we have all
these things, in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look at the New
Testament and you just do a word search on that phrase, in the
Lord, you'll find that the Lord says, or the people of God in
the Old Testament say, in the Lord, we trust in the Lord, we
rest in the Lord, we rejoice in the Lord, We have hope in
the Lord, all these things. And in the New Testament, it
reveals that God's blessings, all of God's blessings, all of
His favor are in the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1 says, God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in the Lord Jesus Christ. And 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
20 says, all of God's promises in Christ are yes and amen. In other words, they are certain
and they are truth. And we say to that, may the Lord
also say so. That's what amen means. Truth,
Lord, let the Lord say so. And that's what 2 Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 20 says about Christ. So all of God's promises
are necessarily in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason that that's
the case is because in Adam all die. Adam sinned and all in Adam
died. And there was no one else found
worthy who could stand and take the book out of God's hand from
the throne and open it and fulfill it and reveal it to us except
the Lord Jesus Christ from Revelation chapter 5. It's no wonder that
we find that all of God's mercy and all of His blessings, all
of His salvation are spoken in the Old Testament and in the
New Testament as being in the Lord Jesus Christ or in the Lord. And so we trust in Him, we hope
in Him, we find our strength in Him, we rejoice in Him, we
rest in Him. It's always in the Lord. There's
no reason There's never a reason that God is pleased with us except
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And because he is pleased with
his people in the Lord Jesus Christ, then he is fully pleased
with them. And this is something that we
relish. We enjoy this to talk about it,
to meditate on it, to find it in God's word over and over again. and to avail ourselves of this
when we go to God in prayer, and when we speak to one another,
this is the joy of our heart. In the Lord, in the Lord, everything
is in the Lord. Our life is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our life, and so we can
go on and on. But this Psalm, if you look at
it, if you just go through this Psalm, and if you were to look
at each verse, in the first verse you see that the Lord has been
favorable It says, Lord thou has been favorable unto thy land. And that really means to those
in the promised land or the land of promise. So God has been favorable
to those who are in the land. Of course, the land itself in
the Old Testament historically and physically was a place of
God's blessings. But we understand that from the
New Testament that what Canaan represented was heaven and our
eternal inheritance that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
he says in verse one that God is favorable towards his land,
or you could say towards his people of promise, towards those
that he has promised an eternal inheritance in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because that's where our eternal
inheritance is. And we'll look at some verses
on that in a moment. But then, secondly, in this same
verse, he says, thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. So here we have a captivity,
and he's talking about, again, a people. People taken captive,
people held in captivity, people away from the land, and so they're
in exile. And the Lord has been favorable
to his land, to his people, he has given the land to, and he
has brought back their captivity. He brought back those in exile
who were held captives by their taskmasters, those who lorded
over them and held them and kept them under in bondage, in slavery,
and even put them to death. So the Lord has brought back
the captivity of Jacob. And Jacob, of course, is a name
that refers to those 12 tribes, historically, and the physical
descendants of Abraham. But more importantly, Jacob refers
to the Israel of God, the children of promise. And we'll look at
that also more in a moment. But he says in verse two, going
on, he says, thou hast forgiven. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. And then he adds this selah or
silah to put a pause there to allow us to consider this with
a great deal of care. So we want to consider it with
a great deal of care because this is the gospel, isn't it?
that for Christ's sake alone God has forgiven us all of our
transgressions, our iniquities and our sins. All of them have
been forgiven and to be forgiven means that God has lifted up
our sins off from us laid them on Christ and Christ has taken
them, he has borne them on himself and taken them away from us and
away from before God's face into the land of forgetfulness as
far as the east is from the west. And so that's the second thing,
or the third thing you see here, he's been favorable towards his
people, he's brought back them from their captivity, their exile,
and he has forgiven them all of their sin, all of it. all
of his people, he says, thou has forgiven the iniquity of
thy people. See, there's the specificity,
there's that distinct people that the Lord talks about, thy
land, Jacob, thy people. Okay, and then also in verse
three, notice, thou has taken away all thy wrath. And thou
hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. So here we have something that
we see that only God can have, only God has the wisdom. Only
God could turn himself from his anger, from his wrath. Our anger
towards God, towards others is, as it says in scripture, the
wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. The wrath
of man does not work the righteousness of God. Our wrath is always cruel,
it is harsh, it is our own motives in our own self that is seeing
something that offends us and is taking action either emotionally
or actually. And so, but when we're angry,
something has to happen in order to take away our anger. And usually
in our stubborn pride, that means that whatever we're angry at
has to be taken away. But that's not the way it is
with God. God's anger is not unjust and
it's not unrighteous. God's anger is righteous and
it is just. And he's slow to anger, it says
in scripture. But he does, God is a God of
wrath. And it's always a just wrath,
because God is holy. His wrath is holy. And it's not
just the wrath of God the Father, but it's called in Revelation,
the wrath of the Lamb. So it's just that God is a God
of wrath. And so something has to be done
in order for us not to be under the wrath of God. If we're under
the wrath of God, then we're separated from God. In order
to be brought back, God has to remove his wrath. But to remove
his wrath, he has to remove what caused his wrath. And that's
our sin. And that's what Christ did. And
so, thou has taken away all thy wrath. God took away his wrath
in the death of his son. And we'll look at some verses
about that. In verse four he says, turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Now it seems like
in verses one through three, all of the People of God have
been brought back from their captivity. God has been favorable
to them by bringing them back. He has forgiven all their sins,
in verse two, and in verse three, he's taken away all his wrath
and his anger. And why in verse four does he
say, turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward
us to cease, if God has already done that? It seems like here
the psalmist is asking God to do what he said in verse 1 through
3. He already did. And so that's
a question that we want to consider. Verse 5 says, Will thou be angry
with us forever? Will thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Will thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? And so in this last verse
that we read there, in verse six, he's showing us that in
order for us to be renewed, to be revived, to be given life
as it were again, in order for God to continuously give that
life to us and turn us again, that's what he's talking about,
being turned, in order to rejoice, God has to take away his wrath.
He has to turn us as the God of our salvation causes anger
to cease and take away his anger that seems to be against us forever. And so verses four, five, and
six, seemed to be asking God to do what he said he did in
the first three verses, and the result of that, if he does what's
asked for in those verses, 4, 5, and 6, will be that the people
of the Lord are given life as revived. They will be rejoicing. And then in verse seven, they
ask, show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. So
now, not only are they asking for the Lord not to be angry
with them, but to revive them again to cause them to rejoice
and to show them mercy and grant them salvation. Give us mercy
and grant us salvation. Mercy is something we need when
we are ill deserving. When you deserve wrath, But God
withholds His wrath, that's mercy. And when you deserve God's justice,
and God not only withholds His justice from pouring out His
justice against us, and gives us the blessings of His righteousness,
that's grace. And so here he says, show us
thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Save us. And
when God saves, he doesn't save partially, but saves entirely. He saves to the uttermost. And
so this is a prayer we need. This is something we need, don't
we? We need mercy. We need to be saved. The problem
is that we don't need these things unless God turns us, as he says
in verse 6, will thou not revive us again? And I find in my own
life, day by day, I need to be revived. I need to be given,
as it were, the first time that life through hearing God's Word
as if it was coming to me for the first time, I need to be
revived. Because we get complacent, we
grow lukewarm, as it says in Revelation, We become enamored
with just the busyness of life, or the cares of life, or the
enticements of the world. We can become proud in our spiritual
walk, or we can become self-righteous and judgmental towards others.
All these things are things we need to be turned again from.
And so this being revived again is necessary. The only way God
does that is by showing us mercy and saving us. But that's not,
in these things you can see that this is a continuous supplication
for God's mercy, a continuous supplication for His salvation,
a continuous confessing of our need to be turned from our sinfulness,
our sinful ways, and turned to the Lord and His mercy and grace.
Verse 8. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his
saints, but let them not turn again to folly." What is the
Lord going to speak when he speaks in a way that shows us mercy
and saves us and turns us so that we rejoice in the Lord?
What is he going to say? Well, he's going to say what
causes peace in our hearts. And what is that? It's whatever
makes peace for us. It's whatever takes away our
sin. When the issue of our sin is
dealt with by God himself. And he tells us this and persuades
us of it, causes us to understand it with spiritual understanding
and spiritual persuasion so that we embrace it as the truth from
heaven. Then we receive the peace that
comes in believing. In Romans 15, 13, now the God
of peace fill you with all joy, and peace, or peace and joy,
I can't remember the order, in believing through the power of
the Holy Spirit. Let me read that to you because
I obviously didn't quote it correctly. Romans 15, 13. He says, now the
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So peace comes through believing,
believing comes through hearing, and hearing comes by God's grace
through the gospel that is given to us. The Holy Spirit has to
cause us to spiritually hear it. And that produces faith,
and faith leads to peace in the heart. Being justified by his
grace, by faith, in Romans 5, verse 1, he says, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. We receive the truth of
justification by Christ's blood, and therefore we receive peace
from God through believing. And that's what he's saying here.
And this is from the God of hope, who fills us with joy and peace
in believing. And this is so that we would
abound in hope. Not only is he the God of hope,
but he causes us to abound in hope. And this hope is through
the power of the Holy Ghost. So these graces, the grace of
faith, the grace of hope, the grace of love, all come to us
by God through the Holy Spirit. But back in Psalm 85, he says
in verse eight, I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for
he will speak peace to his people and to his saints, but let them
not turn again to folly. There's nothing more foolish
than to go about seeking acceptance with God, in a way that we invent. So there's two things that men
do by nature. First, we invent perceptions
of what God is. That's called an idol. And secondly,
we bow down to that perception of what God is that we've invented
through ways that we have, again, conjured up how we can be acceptable
to that God. So it's not the true God. unless
we understand the true God from Scripture, unless we believe
Him. And it's not His way, but it's
our own way, and that's the folly that God charged Israel with
throughout their history, was idolatry. So don't turn again
to folly. Why were they taken away into
captivity? Because of their idolatry. They
broke the first commandment. And notice in verse seven, he
says, surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that
glory may dwell in our land. Verse nine, surely his salvation
is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
So here we have that God's salvation is near. It's near those that
fear him. And when we fear the Lord, then
we believe him. These two things go hand in hand.
They're the same coin. You can see both sides of the
coin. The fear of the Lord is this
reverential awe that comes from realizing who God is. I was just
thinking this last week how infinitely high God is and how insignificant
I am compared to God. Absolutely insignificant to God. But worse, I am a sinner against
Him in my insignificance. And yet God in His infinite height
of glory and wisdom and righteousness. There's nothing in God. There's
no shadow of wrong. There's pure light. He stooped
in order to save sinners through the death of his son. And this
is beyond comprehension and would be also beyond our ability to
believe it were it not for grace. And so that's that fear of God
that leads us to look to Christ, to trust him alone. Because the
law of God, it says in Romans 3, it asks this question, do
we then make void the law through faith? In other words, the Jew
would say, well, you're saying all these things about how we're
justified through faith in Christ, and so then does that make God's
law meaningless, empty, vain, useless, unnecessary? Do we make
it void? No, no. Faith actually is the
only way by which we can establish the law. Because when we look
to Christ, we're in agreement with God, first of all, that
the holiness of his law required an obedience and a sacrifice
that only Christ himself could give. God had to magnify his
own law. He had to make it honorable,
Isaiah 42, verse 21. And so he did that in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and faith sees that, and faith sees its own,
considering the believing sinner, sees its own sinfulness, a sin,
not only sinfulness, but sins against God, and God's justice
that is offended, and God's wrath, therefore, and condemnation against
me for that, and that God must be just. And yet then faith also
sees the all-sufficiency that God has provided to answer His
own holiness, and that to the glory of His Son and Himself
in His Son. That's what faith does. And so
faith is the only way that God's law is established. And so when we say that the fear
of the Lord is one side of the coin, that reverential awe that
sees God as he is from scripture and what he requires of me, and
then the other side is faith, understanding that looks to Christ
only, that's completely consistent with the fact that this is how
God's law is established. in the hearts of his people,
although it's established objectively in the Lord Jesus Christ by his
obedience and his blood. So that's why he says here, surely
his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. God is glorified when his people
trust him. Remember Abraham, he was not
weak in faith. He was strong in faith, giving
glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised,
he was able also to perform. Therefore, it was imputed to
him for righteousness. It says in Romans chapter four,
And then in verse 10 of Psalm 85, it says, mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
And here what we see in verse 10 is this wonderful, what shall I say? This wonderful
agreement. between those things in God that
we would naturally think were in opposition to each other.
So there's no compromise. In God's salvation, there's no
compromise of his justice. He doesn't lower the standard
of his law in order to save sinners. In fact, he amplifies it in the
salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. Think of the scales of
justice. On the one side is all that God
requires of us, both for obedience and for our sins against him,
an infinite weight. But on the other side is the
perfect obedience of the one who is God, the Son of God, taking,
willingly stooping, he who is equal with God, willingly taking
the place of a servant, and not merely a servant, but a servant
who obeyed, and not merely any obedience, but the obedience
of his death on the cross, bearing our sins under the wrath of God. That more than balanced the scales
of justice. That brought satisfaction. That
pleased the Lord. And so when it says here that
mercy and truth are met together. He's talking about the cross
of Christ, isn't he? He's talking about the satisfaction,
the mercy of God, that God says His glory is that He's gracious
and forgiving iniquity. That's His glory. Why is it His
glory? Well, because He would be so
good. And not just good in being gracious,
but good in being gracious while he answers his own holiness in
the blood of his own son. For those who are the worst possible
creatures who have offended him, these who were insignificant
people, who have raised their hand of rebellion against him,
and yet he saved them at this highest cost. This is the righteousness
and mercy. Mercy and, let me read it again. He says, mercy and truth are
met together. It's like they're friends now. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Righteousness made demands and
God made peace in the blood of his son and now there's such
an agreement between them that there's this warm embrace, this
kissing. They're friends. Verse 11, truth
shall spring out of the earth. What is truth? Well, there's
the truth of the gospel, there's the truth of God concerning us,
there's the truth about our sin, there's the truth about who Christ
is, there's the truth about God's salvation, truth about who God
is. What is this truth here? It's
the truth that Christ is and has declared to us in the gospel.
And it says, that truth shall spring out of the earth. And
when did that happen? Well, it happened because mercy
and truth met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Therefore, Christ rose. He rose
from the dead. Truth springs out of the earth
and the gospel is proclaimed. and sinners believe him. Remember
1 Timothy 3, let me read that to you. You'll see this is part
of the great mystery of God in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. He says, 2 Timothy, is it 1 Timothy? I must
have the wrong reference here. It must be 2 Timothy. Nope, it
has got to be 1 Timothy. Oh, I was looking at chapter
four, no wonder. First Timothy 3.16, it says, without controversy,
nothing can be said to debate this. God himself is saying this. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. That's a great mystery. The mystery
of incarnation, the mystery of godliness. He says, God was manifest
in the flesh, God in flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up
into glory. That's a great mystery. And what
he's saying here is that because truth springs out of the earth,
righteousness shall look down from heaven. And this truth springing
out of the earth is this mystery. The Gentiles, Christ rises from
the dead. God has justified his people
in the blood of his son. And therefore the gospel is proclaimed. Sinners hear it. Those who were
held captive by sin and Satan are now set free. And righteousness
shall look down from heaven because it's all according to what God
eternally determined would be done for the glory of His Son.
In verse 12 he says, Yea, the Lord shall give that which is
good, or the Lord shall give good, if you just take out the
words in italics. The Lord shall give good, and
our land shall yield her increase. Isn't that what Jesus said would
happen when he was lifted up? I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, meaning on the cross, will draw all men to me? God
is glorified. Father, glorify thy name. I have
both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. Now is the
judgment of this world. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me. And this he said concerning his
own death." That's in John chapter 12. So here, that's what's being
spoken of here. The Lord shall give good, and
our land shall yield her increase." The fruit of this, of Christ's
death, is that if a seed falls into the ground, it bears much
fruit. Christ fell, as it were, as a
seed into the ground. He died, he rose again, and much
fruit is produced by his death. All men, all of God's elect are
drawn to him, and that's what it's speaking about here. That's
the good. And then in verse 13, righteousness
shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps.
Righteousness shall go before him. The declaration of Christ's
obedience and his blood is always the theme. We need to hear it. We need to hear it over and over
again. And it goes before God. No wonder
He has it go before us. No wonder God uses the declaration
of the gospel to grow us as newborn babes and to increase us and
to establish us in the faith, to cause us to be thankful, to
cause us to worship God, and to cause us to ask Him for the
same grace that He gave us in our salvation over and over and
continuously. So that's an overview of this
psalm, and I want to get into it in more detail next time.
And so I want to do that, but before I do, going back just
to verse one through three. Let me read that again and give
you one scripture, and then we'll quit for this night, for tonight.
He says, Lord, thou has been favorable to thy land, thou has
brought back the captivity of Jacob, thou has forgiven the
iniquity of thy people, thou has covered all their sin, Selah
thou has taken away all thy wrath thou has turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger now look at Isaiah chapter 12
in Isaiah 12. It's almost the same thing and
it's it shows how God's Word is established not just in one
place, but in many places the same thing is said in Isaiah
chapter 12 He says this in verse 1 In that day thou shalt say,
this is what believers will say in this day. He's referring to
the day of Christ. Oh Lord, I will praise thee. There's no one else to praise
for this. Though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me. Isn't that
amazing? God's anger was turned away,
and in the place of his anger is his comfort in Christ. That's
the gospel. Look at verse two. Behold, God
is my salvation. Only God could have done this.
He says, God is my salvation. I will trust. This is what causes
us to trust, because God's wrath has been turned away by God himself.
God who became my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He also is become my salvation. There's nothing in me in there
except being saved by the Lord Himself who became my salvation.
And that's why we trust Him. If He became my salvation, my
salvation is in the Lord, isn't it? And if He did it, then it's
done, and it's eternal, and it was determined before, and it
will go, it will be established in the end, and nothing shall
change it. And no one can stop it and no one can say anything
against it because it's all the Lord's doing. He accomplished
it even though he was angry with me. He took away his wrath. And he says in verse three, therefore,
because of this, with joy shall you draw water out of the wells
of salvation. That's what the gospel is. It's
a well of salvation because it directs us to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the fountain of living waters. And so, back in Psalm
85, this is what he's talking about in the first three verses,
and in the next three verses, where I ask the question, how
is it, why does it seem like these things that he said were
done in the first three verses, now he's asking him to do again? And that's what we'll consider
when we begin next time. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
this great comfort, this psalm that is a gospel psalm, speaking
of you yourself, initiating a reconciliation, determining to reconcile your
people in the death of your own son when they themselves were
enemies, when they were without strength to reconcile themselves
or to turn away themselves from their own sin. to remove their
sinfulness from themselves, and you did all of it. You appointed
your son to this. You sent him to perform this.
He finished the work. He ascended on high. He sits
in glory, and he has all the glory of God given to him because
he fulfilled what only God could do, and he did it for your glory. What amazing grace this is, Lord.
We pray that we would be enamored we would find great peace and
joy in believing by the power of your Holy Spirit given to
us. And we would realize you are the God of hope, the God
of hope who has given us hope because of Christ. In his name
we pray. Amen.