Ps. 85: Restoration and Righteousness

Psalm 85:7 "Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation."

Finally, a Psalm of restoration. Before, the Psalmist asked if God would do certain things. Or would stop doing certain things. Here, God has done those things. Fortunes restored, favor shown, iniquity forgiven...its all good here. But why? Why does God take the time he does? Or does he take his time. What is the amount of time between when contrite words are spoken, and when a contrite heart is broken? (That's a free one.) And even then, how long does God wait even after the heart is truely aligned to God's grace?

And grace it is. It is God who sets aside his anger and wrath. It isn't that God is convinced by any arguement or sacrifices or flowery speeches. Nothing is earned from God. Likewise, God earns nothing from man. Which is well and good that nothing transfers from man to God, only from God to man. God is unfailing love and salvation. Man is nothing but in need of those things.

But you have to listen to God. God demanded that people listen and walk in his ways, and this is how righteousness and peace were found. 

Ps. 5: God Does It

Psalm 5:7 "But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple."

Any power man appears to have is little more than an illusion. Either way, good or bad. David acknowledges this here in the fifth Psalm in numerous ways. David cries to no one else for help but to his King, that being God. Not to his prophets or his minions, as Absalom did. 

The scriptures say "In the morning" David lays his requests before God. This is the first thing he does with his requests. He goes to God first. He doesn't appear to try things first. He comes and asks God before he does anything else. Can you imagine starting the day like this? Before your feet hit the floor out of bed, you've already made your requests known, you've already interacted with God?

All these other people, the liars, the wicked, the arrogant...those who take pleasure in evil, their power is not David's power. Not even close. They are destroyed by God's presence. They cannot stand. This is where the power is. David says that he can stand. That he can approach God's throne. But this is not by David's power. It is God who allows it. God favors David's reverence, and therefore allows him to live. If David went in all cocky and brash, he'd be destroyed too. He also doesn't credit his own righteousness as being the reason God keeps him. He says, "God, it's by your great mercy." He doesn't consider himself better, just under God's grace.

I love verse 11. One can only experience true joy when one's refuge is in God. Joy enough to sing. What's made you so happy you could sing? My wedding day. When I found out I was going to be a dad. When Magglio hit that home run off Huston Street in the bottom of the ninth of the ALCS to send the Tigers to the 2006 World Series. I sung out loud after those types of things. The point is, if God's shield of protection is over someone, what does he have to fear? Where fear vacates, joy saturates. Then you sing!