Righteousness and Peace Kiss
Psalm 85 [Psa 85:4, 6-7, 9-13 NKJV]
4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease. ...
6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?
7 Show us Your mercy, LORD, And grant us Your salvation. ...
9 Surely His salvation [is] near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD will give [what is] good; And our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps [our] pathway.
His people had once again been rebellious, just as we all can be. They were held captive by their sin, yet they longed for their relationship with God to be restored.
I can relate. I have times in my life when my relationship with Him is not what it should be. Times when I just want to hide from Him even though everything in me screams to be one with Him. It’s as though I can’t find a way. It was as though the Israelites could not find their way.
So we beg God ... they begged and prayed to God: “Turn us, O God of our Salvation and cause thine anger toward us to cease!” (KJV) “Wilt Thou not revive us again that thy people might rejoice in Thee?”
Rescue us from ourselves. Bring us out of this captivity. Revive the life and breath in our souls.
Revive! This is from the Hebrew word “chayah” with this meaning: to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.
Turn ... Restore .... Redeem .... Make New. Quicken me! Make me live! Sustain me and prosper me! Restore my health and well being! Only God can do this in us. He is the One that turns us back to Him. When we cry out to Him and turn to Him, He returns to us.
Charles Spurgeon wrote “Yea, He is first in the reconciliation and turns them when otherwise they would never turn of themselves.”
Without His willingness and His love for us, there is no turning back to Him. There is no revival unless He does the reviving.
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (KJV) Psalm 85: 10
Mercy and truth are met together! This is no chance meeting. This is an encounter long planned out and planned for. A joining together for a purpose. For God’s purpose and plan to reign and rule and love His children in mercy and revealing His truth to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Yet this part! This takes my breath away! “righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” This is sheer poetry come to life.
Kissed. From the Hebrew word “Nashaq” meaning the idea of fastening up; to kiss, literally or figuratively (touch);mutually connected; joined together; also (as a mode of attachment), to equip with weapons:—armed (men), rule, kiss, that touched.
You kiss what you love. A kiss is intimate and personal. A kiss joins you with another. It connects you. It binds.
Righteousness comes only from God. He is the only Righteous One.
Righteousness and peace have kissed, becoming so intimately intertwined with each other that you can not have one without the other ... as Christ kissed the earth, becoming so joined with His creation as to be a part of it... a part of us.
He was intimately with us, in our lives, walking, talking, breathing, equipping us with what we need to do battle against evil, reviving and restoring us to the Father. He was Emmanuel, God with us.
He gave us the Holy Spirit that lives in us.
He kissed our souls with Righteousness and made us at peace with Him.
Righteousness and Peace kissed at the cross where Mercy and Truth met, and God became at peace with His creation because of His Son Jesus who provided for our salvation.
We are justified by faith and at peace with God through Jesus Christ. He has made us righteous as though we had never sinned, as though we had never worshiped or kissed an idol. As though we had never turned away from Him.
So if you are held captive by your own choices, if you are wandering and want to return home, if you are just tired of the life you have been living, pray and ask forgiveness. Ask Him to help you turn from that captivity and set you free. Ask the Father and He will save you.. He will do a work in you and revive your relationship with Him.
He will show you how to live your life in righteousness and He will bless you.
His promise to us is true.
You might say He sealed it with a kiss.
05/08/2018
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