We're in Psalm 85. This is our
second part to Psalm 85. Last week we went through this
a verse at a time, but in an overview, kind of a thumbnail
sketch way. So I want to give you, first
tonight, I want to give you the outline of the psalm so that
you can see that. I think it helps It helps me
at least see the flow. Whenever the Lord speaks, it's
important, every word, every phrase, everything, but it all
has, all the words are thoughts. They're not just random words,
they're thoughts, and those thoughts are organized. And that organized
thought is what comes to us from scripture. It's God's mind. And
so when we look at this, it's always our goal to try to see
why the Lord said this as he did. And so I'm hoping the outline
guides us in that way, as the scriptures itself suggest this
outline. And then what I want to do is
I want to take from that outline and I want to go through these
verses and see if we can tie these verses in this chapter
of the Psalms to the real spiritual and living meaning of these things
and not just a historical interpretation of it. Okay, so let's begin by
looking at this outline in this psalm. Now there's three sections
in this psalm. If you can look at it, the first
section runs from verse 1 through verse 3. And I want to read that
with you. It says, Lord, thou hast been
favorable unto thy land. And the word favorable there
can be understood as the word well-pleased, or they're well-pleasing
in the Lord's sight. And the land refers not just
to the physical land, like the physical land or the physical
nation of Israel, but he's talking about a spiritual land, a spiritual
people. And I think that if we don't
see that, then really the Bible has no lasting meaning at all. If it's just physical things
and political boundaries and nations and things like that,
then it's not much different than a newspaper, but it's not
like that at all. God's word, it says in Romans
7, the law is spiritual. And we know it's spiritual, it's
from God who is Spirit, it's to people who are born of the
Spirit, and the Spirit of God teaches us to know Christ, and
that's the way we have a spiritual mind, it says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. So here he says, Lord thou has
been well pleased or favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought
back the captivity of Jacob. Now, many times in Jacob's history,
they were in captivity, for example, in Egypt or in Babylon. But he's
not talking about he's not in the end goal of this psalm. He's
not talking about that physical captivity, although it did serve
as a template and a framework that we conceive in history that
shows us a spiritual truth. He's talking about a spiritual
nation that was in captivity. called Jacob, and a spiritual
enemy that held them in captivity. The name of Babylon, there's
a spiritual Babylon. The name of Egypt, there's a
spiritual Egypt. Sodom, for example, is a spiritual
entity in Scripture. In the book of Revelation, chapter
11, it calls the the religion, the Jewish religion, where it
was centered in Jerusalem at the time, Sodom and Egypt, spiritually
Sodom and Egypt. So it shows us that God is viewing
things through the lens and teaching his people from a spiritual viewpoint. Spiritual Jacob, those are God's
people throughout the world who are by nature in captivity, and
they're held in captivity until the Lord frees them. So the first
verse is saying, Lord, thou hast been favorable to thy land. Thou
hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. And notice in this
first section, it tells what God has done. Notice how many
times it speaks of what he has done in the past. Thou hast been
favorable. Thou hast brought back the captivity. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. And verse two is especially dear
and sweet to us, isn't it? As sinners, the Lord has covered
the sins of his people. How did he do that? Well, he
covered that, their sins, by the precious blood of Christ,
didn't he? It says in Isaiah 43, verse 25, that he blotted
out their transgressions. In chapter 44 of Isaiah 22, he
says he blotted out their transgressions. And so there's this blotting
out of God's people's sins. But in Genesis 3, if you remember
when God When Adam and Eve first sinned against God and God sent
them out of the Garden of Eden, what did He do? What was the
first thing God did then after they were out of that garden?
He took the skins of an animal and He covered them with those
skins. And there's great significance
in that because it shows us that our sins need to not only be
washed from us, but we need to be covered. And we know that
God covers our sins by the work of Christ, by His shed blood,
but that covering is represented in Scripture as our righteousness.
So it teaches us in Genesis 3 verse 21 that the covering God provided
and put on Adam and Eve was preaching the gospel of the righteousness
of Christ when He who knew no sin was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And so, of course,
He was made sin when He offered Himself to God as a sacrifice
for our sins and bearing our sins in His own person. All right,
so that's verse two. This is what God has done. He
has been favorable. He has brought back captivity
of His people. He has forgiven their iniquity. He calls them
thy people, Jacob, thy land, and thou hast covered all their
sin. Notice the particular, the distinguishing
grace of God. And then he says, Selah. That's
a lot. We need to stop and let that sink in. Then verse three
goes on in the things that God has done. This is the first section
of the psalm. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger." So, if you were to look at these
first three verses, you could say, this is what God has already
done. That's the first section of this
psalm. What God has already done. And
you could add to that by saying, this is what God has done for
his people in Christ because clearly he cannot put away sin,
he cannot cover iniquity and sin and take away his wrath unless
it is by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5 verse
9 says, therefore being justified by his blood. To be justified
by Christ's blood means that God considers the blood of Christ,
not our sin. He considers the blood of Christ
and by that blood justifies us because there's a righteousness
in that blood and a removing of sin in that blood. So both
are connected with the blood of Christ, both sins cleansing
and righteousness. And so that's why I mentioned
Genesis 3 verse 21 as well. All right, so this first section
here is what God has done for his people in Christ And it includes
bringing them, being favorable to them, being well-pleasing
with them, bringing back their captivity, forgiving their iniquity,
covering their sin, taking away all of God's wrath, and turning
himself from the fierceness of his anger. And the other thing
you could notice here is that what God did, this is what God
did, God did this, Lord, thou hast done these things. There's
no part of our doing in this, is there? There's no part of
our doing in this. God did it. And not only that,
but he did it through Christ for us, so there's this work
of God for his people emphasized in these first three verses.
And the other thing I think that we really need to get a hold
of in these first three verses is that what God did for us in
Christ had the result of putting away our sin and all these things
that he mentions, but he did it to himself. In other words,
what motivated God to do these things was a characteristic in
God himself. And the reason that he did these
things was to answer his own requirements. And I think that
that's really important so that we see then that what God has
done here is He's reconciling. This psalm is talking about a
reconciliation, isn't it? And the first step in reconciliation
is propitiation. It's atonement. Propitiation
means God has made satisfaction. to His own justice in the blood
of His Son. Remember, 1 John 4, verse 10,
it says that here in His love, not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. And so, in that, we see that
God did it, it was out of His love, it was for us, but He offered
Christ to God. In Ephesians 5, verse 2, it says,
Christ loved us, and gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savor. So that's the nature of propitiation. That's the nature of the offering
of Christ. Christ offered himself. He didn't
offer himself to us. He offered himself to God. God
received his sacrifice. God then was propitiated. His
wrath was removed. And so God's wrath is removed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the first section
here in this psalm. You see that? Now, the next section
begins at verse four. And in verse four through verse
seven, it seems to take almost, it almost takes the opposite
view, as if the work isn't done. In other words, he's talking
about similar things, but he's talking about it from the framework
as if it needs to still be done. So in verse four he says, turn
us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to
cease. But in verse three he said, thou
hast taken away all thy wrath. You see the difference here?
It seems like in verse four, he's bringing back up God's anger
towards them as if it still exists. And yet in verse three, he says
he's already taken it away. So that requires us, it makes
us scratch our head and wonder what's going on here. And that's
why in this section, in the second section of this psalm, which
begins in verse four, what we're going to see is that consistent with what happened
in verses one through three, where God did something in the
past, and it's done, did it by Christ for his people, in sacrifice,
in offering to God himself, and therefore affected the way God
sees his people. That's what verses one through
three are about. But then in verse four, he takes what God
has done in the first three verses and he emphasizes the application
of that to us. So we need now, we need to be
reconciled to God. God has provided for himself
according to his own holiness. He's answered his own righteous
character in truth and in justice. and in righteousness and so on.
But now he's going to verse four and he's saying, turn us. Notice,
turn us. It starts that way. God has turned
himself, now he says in verse four, turn us. Now, so this second
section here, you could identify, this second section is what God
causes, what he does in us because of what he's done for us. Okay,
so that's what we're gonna see in the second section. And what
you see in the second section here is this, first of all, in
the first part, this admiration, this utter surprise and amazement
at God's grace for what he's done for us. And then in verse
three, this supplication that God would do in us bring the
results of what he's done for us into our own experience and
apply it to us. So the first thing he asks in
this supplication is, turn us. So in those two words, turn us,
the Lord is teaching us, as he has taught us, that repentance
is God's work in us. It says in Acts 5.31 that Christ
was exalted as a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel
and the forgiveness of sins. And in 2nd Timothy, chapter two,
I think it's second Timothy, it might be first, let me turn
to that and read that to you. He says, in second Timothy chapter
two, he says, the servant of, in verse 24, Paul talking to
Timothy, he says, the servant of the Lord must not strive.
It's not about beating people up in an argument. He says, you
must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
We can be patient, can't we, if we know the truth? If the
Lord is the one who is our rock, then we can be patient. The Lord
is going to accomplish his work. He says in verse 25, in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, per adventure,
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will. So that's captivity,
isn't it? being captive by the devil at
his will, we need to be recovered. How does God do that? He gives
us repentance. And that repentance is a change
of mind. The word repentance The word
repent is a word that means a change of mind. And someone might say,
well, what about all the actions? Well, the mind is the root of
everything, isn't it? It's the root. And you can change
actions. People can go to a self-help
group and get their actions modified. You can change a man's behavior. But what's important is what's
going on in the heart, right? In Proverbs chapter 4, I think
it's verse 23, he says, My son, keep thine heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life." So, God has to change
us in the way we think. He has to change our minds. And
that's what repentance is. And so, turn us, in verse 4,
is saying, you have to do this. We're waiting, we're depending
on you. And he tells who he's praying
to, turn us, O God, of our salvation, verse four again, and cause thine
anger toward us to cease. So when the Lord changes our
mind, then we realize that God is at peace with us. And that's
what faith does. It brings into our own thinking
the way God sees things. It's called the mind of Christ.
When our thoughts have been converted and persuaded to think as God
thinks about things through the gospel, the truth that's declared
to us, and we're persuaded of it by God's grace, then we think
things as we see things from God's perspective. And that gives
us peace, doesn't it? Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. We'll see that it
is ceased in your work for us in Christ. And verse five, he
says, this is still asking God to do in us, and consistently,
and as a result of what he's done for us, he says, will thou
be angry with us forever? Will thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? I wonder if in the mind of the
psalmist at this point he's thinking, we were in captivity in Egypt,
we were in captivity in Babylon, it seems like there's this repeated
pattern in the book of Judges, everyone was doing what was right
in their own eyes, they were serving idols, and God delivered
them into the hands of the enemies who taught them to serve these
idols. the very ones whose idols they
served they became slaves to. And this happened over and over
again, constantly, throughout Israel's history. And so I wondered
when I was reading this, is that what he's thinking about here?
Is he thinking that, is this going to be the never-ending
pattern of our history? Will your anger always be against
us to all generations because we'll never be delivered from
the cause of our captivity? And so you can see this supplication
being made to God. It's a supplication of a needy
sinner, isn't it? Someone who needs God to save
them. And that's the prayer that God gives. This is inspired by
the Spirit of God, isn't it? This is inspired by Him, and
this is what He is instructing His people. This is the way we
live and walk in His life. First, He declares to us what
He's done in Christ. It's past, it's perfect, it doesn't
need to be repeated. Second, He teaches us to pray
according to that, that the Lord would work in us, and consistently
with that, as He has done for Himself. So bring from Heaven
and bring me the words from heaven and heaven's view of Christ into
my own heart so that I will have peace with God. And then he says
in verse, and so these questions then become rhetorical questions,
don't they? Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger to us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with
us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? The answer of grace is no. Why? Why is it no? Well, because God
is not a man that he should repent. He's not the son of man that
he should change his mind and repent. He doesn't say one thing
and do another later. He doesn't have a change of will.
His will, his mind, his words fixed. There's no need to change. He sees the end from the beginning.
And so all of his works are known from eternity. So consistent
with his love to us and his grace towards us in Christ, having
forgiven us our sins, delivered us from our captivity that our
sins brought us into, and then taking away all his wrath, consistent
with that, we pray and ask God to turn us and to show us that
he will not be angry with us, but he will revive us. He says
in verse six, will thou not revive us again? The answer is he will,
because God doesn't start a work that he doesn't finish. Philippians
1.6, God is faithful who has begun a good work in you, who
he will perfect it to the end. All of God's work towards his
people are that way. He speaks of it in Romans chapter
eight, that God Those He foreknew, He predestinated. Those He predestinated,
He called. Those He called, He justified.
Those He justified, He glorified. And all because He predestined
them to be conformed to the image of His dear Son. So you can see
that God's work is an unbroken chain. It's not going to break.
God's not going to break it. He's not going to allow even
our sin to break it. And that's why when we pray this
way, because God puts it in our hearts, we feel the weight of
our sins in our own conscience. We're looking to what God has
declared to us that he's done in Christ, and we're asking him
to change our mind about the way we come to God and the way
he is towards us because of Christ. Will thou revive us again? Won't
you give us life again? that thy people may rejoice in
thee. You see how dependent we are? God has to do these things
in order for us to rejoice. We can't be, we can't love God
who is angry with us. We can't do it. We love him because
he first loved us and that love is revealed to us in Christ because
that's the only place God's love is. And so these, and then the
last one, verse seven, show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant
us thy salvation. All these are expressing the
desire in supplication for God to apply his work which he performed
for us and has completed in Christ to us in our experience. And
that is what this second section from verse four through seven
is saying here. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us thy salvation. The word grant brings with it
the notion of gift, doesn't it? It's a grant. It's something
that was deeded to you. It became your inheritance. In
fact, in 2 Peter 1, verse 1, he says that we have received
faith as an allotment. I'll read that to you in 2 Peter
1. Let me turn there. I want you to hear the way it's
worded in the King James Version and I'll tell you how it's worded
in the literal translation. He says, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained, like
precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. And he's really saying here,
they've obtained it as an allotment, so it was something bequeathed
to them, like precious faith, meaning their faith is as the
apostles' faith. We all receive the same precious
faith. And it says through, and the
word through here could also be in the righteousness, and
of God and our Savior, it should just say, of God, our Savior,
Jesus Christ. He is our God and Savior. Jesus
Christ is our God and Savior. So it's His righteousness and
we are trusting Him. And that's an allotment of faith
given to us by God. And that's what He's saying here
in Psalm 85 verse 7. Show us Thy mercy, O Lord. Grant
us Thy salvation. Give to us this salvation. Give
us faith. Remember Simeon in Luke chapter
2. He said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation when he looked
upon Christ in his infancy. All right, so that's the second
section here of this psalm. The first section, what God has
done for His people. The second section, our supplication
that God would do these things in us. God removed what would
have prevented Him to bless us with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places. He removed it in the blood of
His Son. And therefore, he opened, having removed it, he opened
the floodgates, the river of life, as it were, or the well
of salvation to us, because Christ has done this. And now we, in
our experience, we come under the realization that unless God
does something, who has done something for us, converts us.
He gives us faith in Christ. He causes us to see these things.
then we won't be turned. But if he does, then we'll be
turned, we'll rejoice in his salvation, we'll see it. And
we need this reviving he speaks of in verse six. This is a continuous
need. You're looking at someone who
needs to be revived right now. I need to be given life again
and again and again, a renewing, a constant renewing of the Holy
Spirit, he says in Titus 3 verse 5. The washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, remember? So this is something
we need. We need every day, every moment,
when we get up, throughout the day, at the end of the day, our
thoughts need to be directed to what God has said concerning
His own will, His own word, His own work in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what's gonna cause us to trust Him and rejoice in
Him, and then we'll see His salvation. And notice He says in verse eight,
I will hear what God the Lord will speak. Now this third section
of the psalm, having said what God has done, having shown the
supplication of God's people as he has taught them, they're
praying that God would apply to them the work he's done in
Christ so that they in their hearts would be at peace, seeing
their salvation in Christ and his mercy given to them freely
for Christ's sake. He says in verse eight, I will
hear what God the Lord will speak. And this is very interesting,
isn't it? I will hear. You see, faith comes by hearing.
Hearing spiritually, we can hear, you can hear physically and not
spiritually hear at all, can't you? How many times have you
heard something and it just didn't sink in? A lot, most of the time. In fact, it seems rare when things
sink in. In 2 Peter 1, he says this, Peter, remember, was one of the
three who saw Christ transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration.
He says in 2 Peter 1, verse 18, this voice which came from heaven
we heard, he's talking about the voice of God the Father,
when we were with him, Christ, in the Holy Mount, we have also
a more sure word of prophecy, that's the scripture, where unto
you do well that you take heed, notice, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star
arise in your hearts. That's that light, we need that
light given to us. It's like, aha! The aha of grace,
right? We need that light, we need that
life. And so he says, will thou not revive us again? will not
revive us again, this continuous need of God's revival. But in
verse 8, when he says, I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
he's saying now, having expressed these first seven verses in prayer,
he's saying, I'm going to listen, because God is going to answer.
He's going to answer the supplication. He's going to answer these questions.
Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger
to all generations? Will you not revive us again
that thy people may rejoice in thee? And the last verse of verse
7, Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation, is
a prayer for him to do that, but he's going to answer the
prayer now in verse 8. So the last section of this psalm
here, in verses 8 to the end, is what God says he will do for
his people in Christ again. and what they therefore will
rely on him to do because he said he would do it. You see,
that's the way we know what he's done, that's the way we know
our need, that's the way we know Christ's all-sufficiency, and
yet, he wants us to hear what he says he will do for us. Because
that's what faith is, isn't it? We walk by faith, we don't walk
by sight. Nor do we walk by the law. We
walk by faith. We walk by faith in Christ. All of it is a gift of God's
grace. We depend upon God to deal with us according to Christ's
work in grace, not according to our work, which would be justice. Some people don't like that God
would choose whom he would save and be merciful to. But what
that means is that they're just asking for God to deal with them
on the basis of justice. And He will. But a sinner can't
survive God dealing with them on the basis of justice, not
in their own person, but only if God deals with them in grace.
having dealt with them in grace by dealing with Christ in justice
for us. So in the last section of this
psalm, beginning in verse eight, this is speaking, this is God
speaking about what he will do and how God's people then rely
on him. and join in faith to come to
him on that basis, to depend on him to do what he said he
would do. In verse, you know, these verses,
turn us again, or turn us, O God of our salvation, cause your
anger toward us to cease, asking God to apply his word to us like
this. because of what Christ has done,
but here, now he's saying, 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. So, when God speaks to his people,
what does he speak? according to this verse, he speaks
peace to them. And that addresses the concern
that was raised in verse four and five. And when he says, turn
us, O God of our salvation, cause thine anger toward us to cease.
Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw your anger to all
generations? I will hear what the Lord, God
the Lord will speak. He will speak peace to his people.
This is what God is going to do. What He does in us is He
directs us to Christ who died for us, and in that operation
of grace within us, He speaks peace to us in the gospel. He
says, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. He will speak
peace to His people and to His saints. Notice again the distinguishing
grace here. God's holy ones, those He set
apart, which made them holy. through his electing love, through
the redeeming work of Christ, through the regenerating work
of the Holy Spirit, and through his word, which he applies to
them efficaciously by his Spirit. So it's to his saints, but he
says, let them not return again to folly. Now, it's an interesting
word, this word folly here. Last week I talked a bit about
this, but it turns out that The word is translated in a couple
of places that help us to understand it. In Deuteronomy, chapter 32, and Chris, this is on page 17
where I'm looking on the notes here. The word folly in this
verse is translated in that verse in Deuteronomy 32, 15 as becoming
fat, waxing fat, it says. I'm gonna read it. It says, Jeshurun,
which is referring to Israel, Israel, or Jeshurun, waxed fat
and kicked. That means they resisted. Thou
art wax and fat. This is God speaking to them.
Thou art grown thick. Thou art covered with fatness.
Then he, meaning Jeshurun, forsook God which made him. In other
words, he turned to idols and lightly esteemed the rock of
his salvation. So the result of whatever this
figurative language is of waxing fat, you can conjure up in your
mind someone who has so indulged themselves that they They've
abused the bounty and made themselves fat. And so the result of that
is that they don't anymore have any need for, or appreciation
for, or regard for God, the rock of their salvation. And so what
you see that this being made fat, and actually is translated
this way in one place in scripture, is this being made fat in self-confidence. It's this presumption that happens
because of our inner pride. It's this attitude of self-righteousness. And I was talking to Denise just
this week about this. It's interesting to me, I've
observed that people who protest the most against being shown
that their lifestyle or their thinking is wrong, people who
protest the most against that are people who are the most perverse.
It seems odd that perversity is also coupled with this defensive
posture of self-righteousness. Don't call me that. You know,
in fact, this is so strange, I mean, so ironic, that the more
it seems like people go into perversity, the more shameless
they become, and the more defensive also they become against those
who would say something, well, that's not right, you know, oh,
don't tell me what's right. You're just a self-righteous
hypocrite, you know, or whatever it is. So that's just, I just
have this recognition that that's my tendency. When I'm doing something
that's wrong, I don't like to be told that I'm wrong. And when I'm corrected, it hurts
more than a lot of other things do because of pride. And so the
Lord is saying, don't turn again to folly. And this folly is this
self-confidence. It's this presumption that all
things are okay. But that's what I need to be
turned from. That's why he says, renew us again, turn us again,
revive us again, and cause us to rejoice in thee. Bring the
gospel to me day by day so that I don't lose my need of Christ. In Revelation, he talks about
those who are lukewarm. Those, if you were cold or hot,
You're not cold or hot, you're lukewarm, I'm gonna spew you
out of my mouth. And then he tells the other group, he says,
you think yourselves rich, but you're poor. You think yourselves
to have all this stuff, but you're blind, you're naked, you're so
many things, you don't realize it. You need to buy from me gold
tried in the fire that you might know that you're poor. Naked,
blind. And that's what the Lord has
to do through His grace. The first step in grace is that God
brings us down so that we see our utter dependency on Him saving
us. And that's what he's saying,
don't turn again to folly. Don't fall into this attitude
of self-confidence in your fleshly mind, not living in dependence
upon Christ, but living as if things just come because you
do well, or because you can do it by your own strength. That's
this presumption of our own self. We aren't thankful unless we're
humbled. We're not thankful unless we
see God has done all for us. In Job, a similar scripture is
found. It says the Lord is going to
destroy this beast. He describes it as follows. He
says, he stretches out his hand against God and strengthens himself
against the Almighty. And then it says here, this is
Job chapter 15 verse 26. He runneth upon him, even on
his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers, because he covereth
his face with fatness, and maketh collapses of fat on his flanks. And the word flanks there is
the same word as folly. So figuratively, there's this
beast who is stretching out his hand against God and strengthening
himself against the Almighty, and God runs upon him, upon the
thick bosses of his buckler, because he covered himself with
his self-confidence and his pride. And that's what our problem is.
Don't do that. Don't do that. Know your need
of Christ. We need to be taken down by God's
grace. We need to be made contrite. And that's what this is. Another
scripture about this is in Isaiah 57. I'm going to read that to
you as well. Isaiah 57, he says this. And verse 15, for thus saith
the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of
a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So this reviving
comes from God to those who have been humbled. And that's what
we need. So verse eight of Psalm 85, he'll
speak peace to his saints, but don't let them return again to
this self-righteous arrogance that doesn't need Christ. No,
because you've been humbled by your captivity, because God has
delivered you and forgiven all your sins and turned away his
wrath. Know that you stand in need of his daily and continuous
reviving. All right. Then in verse nine,
he says, surely his salvation is nigh them. that fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land. Salvation is near those that
fear the Lord. Those that fear the Lord, as
I said last time, that's the flip side of faith in Christ,
isn't it? When we're brought low, then
Christ is altogether lovely. The gospel does that, and it
says that glory may dwell in our land. Now, glory is that
quality of God that demands admiration and worship. It's whatever about
God that just demands our admiration and worship. That's His glory.
And God's glory is revealed in the gospel. In the gospel. I
want to refer you to these scriptures, but let me read this to you.
I thought this was a good scripture to consider along these lines
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He says this contrasting the
Law and the Gospel. He says in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians
3, "...who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth,
but the Spirit gives life." So he's talking about the Gospel
as the Spirit. because that's the gift of God's Spirit to speak
of Christ, and the gospel is just that. But if the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones, clearly that's the
Old Testament law, was glorious so that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance, remember he came down off the mountain,
his face was shining, which glory was to be done away, how shall
not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? The ministration
of the Spirit is the preaching of the gospel. How much more
glorious is the gospel than the law? That's what he's saying
here. And then if we jump down to verse 18, he says. We all
with open face beholding as in a glass, a looking glass, a mirror. The glory of the Lord, that's
the glory that demands our admiration and our worship. that quality
of God that puts us in the dust and causes us to so admire the
Lord of glory. He says, with open face, we behold
in the gospel glass, the glory of the Lord. I inserted the word
gospel in there, but that's what he's referring to, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit
of the Lord. And then in chapter four, verse
six, he says, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So you see that
God's glory is declared to us in the gospel and the subject
of the gospel is Christ and him crucified. And that when we see
Christ, we're looking at the glory of God. So when we see
Christ crucified, we're looking at the greatest thing, as as
one preacher put it, that God ever did. The most glorious thing
God ever did was the cross, the broken body of Jesus for sinners
in order to make them sons, in order to give them an eternal
inheritance. That's the glory of God. That's his grace. There's
no greater sight than the glory of God. Seeing the glory of God
is what heaven is. And so what he's saying here,
surely his salvation is near them that fear him, that glory
may dwell in our land. In other words, that the gospel
might be believed, preached and believed, that Christ might be
exalted in the eyes of his people. That's the glory of God seen
there in our land. God's glory. Faith sees God's
glory in Christ. And so it causes us to live this
way. And then in verse 10 of Psalm 85, this is the heart of
the psalm, really. This is the foundation on which
the first three verses are laid, and the foundation on which the
next verses are laid. And God's word rests upon this,
that mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. There's a kissing. There's such a near... how can I put this, such a warm
embrace of all of God's perfections in the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that God would be seen in his brightest glory there,
so that mercy and truth, we wouldn't think that there's any way that
God could be merciful to a sinner, and yet be true, that his truth
would be upheld, and that's exactly what happened through Christ.
and righteousness and peace, that God could be at peace with
sinners in righteousness? It doesn't seem possible. But
that's the declaration here. God's going to do this. And he
says they have kissed. He's reemphasizing the nature
of God's work that is already done. Verse 11, truth shall spring
out of the earth. Righteousness shall look down
from heaven. And this truth that springs out
of the earth. Christ rose the truth. He rose from the dead
and the gospel is preached. That's the truth. The truth of
the gospel and the gospel is believed. Truth is springing
up. In other words, like rain falling from heaven, causing
plants to grow. The gospel comes and produces
life and fruit to God who brings it forth. in righteousness, and
righteousness shall look down from heaven." Righteousness because
when God blesses his people, it's because of Christ's obedience
in his blood. It's righteous for God to do
this. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins for Christ's
sake. And so you see these things and
you can consider these things more carefully. But I want to
get to the next verse. It says, Yea, the Lord shall
give that which is good. It says, and it's in italics,
you can just read it this way. The Lord shall give good and
our land shall yield her increase because of Christ, because of
mercy and truth meeting together the foundation on which all these
things are laid. It says here, with certainty,
yea, amen, the Lord shall give good and our land shall yield
her increase. God is not going to be an unsuccessful
farmer. He's going to bring forth the
seed of Christ's death. Christ is going to produce fruit
to God. The word of God will not go out
and return to him void. He will accomplish everything
he intends by it. And that's the gospel preached,
isn't it? The gospel of our salvation. God looking down from heaven,
seeing the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in
verse 12, because we're short on time, he says, Yea, the Lord
shall give... I'm sorry, I read that verse.
I'm looking at it in my notes here. He shall give what's good.
The last verse is verse 13. He says, Righteousness shall
go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Notice
the certainty here. Remember in verse 8, he said,
I will hear what God, the Lord, will speak. This is God speaking. He says in Isaiah 46, I've spoken
it, I will also bring it to pass. I will do it. I'll do all my
pleasure. That's what he's saying here
in verse 13 and in verses 8 through 13. This is God telling his people
in response to their prayer of supplication to apply to them
the work of Christ. He's saying this is what he's
going to do. He is going to do it. He says
in verse 13, righteousness shall go before him and shall set us
in the way of his steps. All that God does for His people
and in His people is by His will and His word, and He does it
for them and does it in them because of Christ. because they're
in Christ, and he does it by Christ, and he does it for the
sake of his righteousness. Righteousness shall go before
him. All the work of God is done in righteousness. There's nothing
God does that's not righteous, and God's righteousness was established
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and so God applies, he blesses, he
gives because of that, because of Christ. And that's the beauty
of this, that's the prayer, that's the certainty of it. And the
next phrase says, he shall set us in the way of his steps. Now, what are God's ways? Well, we know the way to the
Father is through Christ, and we know that all of God's ways
are in the Lord Jesus Christ, so we could say God's way is
Christ, couldn't we? Because He's the Son of God.
He was chosen as Christ from eternity. He was set up as Christ
to be our Lord and our Savior by God's grace from eternity,
to stand for us, to be our Redeemer, our Surety, our High Priest,
our Prophet, our King, everything to us. God did this, and this
is the way of God. It's in His Son towards His people. Christ is God's way in the glory
of His own person, and in the glory of His office that God
has chosen Him and appointed Him to. He's the glory of God
in His saving work, in His blood, and in His righteousness. And
faith in Christ is the way we walk in this way, isn't it? This
is the way we walk by the Spirit, faith in Christ, looking to Christ. Isn't that what God does for
His people? He considers His Son. He doesn't recognize their
righteousness because they have none of their own, only what
He has given them. And He forgives their sin for
Christ's sake. It's all because of Him. So we
see this is God's way. The Father is seen in Him. We
live by faith on the Son of God and we live in hope. of the glory
of God because Christ lives in us and gives us his faith. All
right? So you see these things. Now,
this is what God is going to do. And the last thing I want
to mention here in closing is that when we read this, it seems
like this last verse, he shall set us in the way of his steps. And I imagine in my mind, as
I was thinking about this, the victorious procession that follows
Christ as he proceeds to bring his people from his resurrection
to glory through all the steps of history between the cross
and glory. And it's a procession of victory
and triumph, isn't it? It's like he's dragging his enemies
in their shame to show their utter defeat. And at the same
time, his people are following him in another train as the robe
of his glory, bringing his people with them. And it reminded me
how in the book of Revelation, he talks about his people as
being a glorious city in which God himself dwells. And you can
read about it in Revelation 21. Glorious city. It's indescribable
by all words of men, but God uses these comparisons to jewels
and pearls and things that are translucent and pure gold and
things like that. And then he also talks about
his people as being God's jewels. And he also says this in Ephesians
5, verse 27, that Christ loved the church, gave himself for
it that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of
water by the word that he might, notice these words, present it,
the church, to himself a glorious church. Now where did this glorious
church come from? Well, it came out of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It came out of his work, it came out of his
redeeming work and his sanctifying work where he applies that work
to us through the gospel. That's what he's talking about
there. And he says, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. So you see the
glorious, it's like in our day, The bride has all of the decorations
and the groom is standing there in some kind of a penguin suit
But the bride's got all this long train. She's got flower
girls all around her the groom He gets up there in front he
stands there like a statue and she's all the rage the cameras
clicking and all you see is the bride but in glory The Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who has all the glory, and his people are
there with him, and they will be, because he's dwelling with
them and in them, they will be a glorious city, dressed in his
beauty, and they will be, how does it say, he says, you're
a city set on a hill. Glorious city, because of Christ's
righteousness. All right, so when you think
on these things, see what God has done for us. See our supplication
to God that he would apply these things to us and convince us
that in Christ, he is at peace with us. And then he tells us
a certainty that he will follow through. He's consistent with
his will and his work in Christ, isn't he? Let's pray. Father,
thank you for your word. Thank you for your salvation
in Christ. Help us, Lord, to fall on our faces, not be estranged
from you, not distant, not far off, not proud and presumptuous,
but help us to be brought low, help us to be contrite, by your
work of grace in us. Revive us again, Lord. Turn us
to yourself. Cause us to see what you consider
to be your own glory and your own, what deserves praise from
us and all of creation. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
in his name we pray, amen.