I love a good word picture. Last time I spoke at The Big Table I mentioned Shakespeare’s beauty when referring to sleep as that which ‘knits up the unraveled sleeve of care’.
In Psalm 85, the Sons of Korah weave their own word wizardry when they write of love and faithfulness meeting together and righteousness and peace getting intimate with each other.
All of this springs from petition in Psalm 85: a desire for God to restore Israel. It’s a reasonable prayer. God’s heart is for restoration. In this age of grace in which we are privileged to live, God’s heart for restoration and reconciliation is through the person and work of Jesus (Colossians 1:19-20).
The truth expressed in Psalm 85 though, is that God reconciles and restores life by life. It wasn’t the faithfulness of one that would cover a nation, it came back to the response of the individual. Jesus’ faithfulness makes a way for our reconciliation with the Father but it’s still our response to that holy invitation. Your family’s response isn’t you, your community’s response isn’t you…it’s your response to Jesus.
And that’s where the word picture kicks in. Love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace all get to hang out together when we respond to Jesus’ holy invitation with our lives. There’s a strong sense in 85 that there’s a cosmic exchange of our gift of faithfulness/‘yieldedness’ for his righteousness. The faithfulness ‘springs forth from the earth’ and the response is righteousness and peace from on high.
It’s HIS righteousness, God’s righteousness (as Paul writes in Romans 3) that comes through faith/faithfulness in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Thankyou Jesus!