“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.” Psalm 85:8-9 ESV
Reflection: how can we hear what the Lord tells us?
Getting up about 6:30am this morning, my phone had opened up a video. I had not pressed anything that I am aware of; didn’t even know where this video came from. Since I recognized the people on it, I decided to press play. But I thought, that was very odd. Has never happened before. And after searching for the video, turns out this was a 2-year old video I had stored off to a cloud storage account that I rarely use. But how and why in the world was it loaded, ready to play? Shortly after, as I made my coffee, I heard my father-in-law talking to me from his bedroom, saying “did you see the sky?” I had not even looked outside yet, so I decided to walk outside to really see it. And it was just amazing. A bright purply-red, very unusual color covering the entire eastern sky in central Nebraska. Another odd event. I went back inside, and started my morning Bible study, Psalms 85. The Spirit stopped me on verse 8, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.” Psalm 85:8 ESV. In the context of the previous two events, including the purple sky signifying royalty, I now understand that
the Lord wanted to speak, and I needed to listen.
Turns out Psalms 85 is not only a beautiful, poetic psalm, but also very prophetic. And the Lord speaks so clearly through it, starting with His message about peace “he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.” Psalm 85:8b ESV. He goes on, saying that He alone is the one who brings salvation “Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.” Psalm 85:8-9 ESV. And we know what his plan was all along for bringing us salvation and peace. It was by himself, through Jesus Christ. Let’s read on,
“Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.”Psalms 85:10 NKJV
Again, we hear Him speaking about peace. But, what does the rest of this poetry mean? The first part, “Mercy and truth have met together” reminds us of how John characterized Jesus, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 NKJV. Mercy and truth are embodied by Jesus, and as we receive Him, embrace truth with mercy and grace, we are made righteous and receive peace; “Righteousness and peace have kissed”. Fulfilled by Jesus, through Jesus. “Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Psalms 85:11 NKJV. We are the truth springing out of the earth, as God is transforming us to be like Jesus, in His image.
Only then can the Lord fully bless us, as we looked at in Psalms 84, and also read here. “Yes, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its increase.” Psalms 85:12 NKJV. And, we read the end from the beginning, “Lord, You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.”Psalms 85:1-3 NKJV
The Lord spoke loudly this morning, declaring peace to His people, as we follow Him closely and not the ways of the world. And we can only say, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” And I think He also wanted to encourage each of us who follow Him closely, to look expectantly for signs, things “out of the ordinary”, to be ready to hear Him speak. He is very near, and He is speaking to us, if we listen.