O GOD, WE CONTINUE TO NEED MERCY!

MAY WE LIVE IN LIGHT OF OUR RISEN SAVIOR’S VICTORY

Psalm 85:1-3

LORD, you were favorable to your land;

you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

You forgave the iniquity of your people;

you covered all their sin. Selah

You withdrew all your wrath;

you turned from your hot anger.

This psalm walks us through a very familiar path with the children of Israel. They remember how God had been gracious to them, how He had shown grace and forgiveness for their sin and showed His favor to them in the past.

They now have sinned again and now need to repent and to return to their God.

Psalm 85:4-7

Restore us again, O God of our 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,

that your people may rejoice in you?

Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,

and grant us your salvation.

They know very well that they cannot demand forgiveness from Him, but can only base their request of God’s unchanging and faithful love. God must grant to them His salvation.

They repent and ask God to keep them from repeating their foolish rebellion.

Psalm 85:8-9

Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people, 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.

The psalmist knows that God will forgive and save those who fear Him.

Psalm 85:10-13

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 a way.

The writer is waiting for the day when love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace will be present in the kingdom. We know that one day, when Christ will reign supreme, this will come about.

We can see how similar this psalm is to our own lives. We have experienced the care and mercy of God, and in spite of it, we fall in sin. God then uses what is necessary to bring us back to Him where, as we repent, we can find mercy and grace.

Don’t we all look forward to the day when we will be transformed by Christ and live with Him for eternity?! We can live with great hope and assurance.

We go to God because we know that Christ died for us and rose again, victorious. Today he is seated at the right hand of God and continues to be our advocate.

1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

We live in light of eternity because we know that when Christ rose again, He defeated death.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear friends, like the children of Israel, we have the privilege of worshiping a living God. May our repentance from sin be true and timely, may our lives be lived remembering that we represent Jesus Christ, and may our hope be only in our risen Savior, Jesus Christ.