Rest assured

DEVOTION

PSALMS

REST ASSURED

Ps 85

85:1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

You showed favor to your land, O LORD; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. Selah

 3 You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger. 4 Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. 5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.

8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints — but let them not return to folly. 9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. 13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

NIV

This song holds the most wonderful truth within. However, before we explore it, we rejoice in the fact God has shown favor to his land, that he restored the fortunes of Jacob. The reason is we can take that same claim. He has restored us. He has shown favor on us and where we were once without fortune, we now have Christ, the greatest fortune any person could embrace. God has forgiven our iniquity and covered our sin, through Christ. Although God can and does have a wrath which no man should have to endure, and a fierce anger toward sin, he has restored us, he has put aside his displeasure with our sin, because we are in Christ. His anger will not be, has not been, forever, he made a way. He is asked if he would revive them again, and he did. This is our plea at times when we fail, when we lose sight of our great fortune. We seek forgiveness for our iniquity and he forgives and restores because we are in Christ. He already has shown us his unfailing love and has granted us salvation. Now, the rubber meets the road right here. We will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people his saints, as long as we do not return to folly. This is the Shalom peace spoken of here which carries the meaning of completeness, soundness, welfare peace. This is especially referred to those in a covenant relationship with God. That is us. We are his people, his saints and we will not return to our folly either. It is interesting that Hebrew word translated folly means confidence, as well as stupidity. Returning to folly then would mean once again having confidence in ourselves rather than God and that would be stupid. This could be meant regarding for salvation, but also in light of shalom, it could mean about feeling complete in ourselves, that we provide all we need, our efforts, our abilities are what cause us our welfare. That would be folly, for the LORD God surely provides our every need. Yes, we work, we are supposed to toil the ground, so to speak, all the days of our lives for our sustenance. That is the curse Adam brought upon us. However, Jesus also set us free. Yet we are not to sit in our behinds either. We must work. The psalmist says God’s salvation is near, and it was and he came, and now that salvation is ours as well, we have Jesus to thank for that. Next, this beauty revealed to us. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Love and faithfulness are on one side while righteousness and peace are on the other side. Truth requires righteousness and love or mercy, as the Hebrew word means, calls for peace. They meet along the way, one investigating sin, while the other pleads for reconciliation. Where do they meet? In Jesus. We have it all in Christ, we have his righteousness, his love or mercy. We are found with sin, however his truth, his peace, has reconciled himself to us. What peace that brings to our heart. What contentment to know we are pleasant in the eyes of God. What relief to know we have been reconciled to God through Jesus. We are at peace with him, Jesus promised he would give us his peace, not as the world gives peace, but his peace. We have shalom with God, he has our welfare, and we can be at peace within our heart. We can rest assured.