Psalm 85

1 Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

5 Wilt thou be angry with us forever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.

8 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.

9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps. (KJV)

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.  Reading these two verses, I see a beautiful picture of the gospel. God in his righteousness looked down from heaven and send his son into the world to give us hope. Now with hope we look to heaven with faithfulness knowing that Christ will come again and restore all things to himself. This hope gives us peace. We no longer need to worry about today or tomorrow for the Lord will indeed give what is good to us.

Yet, this is not the hope of those who know not the Lord. Those who know not the Lord look to this hope as foolishness and a weakness to those who believe in this hope. I realized that their eyes are indeed blinded to this hope. Why this blindness? Is it because of the desires for the things of this life (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life) that is ever portrait before them by Satan? As I look back on my walk with the Lord, I realize the hardships that were part of my path, the many failures I had; however, I realize also that through it all God was there with me. The more I travel down this path with the Lord the more I realize I do not deserve these blessings from the Lord, and yet I come to a peace about this relationship because I realize that His nature is slowly being reflected by me to others.

As I started today’s journey in the psalms, I started it off this morning by sharing with a friend the first verse of Psalm 81 as a song of joy. Verse one of Psalm 81 states “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!” In this psalm the psalmist writes “The LORD will indeed give what is good, andour land will yield its harvest”. As I read these Psalms 81 through 85, I see a picture of the believer’s journey in this world.  This walk is a walk of trust and obey.  By leaving the worries of this world behind me and focusing more on my daily fellowship with God; the care for the things of this earth will grow strangely dim as I look for the coming return of my Lord to this earth. 

Next to Joshua 1:8 I have a note in my Bible written forty plus years ago that states “Key to a victorious life”.  This key to living a victorious life is making the book of the law the guiding light of my daily walk and letting it become the focus of my daily meditations on this journey of life.  For if I make this law the focus of my daily walk then my way will be prosperous, and I will have good success.  However, I also have a note next to this verse not to forget the words of ‘be strong and of good courage”.  This phase is used three times in Joshua chapter one.  The first time is in refer to the inheritance the Lord had sworn unto their fathers, the second time was that they may observe to do according to all the law, and the third time was for them not to be dismay in their walk because the Lord is with them wherever they go.  The words of Joshua 1:1-9 should also be the path that we as believers should walk daily, knowing that in our walk God will be with us along the way.