Latest / Reformed Thinking / Revive Us Again: Mercy and Truth Meet in Psalm 85 (Psalm 85) | Charles Spurgeon

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Revive Us Again: Mercy and Truth Meet in Psalm 85 (Psalm 85) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Reformed thinking. That is the name of the show.
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  And that's what we're here to do.
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  Welcome back to another session. This is where we take a stack of
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  often dense, sometimes very old but always valuable resources
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  and try to figure out what they mean For us.
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  It's. Good to be back.
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  If you're new with us, I should probably set the stage.
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  We're not a new show. We're not here to give you 10
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  tips for a better life in, you know, under 5 minutes.
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  This is a deep dive. It's really designed for the
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  learner, for you, the person who suspects that maybe the Sunday
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  School version of the faith might be leaving out some of the
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  the structural beams that hold the whole house together.
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  That's a good way to put it. We're looking for the mechanics.
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  We want to know how the engine actually works, not just what
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  color the car is. And that's my role.
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  I'm the one asking the questions.
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  I guess you could say I'm the curiosity in the room.
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  And sitting across from me is our guide.
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  He's the one who's actually read the footnotes and understands
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  the theological architecture we're about to walk through.
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  I do my best, and today we have a pretty heavy stack of papers.
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  We're leaning mostly on Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of
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  David. His magnum opus.
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  It really is, but we're also looking at it through a very
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  specific lens, the Westminster Confession and more broadly,
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  Reformed theology. So what's on the docket today?
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  We are tackling Psalm 85. Psalm 85 OK, I have to admit,
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  when I first saw that on the schedule, I thought, all right,
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  nice oetry, robably some comforting words.
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  But after reading through Urgeon's notes and the material
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  you sent over, I realized I was while I was way off base.
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  This is not just a nice song. It's deceptive that way, isn't
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  it? It reads very smoothly, but it
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  is incredibly dense. If you aren't paying close
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  attention, you'll miss the fact that it's operating on three
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  distinct levels all at once. 3 levels.
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  OK, you have to unpack. That yes.
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  So first it's a prayer for a patriot.
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  It's the cry of a man who loves his country and sees it in some
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  serious trouble. OK, that's level 1. 2nd, it's a
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  plea for revival in the church for God's people.
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  The cry for revival. Got it.
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  And 3rd, and this is where we're probably going to spend a lot of
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  our time, it is a prophetic picture of the atonement.
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  It describes, maybe better than almost any other text in the Old
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  Testament, how the conflicting attributes of God meet and are
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  reconciled. Wait, conflicting attributes of
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  God? That sounds like a pretty big
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  theological problem. It is the central tension of the
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  entire biblical narrative. How can a God who is perfectly
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  just also forgive sinners without compromising that very
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  justice? Psalm 85 gives us the answer.
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  So a Patriots prayer, a plea for revival, and a picture of the
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  atonement. That is a lot for one short
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  chapter. It is, but that's the nature of
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  Scripture, isn't it? It's not shallow.
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  Our mission today is to see how those three things fit together.
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  We want to understand God's sovereignty and restoration, how
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  he is the one who has to act, and why Substitutionary
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  atonement is the only thing that makes the Psalm and really the
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  gospel itself coherent. All right.
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  Let's get into it. The title.
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  You told me not to skip the title, which I usually do.
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  You can't skip the titles. They set the key for the music,
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  so to speak. It says to the chief musician A
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  Psalm for the sons of Korah. Now that name?
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  Korah, it rings a bell, but it's not a pleasant one.
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  It sounds more like an alarm bell.
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  You're thinking of #16 and you're right to Korah was the
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  man who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron in the
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  wilderness. You wanted the priesthood for
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  himself. He did, and it ended poorly.
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  The earth literally opened up and swallowed the rebels.
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  Right, so having a Psalm dedicated to the sons of Korah
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  seems strange. It feels a bit like having a
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  hymn written by the sons of Judas.
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  It does seem strange until you read 1 little verse Numbers
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  26.11. It gives us this crucial detail
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  notwithstanding the children of Korra died not.
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  So God spared them. In his sovereignty, He spared
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  the sons even while the father was judged.
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  So these are the descendants of the very man who tried to
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  overthrow God's appointed leader.
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  Wow. And they become the singers.
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  They do because they were spared by such a distinct act of grace.
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  They became the doorkeepers and the singers in the House of the
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  Lord. We see it in Nehemiah 12.46 that
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  even back in David's day, these men were dedicated to the
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  musical worship of God. That is quite a turn around.
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  The sons of the rebel become the leaders of worship.
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  It's a picture of grace, isn't it?
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  They knew they shouldn't even exist.
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  They were living monuments to the fact that God does not
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  always treat us as our lineage deserves.
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  So when they sang about mercy, they meant it.
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  They were singing from deep personal experience.
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  Now the title says for the sons of Korra, does that mean they
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  wrote it or it was written for them to perform?
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  And that's a matter of debate. The Hebrew preposition can mean
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  for or by. Spurgeon, for his part, asserts
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  pretty strongly that David wrote this Psalm.
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  David wrote it. He believes David penned this as
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  a national hymn during a time of oppression, most likely by the
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  Philistines. I did see in the research notes
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  that there's a skeptical view. Not everyone agrees it's David.
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  Oh, that's putting it mildly. Spurgeon has very, very little
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  patience for what he calls the skeptical writers.
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  There's been this long habit among certain critics to assign
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  Psalms to much later dates. Like when?
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  The times of Hezekiah, Josiah, or even later during the
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  Mccabean period, hundreds of years after David.
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  Why do they do that? Is there a reason or is it just
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  to be difficult? Well, sometimes it's to fit the
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  text into a historical framework they prefer, but often the real
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  motivation is to deny the prophetic nature of the text.
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  How so? If you can prove a song was
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  written after an event it seems to describe, then it's not
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  prophecy, it's just history. It removes the supernatural
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  element, Spurgeon says. Some of these writers would have
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  nothing to say if they didn't invent some novel hypothesis.
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  They have to twist the language to justify these later dates.
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  But they must have some textual reason, right?
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  They're not just pulling dates out of a hat.
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  The notes point to the first verse where it mentions
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  captivity. Right, and that's the main hook
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  for their argument. Verse one says, Lord, thou has
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  been favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the
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  captivity of Jacob. And there it is.
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  Captivity. When I hear that word in a
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  biblical context, my brain immediately goes to the
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  Babylonian exile. You know Jerusalem destroyed
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  everyone dragged off after Babylon, and then the returns 70
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  years later. If that's what this verse is
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  about, then David couldn't have written it.
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  He was dead long before Babylon was even a major threat.
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  That is the common assumption, and it's the primary argument
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  used against Davidic authorship. But Spurgeon and many reformed
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  thinkers would argue that captivity does not necessarily
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  mean exile in a foreign land. So what else could it mean?
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  Well, look at the book of Job. The Bible says at the very end
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  of the book that the Lord turned the captivity of Job.
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  But Job was He was just sitting on a dunghill, covered in sores.
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  He never went to Babylon. He never even left his hometown.
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  Precisely. He never left his native land.
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  In Hebrew idiom, captivity can mean a state of deep distress,
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  oppression, or great suffering. It's a metaphor.
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  So if you're crushed by a heavy burden.
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  You're in captivity if your land is overrun by Philistine armies,
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  even if you're still sleeping in your own bed, you are in a state
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  of captivity. So David could be writing about
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  the captivity of the philistine oppression.
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  Yes, and there's a very specific clue in the text that supports
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  this, a kind of forensic fingerprint.
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  The text says Thou has brought back the captivity of Jacob.
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  Jacob OK, Why does that name matter?
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  Why not Israel or Judah? Think about the return from
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  Babylon who actually came back. It was primarily the tribe of
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  Judah, the southern Kingdom. The northern tribes who are
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  often associated with the names Israel or Jacob, had been
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  scattered by the Assyrians much earlier and they didn't return
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  as a corporate body in the same way.
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  If this were a post exilic Psalm about the return from Babylon,
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  it would almost certainly say Judah.
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  What Jacob refers to the whole nation.
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  The whole nation, all 12 tribes, which fits the Davidic context
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  perfectly. It's a.
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  Subtle detail, but I can see how it carries a lot of weight.
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  It does. And look at the very first
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  phrase again. Thou has been favorable unto thy
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  land. It implies the author is
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  currently in the land, looking at it, seeing God's favor on it.
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  He's not writing from the banks of the Tigris, longing for home.
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  He is standing on the soil. OK, so let's go with Spurgeon's
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  view. David is the author.
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  He's looking at the oppression of his people, and he's praying
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  for relief. But you mentioned earlier that
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  this has a prophetic scope. It's not just about Philistines.
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  No, this is where we need to put on our theological glasses.
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  Spurgeon argues that while David might be writing about his
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  immediate circumstances, the Spirit of God is pointing to
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  something much, much larger. Beyond David's own time.
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  Far beyond it prophecies the peaceful reign of his son
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  Solomon. Sure, but beyond that it points
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  to what he calls the Golden Age of Jesus.
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  The messianic age. The Psalm has an inner sense.
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  The key to interpreting the whole thing is Jesus and his
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  salvation. The reconciliation of earth and
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  heaven that we see later in the Psalm is not just about
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  political peace. It is about the very presence of
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  the Savior securing a universal peace between God and man.
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  I appreciate that perspective. It really does turn what could
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  be a history lesson into a window into the future.
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  So let's get into the text itself.
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  The Psalm cease to follow a clear progression.
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  The first part, verses one through 3, is all about looking
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  back. It's Thanksgiving for past
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  mercies. Right.
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  And notice the very first assertion, Lord, thou hast been
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  favorable unto thy land. Thy land, God's land.
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  That's a huge theological point. The land belongs to Jehovah.
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  He chose it. He conveyed it by covenant.
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  He dwells in it. It's his.
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  It reminds me of the idea of stewardship.
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  It's not really ours, we're just managing it for him.
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  It's even deeper than that. There's an application here for
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  how we should pray. Spurgeon uses this beautiful
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  analogy of lashing a little boat to God's great bark, his great
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  ship during a storm. Tell me more about that.
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  Well, if you're in a storm, in a tiny rowboat, you're going to
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  capsize. You're unstable, you're at the
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  mercy of the waves. But if you can tie your little
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  boat to a massive, unsinkable ship, you're safe.
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  You're secure because the ship is secure.
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  Exactly. When we pray, if we can plead
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  God's interest in the matter, we are lashing our little boat to
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  his great ship. You're saying, Lord, this is
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  your land, this is your church, this is your reputation at
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  stake? That completely changes the
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  dynamic of prayer. You're not trying to convince
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  God to care about your thing, you're reminding Him and
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  yourself that it's already His thing.
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  Precisely. And there's an immutable logic
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  to it. If God was favorable before, he
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  can be again. Why?
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  Because he doesn't change. God is immutable.
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  If he saved in the past, his character dictates that he is
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  still a savior today. We're not praying to a fickle
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  deity who changes his mind with the weather.
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  OK, moving to verse 2, we get to the core of the gospel message.
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  Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people that has covered
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  all their sin. The language here is incredibly
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  specific. The Hebrew word used for
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  forgiven nasifa literally mean born or carried away.
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  Carried away, yes. Adam Clark, another commentator,
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  notes that this is a direct allusion to the scapegoat in
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  Leviticus 16. Do you remember the ritual on
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  the Day of Atonement? Vaguely refresh my memory.
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  Once a year the high priest would take two goats. 1 was
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  sacrificed as a sin offering, but the other one, the live 1,
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  the high priest would lay both his hands on the head of that
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  live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the
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  children of Israel. He would symbolically transfer
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  all their sin onto the goat. And then what happened to the
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  goat? It was sent away.
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  A fit man would lead it out into the wilderness, into a land not
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  inhabited. The goat literally carried their
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  sins away. The people watched their sins
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  walk away, never to return. So the sin isn't just ignored or
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  pardoned, it's physically transported.
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  It's removed from their presence.
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  It is removed, and then you have the second phrase, Thou hast
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  covered all their sin. Now when I hear cover, I
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  sometimes think of a cover up. Yeah, You know, sweeping dirt
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  under the rug. Yeah.
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  Is that what this means? Is God just hiding our sins?
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  So he doesn't have to look at it.
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  No, absolutely not. And that's a crucial
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  distinction. Cardinal Bellerman, he was a
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  Counter Reformation theologian, but on this point he captured
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  the imagery so well. He has this fantastic analogy.
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  He says God does not cover sin like a plaster over a sword,
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  just hiding the infection while it festers underneath.
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  No, God covers sin with a plaster that cures and
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  obliterates it. That's a huge difference.
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  One is deception, the other is healing.
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  It's the difference between a cover up and a cure.
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  This is the propitiatory covering.
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  Think of the Red Sea. When the Egyptians pursued
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  Israel into the sea, the water covered them.
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  They didn't just get hidden. They were drowned.
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  They ceased to be a threat. They ceased to be.
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  Spurgeon says this miracle of covering sin is greater than
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  covering the sun with darkness. It's the sea of atonement,
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  swallowing sin so that it ceases to be.
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  Every spot and wrinkle. That's the phrase from the
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  notes. It's a complete cleansing.
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  It has to be if God is holy, he cannot look upon sin.
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  So if he covers it, it must be because it's been fully dealt
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  with, not just ignored. And then in verse 3 we see the
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  result of this covering. Thou has taken away all thy
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  wrath. Notice the order sin is removed
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  first, then wrath. You can't remove the wrath of
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  God without dealing with the cause of that wrath, which is
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  sin. That makes perfect sense.
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  You fix the root problem, then the symptom of the anger goes
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  away. But look at that word taken away
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  or gathered. John Gill has a very specific
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  note on this. He says God gathered his wrath.
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  Imagine a storm cloud gathering all its electricity, all its
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  lightning into one concentrated place.
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  God gathered all his wrath to pour it out.
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  Not on the believer. No.
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  On the sun, on the surety. So because it was all poured out
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  on Christ, there's none left for the Saint.
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  That is the logic of the cross. The cup is empty for us.
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  There's a restraint mentioned here too.
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  Spurgeon talks about God stopping in mid volley.
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  It's the difference between the fierceness of anger and the
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  Speaking of peace. For the believer.
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  The fierceness is gone. The judicial wrath is satisfied.
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  That's a comforting thought, but then the Psalm shifts.
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  Here there's a a change in tone. We go from looking back at what
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  God has done, forgiveness, removing wrath, to a pretty
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  desperate plea for the present. Verses 4 through 7 are a cry for
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  revival. Turn US, O God, of our
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  salvation. And here we come, face to face
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  with the doctrine of total depravity.
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  Notice the prayer is not Lord help us turn ourselves.
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  Or, Lord, give us a little nudge.
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  Right, it's turn us. We need God to do the turning.
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  We need turning more than God needs turning from his anger.
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  We are the ones who have wandered.
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  Conversion, whether it's the first time or a restoration
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  after backsliding, is the work of God.
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  He's the active agent. This is monarchism God working,
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  not synergism. Hold on a second, it says, cause
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  thine anger toward us to cease. Didn't we just establish that he
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  has taken away all thy wrath? Why is the psalmist asking God
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  to stop being angry if he's already stopped?
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  That is the tension of the Christian life, isn't it?
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  While the judicial wrath, the wrath of condemnation, the
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  judge's gabble is gone forever because of Christ, there is
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  still the fatherly discipline. The difference between a judge
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  sentencing a criminal and a father disciplining a son he
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  loves. Correct.
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  There is a sense in which our sin disrupts our communion with
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  God. It grieves Him.
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  Venema, another commentator, notes that the Hebrew root here
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  implies breaking indignation. It's like blunting the edge of a
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  sword so it no longer smites to kill.
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  So he's asking God to put away the rod.
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  Not the executioner's axe. He is asking for the restoration
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  of the relationship, not the establishment of it.
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  Then in verse 5, the psalmist uses what I can only call the
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  argument of time. He says, Will thou be angry with
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  us forever? It's a logic of prayer that
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  appeals to God's own nature. We are creatures of time.
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  God is eternal. The argument is essentially
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  Lord. Surely your wrath against your
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  children shouldn't look like eternity.
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  Hell is for eternity. Chastisement is for time.
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  If you punish us forever. It confuses the distinction
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  between a son and a stranger. Will thou draw out thine anger
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  to all generations? It becomes a generational plea.
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  He's asking that the punishment not become an entailed
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  inheritance. Don't let my kids suffer for my
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  sins forever. It's a bold way to pray, but
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  faith is allowed to be bold with God.
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  And then we get to verse 6, which is probably one of the
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  most famous verses on revival. Wilt thou not revive us again,
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  that thy people may rejoice in me?
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  Spurgeon points out something obvious but often overlooked
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  here. Revivals imply a previous
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  decline. Right, You can't revive
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  something that's already full of life.
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  You revive something that is fainting or dying or dead.
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  Joseph Carroll uses the image of carcasses rotting, needing a
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  second breath of life. That's a very graphic image.
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  But it's accurate to the spiritual state of a backslidden
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  church or individual. We think we're just tired or in
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  a slump, but spiritually we might be dead on our feet.
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  And look at the purpose of the revival.
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  It's not just so we feel better or have a full church building.
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  It's that thy people may rejoice in thee.
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  In thee, not in the revival itself, it's a.
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  Huge distinction. It's the check engine light for
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  true revival. We don't rejoice in the gift, we
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  rejoice in the giver. John Pennington, writing way
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  back in 1656, said that the living praise God, the dead
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  cannot. God delights to breathe joy into
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  his people because that joy glorifies Him.
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  A gloomy Christian is a poor advertisement for a gracious
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  God. Then verse 7 seems to sum up
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  this whole section of pleading. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and
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  grant us Thy salvation. And here's a little nugget from
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  the Reformed tradition that I love.
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  Mercy is not just an abstract concept or an attribute of God.
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  Richard as Hampless interprets this verse as Show us Christ.
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  So mercy is a person. Christ is the mercy of God.
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  He is the salvation of God. To ask for mercy is to ask for a
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  fresh sight of Jesus. When we need revival, we don't
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  need a new program or a new technique.
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  We need a fresh view of Christ. OK, so we've looked back at
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  forgiveness, We've cried out for revival.
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  And now in verse 8, there's a pivot, a major shift.
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  Psalmist stops talking and starts listening.
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  I will hear what God, the Lord will speak.
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  This is the attitude of the true believer.
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  It's that transition from speaking to listening.
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  Why is that so hard for us? We we like to do things, we like
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  to fix things. We want to be the ones acting.
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  It's the error of Adam. Think about it.
• 18:31
  In the garden, after he sinned, what was his first instinct?
• 18:34
  To hide and to sew fig leaves together to cover himself.
• 18:39
  Exactly he tried to do. He tried to cover his own shame
• 18:42
  with his own works before he ever listened to what God had to
• 18:44
  say about. It you trying to fix the problem
• 18:46
  before he even heard the solution.
• 18:48
  That is the human condition in a nutshell.
• 18:50
  We are busy sewing fig leaves, religion, morality, good works,
• 18:54
  distraction, when we should just be listening.
• 18:57
  The true order is to listen first.
• 19:00
  We have to hear the verdict and the promise before we can act
• 19:03
  rightly. Thomas Adams has a beautiful
• 19:05
  analogy for this. He says the ear is the door to
• 19:08
  the heart. The ear is the door.
• 19:10
  Christ knocks at the door, the ear, not the window, which is
• 19:12
  the eye. Faith comes by hearing.
• 19:15
  Precisely. The danger is having sealed
• 19:17
  ears. If the door to the heart is
• 19:20
  locked, the master can't come in to Sup.
• 19:22
  We have to stop talking long enough to hear him.
• 19:24
  And what is the Psalmist expecting to hear when he
• 19:26
  listens? For he will speak peace unto his
• 19:28
  people and to his Saints. And only Jehovah speaks true
• 19:32
  peace. Men can speak comforting words,
• 19:35
  but they are, as the notes say, a plaster far too narrow for the
• 19:38
  sore. I like that image.
• 19:39
  It's like putting a tiny Band-Aid on a broken leg.
• 19:41
  Exactly. It might cover the wound, but it
• 19:43
  doesn't heal the bone. But when God speaks peace, his
• 19:47
  voice has creative power. He creates the peace.
• 19:50
  He speaks. It's an immediate answer, Thomas
• 19:54
  Goodwin said. Sometimes the echo of God's
• 19:56
  answer comes before the prayer is even finished.
• 19:58
  But, and this is a very big but, there's a warning attached to
• 20:02
  this piece. But let them not turn again to
• 20:04
  folly. This is crucial.
• 20:06
  This is so important. Peace is spoken to the Saints,
• 20:09
  but it comes with a condition of holiness.
• 20:11
  It is not a license to go on sinning.
• 20:13
  What does? Folly mean in this context, is
• 20:16
  it just about being silly or foolish?
• 20:18
  We are talking about sin, but it's a specific kind of attitude
• 20:21
  towards sin. James Durham, an old Scottish
• 20:24
  writer, defines it as boarding and dallying with God's mercy.
• 20:28
  Boarding. I've never heard that word
• 20:29
  before. It's an old stots word.
• 20:31
  It means jesting, joking around, treating, eating something
• 20:33
  sacred lightly. It's the idea of playing with
• 20:36
  fire because you know you have fire insurance.
• 20:38
  So presuming upon grace. Yes, it's backsliding, but with
• 20:42
  a casual, almost arrogant attitude.
• 20:45
  But notice the severity of this. Turning back to folly after
• 20:48
  peace has been spoken is far worse than being foolish in the
• 20:51
  1st place. It argues obstinacy.
• 20:54
  It's a direct insult to the peace you just received.
• 20:57
  It's taking the grace for granted.
• 20:59
  Spurgeon has a maxim here that's just chilling.
• 21:01
  He says there is no, no fool like the man who will be a fool,
• 21:05
  cost him what it may. That is a sobering thought.
• 21:09
  We get the peace, but we are warned not to trifle with it.
• 21:12
  It connects directly to the Reformed doctrine of the
• 21:14
  perseverance of the Saints. Yes, God keeps us.
• 21:17
  Yes, peace is assured for the believer, but the evidence that
• 21:20
  we have that piece is that we do not want to return to the vomit
• 21:23
  of our folly. If we do, we have to seriously
• 21:25
  question if we ever really heard him speak peace to begin with.
• 21:28
  Now we arrive at what I think is the climax of the entire Psalm,
• 21:31
  Section 5, verses 9 through 11. This is where the theology gets
• 21:35
  really deep. Surely His salvation is nigh,
• 21:37
  them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
• 21:40
  And then verse 10, mercy and truth are met together.
• 21:44
  Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
• 21:46
  This is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and
• 21:49
  theologically rich verses in all of Scripture.
• 21:52
  It describes the great reconciliation.
• 21:54
  Spurgeon and the other commentators, they treat these
• 21:57
  attributes Morsi, truth, righteousness, peace, almost
• 22:01
  like characters in a play. Lancelot Andrews gives a famous
• 22:04
  personification of this. Imagine these 4 attributes
• 22:07
  standing before the throne of God and there is a conflict, a
• 22:10
  kind of civil war in heaven so to speak.
• 22:13
  Why is there a conflict? God is 1.
• 22:15
  How can his attributes be at war with each other?
• 22:18
  Because man has sinned and that creates an impossible dilemma.
• 22:21
  So on one side you have mercy. She looks at fallen man and she
• 22:25
  favors him. She is the mother of all
• 22:27
  virtues. She wants to save him.
• 22:29
  Peace is gentle. She wants reconciliation.
• 22:31
  OK, so Mercy and Peace are on team Save humanity.
• 22:34
  You could say that, but then truth stands up and truth says,
• 22:37
  hold on a minute. God said the soul that sinneth
• 22:40
  shall die. God cannot lie.
• 22:42
  If God's word says sin brings death, then death must happen.
• 22:45
  All men are liars, but God must be true to His Word.
• 22:48
  So truth demands that the sentence be carried out.
• 22:51
  And then righteousness steps forward, and she bears the sword
• 22:54
  of justice. She says I must strike, sin must
• 22:57
  be punished. If sin goes unpunished, there is
• 22:59
  no justice in the universe. The standard must be upheld.
• 23:03
  So mercy and peace are on one side, and truth and
• 23:05
  righteousness are on the other. They are.
• 23:08
  They're opposites. Mercy wants to let us off the
• 23:10
  hook. Righteousness demands we pay the
• 23:12
  price. They're at an impasse.
• 23:14
  That is the predicament exactly. Mercy cannot just go over to
• 23:17
  righteousness and say hey, let's forget about it this time.
• 23:20
  That would make God unjust. And righteousness can't just
• 23:24
  ignore mercy, or God wouldn't be a God of love.
• 23:27
  They are separated by the chasm of our sin.
• 23:30
  And the verse says they met together and kissed each other.
• 23:33
  Where did this meeting happen? Where did this reconciliation
• 23:35
  take place? At the cross, this is the heart
• 23:37
  of the atonement. This is where the entire
• 23:39
  narrative resolves. OK, walk us through that.
• 23:41
  How does the cross solve this cosmic conflict?
• 23:44
  Yeah, at the cross, truth is satisfied.
• 23:46
  Why? Because God's threat against sin
• 23:48
  is fulfilled. The penalty for sin, which is
• 23:51
  death, is paid in full. The soul that sinned,
• 23:54
  represented by Christ as the second Adam, truly died.
• 23:58
  So truth says I am satisfied God's Word held true.
• 24:02
  Okie, truth is happy. What about righteousness?
• 24:05
  Righteousness is satisfied because justice was executed.
• 24:08
  The law was honored. The sword of justice fell.
• 24:11
  It didn't fall on us, but it fell on our substitute Christ.
• 24:14
  So righteousness says I have been vindicated.
• 24:17
  The standard has been upheld. And mercy and peace.
• 24:19
  Well, now Mercy is completely free to save the Sinner because
• 24:22
  the debt has been paid. She isn't cheating justice
• 24:24
  anymore. She is dispensing Grace on the
• 24:26
  solid foundation of justice, and peace is established because the
• 24:30
  enmity between God and man has been removed by the blood.
• 24:32
  So the kiss is the reconciliation of these
• 24:35
  attributes. They are no longer in
• 24:37
  opposition. It's the adjustment of mutual
• 24:39
  claims at the cross. God is shown to be, as the book
• 24:42
  of Romans says, both just and the justifier of the one who has
• 24:46
  faith in Jesus. He doesn't stop being just in
• 24:48
  order to be merciful. He is both simultaneously and
• 24:51
  perfectly. That is powerful and it really
• 24:54
  highlights the absolute necessity of substitutionary
• 24:58
  atonement. It does, and this is where the
• 24:59
  Reformed view is so important. Spurgeon quotes a Doctor Duncan
• 25:03
  who was very, very sarcastic about the modern theories of
• 25:06
  atonement that deny substitution.
• 25:08
  I saw that quote, it made me chuckle.
• 25:10
  Duncan said these modern theories basically amount to
• 25:13
  this. Christ did something somehow
• 25:16
  which is in some way connected with salvation.
• 25:19
  It's just vague. It's the moral influence theory
• 25:22
  that Jesus just died to show us how much God loves us, to
• 25:25
  inspire us to be better people. But that doesn't solve the
• 25:28
  problem of righteousness and truth.
• 25:31
  Exactly. It doesn't solve anything.
• 25:33
  If Jesus just died to show us love but didn't actually pay the
• 25:36
  penalty for sin, then truth and righteousness are still standing
• 25:39
  there with a drawn sword. The cross is only a kiss if it
• 25:42
  is a real transaction where the debt is actually paid.
• 25:45
  As Spurgeon says, our facts are infinitely superior to their
• 25:48
  dreams. Our facts are infinitely
• 25:51
  superior to their dreams. I like that.
• 25:54
  So after this incredible meeting at the cross, we see the
• 25:57
  response of heaven and earth in verse 11.
• 26:00
  Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall
• 26:03
  look down from heaven. This is the beautiful result of
• 26:05
  that reconciliation truth springing out of the earth.
• 26:08
  It means that God's promises, which were like buried seeds,
• 26:12
  are finally sprouting and coming to fulfillment.
• 26:15
  It could also refer to Christ's humanity.
• 26:17
  He is the truth who came out of the earth born of a woman, and
• 26:22
  on a personal level, it means men become true and honest
• 26:25
  through grace. And righteousness shall look
• 26:27
  down from heaven. Andrew Bonar calls this the
• 26:29
  Pericupto Look. Pericupto.
• 26:31
  What's that? It's the Greek word for leaning
• 26:33
  out of a window to gaze down intently and with great
• 26:36
  interest. It's the same word used for the
• 26:38
  disciples looking into the empty tomb.
• 26:40
  But here, righteousness isn't looking down with a frown or a
• 26:43
  sword. She's looking down with
• 26:45
  pleasure, with satisfaction. Because the debt is paid, yes.
• 26:49
  She sees the finished work of the sun and is completely
• 26:52
  satisfied. It is a delicious scene, as
• 26:55
  Virgin calls it. You have earth carpeted with
• 26:58
  truth and canopied with righteousness.
• 27:01
  Another heaven. That's a beautiful image.
• 27:03
  It really does feel like that golden age you mentioned at the
• 27:05
  beginning. It is the state of grace.
• 27:08
  When God looks down in grace, man sends his heart upward in
• 27:11
  obedience and praise. It's a reciprocal relationship
• 27:13
  that has been fully restored. So moving to the final section,
• 27:17
  verses 12 and 13, we see the practical effects of all this
• 27:21
  temporal and spiritual increase. Yeah, the Lord shall give that
• 27:24
  which is good, and our land shall yield her increase.
• 27:28
  This goes right back to the idea that God is pure goodness.
• 27:31
  He gives readily. And notice the link again
• 27:34
  between the spiritual and the temporal.
• 27:36
  Our land shall yield her increase.
• 27:38
  Spurgeon makes an observation that sin literally makes
• 27:41
  Palestine a wilderness. He does.
• 27:43
  He connects the barrenness of the physical land to the curse
• 27:46
  of sin. Repentance, he says, reclaims
• 27:50
  desolations. When a people are right with
• 27:52
  God, there is often a corresponding blessing in their
• 27:55
  physical circumstances. But even more so, there's a
• 27:58
  spiritual parallel. The soul itself becomes
• 28:01
  fruitful. The soul becomes a grateful
• 28:03
  garden, free from the blight of sin.
• 28:06
  When the relationship with God is right, the fruit grows
• 28:09
  naturally. Then verse 13 gives us our
• 28:11
  marching orders. Righteousness shall go before
• 28:13
  Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps.
• 28:16
  Here righteousness is personified again, this time as
• 28:18
  a Pathfinder. It clues the road.
• 28:20
  It removes the obstacle. There's a great illustration in
• 28:23
  the notes from Jeremy Taylor about a king named St.
• 28:25
  Wenceslas. I have to share this because
• 28:28
  it's such a vivid picture of this verse.
• 28:30
  Please do, it's one of my favorites in the entire
• 28:32
  commentary. So Wenceslas was this bohemian
• 28:34
  king. One bitter winter night, he's
• 28:36
  walking barefoot in the snow to go to a remote church to pray.
• 28:41
  His servant, a man named Potavivas, is following him.
• 28:44
  But the cold is brutal. The servant starts famping.
• 28:47
  He's freezing to death. He calls out to the king that he
• 28:50
  can't go on. And.
• 28:51
  What does the King say to him? The king tells him to tread in
• 28:54
  his footsteps, to put his own feet exactly where the King's
• 28:58
  feet had already stepped in the deep snow.
• 29:00
  The servant does it and the story says he felt a cure.
• 29:03
  Actual warmth in the footprints of the king.
• 29:05
  That is the perfect application of verse 13.
• 29:08
  Christ is the King who has trodden down the difficulties
• 29:10
  for us. He has walked the path of
• 29:12
  righteousness. He has broken the trail through
• 29:15
  the snow of sin and death. And we just have to walk in his
• 29:18
  steps. That is sanctification following
• 29:21
  justification. Righteousness doesn't just clear
• 29:23
  our legal debt, which is justification.
• 29:25
  It then sets us in the way of His steps, which is
• 29:29
  sanctification. We walk where he walked.
• 29:31
  We don't have to forge the path, we just have to follow.
• 29:34
  Adam Clark adds a note about Bartimaeus here, The blind
• 29:37
  Beggar. Yes, He was set in the way.
• 29:40
  He sat by the way, where Jesus walked.
• 29:43
  It's a reminder that we are to place ourselves in the path of
• 29:46
  grace. We follow the footsteps of the
• 29:48
  Master. So let's just recap where we've
• 29:50
  been in this deep dive. We started with the Sons of
• 29:53
  Korah and the debate about authorship, establishing this as
• 29:57
  a Davidic Psalm with a prophetic view of Christ.
• 29:59
  We saw the memory of past pardon, the scapegoat carrying
• 30:02
  away sin, the covering that actually cures.
• 30:05
  Then we heard the plea for revival.
• 30:07
  God turning us because we can't turn ourselves.
• 30:10
  We stood at the door listening for God to speak peace, but with
• 30:13
  that very serious warning not to turn back to folly.
• 30:17
  And we witnessed the glorious meeting at the cross, where
• 30:20
  mercy and truth met, and righteousness and peace kissed,
• 30:24
  solving the great problem of the.
• 30:26
  And finally, we find ourselves walking in the King's footsteps,
• 30:29
  enjoying the good gifts of God. It's a complete progression from
• 30:33
  the depths of captivity to the heights of salvation.
• 30:35
  So what does this mean for you, for our listener today?
• 30:38
  What's the take away? It means that if you feel like
• 30:40
  you are in captivity, whether it's the oppression of a
• 30:42
  particular sin, a dry season in your soul, or just the weight of
• 30:46
  the world, you can appeal to God's character.
• 30:49
  You can pray. Lord, you have been favorable
• 30:52
  before. You are the same God.
• 30:54
  Do it again. And you can rest in the fact
• 30:56
  that the cosmic conflict is over.
• 30:58
  You don't have to try to satisfy God's righteousness on your own.
• 31:02
  It has already kissed mercy at the cross.
• 31:04
  Precisely. The war in heaven is over.
• 31:06
  The peace has been spoken for all who believe.
• 31:09
  But I want to leave you with that provocative thought from
• 31:11
  verse 8, that warning against folly.
• 31:14
  It's the question we all need to ask ourselves, isn't it?
• 31:16
  It really is. If God has spoken peace to you,
• 31:20
  If you know that reconciliation, that kiss at the cross, how are
• 31:23
  you treating it? Are you treating that peace with
• 31:26
  the reverence and awe it demands?
• 31:28
  Or are you boarding with His grace?
• 31:31
  Are you jesting with the Almighty?
• 31:33
  The peace of God is not a license for carelessness.
• 31:36
  It's a call to walk in those steps, in the snow, marked out
• 31:39
  by righteousness. Well said.
• 31:41
  Let us not be the fool who returns to his folly, but the
• 31:44
  servant who faithfully follows the king.
• 31:46
  That's all we have for this deep dive.
• 31:48
  We hope this has helped you see Song 85 in a new light, not just
• 31:52
  as poetry, but is the very heart of the gospel.
• 31:56
  Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 31:58
  Until next time.