In light of what we looked at in the previous post I believe Psalm 85 is a prophetic picture of America at this present time. Let’s look at it together:
vs.1 O Jehovah, You have been gracious to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
vs.2 You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sins.
God has always been gracious to His children, giving us what we do not deserve, especially the forgiveness of “all” our sins.
vs.3 You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the heat of Your anger.
vs.4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease.
vs.5 Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
God has not been pleased with what He has seen in America for many years but as we continue to look at this psalm I believe we will see that the judgment of God on our nation was averted by the repentance of His people, possibly for generations to come.
vs.6 Will You not give us life again, so that Your people may rejoice in You?
As repentance came, so came revival (life again) and joy was restored to God’s people.
vs.7 Show us Your mercy, O Jehovah, and grant us Your salvation.
Indeed He showed us His mercy throughout 2016, granting us His salvation and healing as thousands repented of their sins and turned back to Him (He in His mercy is always there for us, the condition of our heart needs to be right in order for us to realize His mercy).
I believe many of us repented of the sin of complacency, especially in regard to our relationship to Him (complacency always leads to despondency [the Bible calls it “perishing]). Our continual heart’s cry should be “God, show us your mercy and please deliver us from this horrible trap of complacency”.
vs.8 I will hear what God Jehovah will speak; for He will speak peace to His people, and to His saints; but let them not turn again to folly.
Many heard His voice, responded to Him and are once again enjoying the peace that comes from walking in His will.
He wants us to remain vigilant after coming to repentance, hence the warning “but let them not turn again to folly.” It is foolish for us to think that we can have the abundant life that He has in store for us and live some sort of haphazard life of thinking, “Well, I’ll work on my relationship to Him if I feel like it, or if it is convenient for me.” Our relationship to Him must remain at the forefront of our lives and when it does it will permeate every other relationship we have. The relationship with our spouse, our children, our brothers and sisters in Christ, our neighbors, our nation, and our world, all of whom will benefit from our repentance and renewed commitment to our Savior.
vs.9 Surely His salvation is near those that fear Him, so that glory may dwell in our land.
A new work of God started well before election day this year. It began when God’s people responded to His Word, turned from their wicked ways, and simply cried out to Him for His deliverance. The healing has begun.
vs.10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The word “kissed” in verse 10 means “to catch fire:-burn, kindle”; it also means “to equip with weapons”. As I started writing this the mountains close to our home are literally on fire. As the wind intensifies so does the fire, consuming everything in its path. As God’s people repented and cried out to Him mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace were set ablaze in the hearts of thousands of believers. With the power of the Holy Spirit I believe this new work, revival, awakening, call it what you will, has sprouted and will continue to grow as the wind of the Holy Spirit will push us ever forward, cause us to soar with wings as eagles, and continue to fan the flames of revival, empowering His children to overcome anything Satan puts in our path (2nd Corinthians 10:3-5) on our way to seeing His glory once again fill our nation.
vs.11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from Heaven.
Will we see immediate results? The phrase “spring out” means “to sprout.” Many are sensing the positive effect of revival and are expecting to see it grow just as I expect to see new garden plants in the spring grow to maturity and fruit bearing with cultivation on my part and favorable weather conditions on His part.
vs.12 Yea, Jehovah shall give good; and our land shall yield its increase.
The goodness of God leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4), therefore I am expecting a great harvest of renewed saints and lost sinners, starting now and continuing over time from Him.
We should expect His increase and share that increase with the rest of the world. Our Father teaches us in Proverbs 18:20-21 that with the increase (produce) of our lips we will be filled and that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Seems to me that we just need to speak the increase that we want to see by the indisputable authority that our Savior has given us, especially increase in His goodness and His truth and speak death to any attitude that would prevent us from seeing the increase He wants us to have.
I’m expecting to see the goodness of God prevail in our nation once again and the increase of that goodness to overflow to the entire world.
Join me as we encourage each other to continue to declare His truth, His goodness, and His glory over our nation, whether it is always evident or not, until we see it manifest itself in a way that will be evident to all (Romans 4:17 “speaking of Abraham …. and calls the things which do not exist as though they do exist.”)
I would be very naive to think that everyone will agree with this assessment. We can and should be sure that Satan will war against us and will try to convince us that the divisiveness, anger, and hatred we see on the news is how things really are but we must continue to put him in his place with the indisputable authority that Jesus has given us and continue to speak the word of healing and revival until we see both manifested in our nation.
We must keep our Lord’s armor on at all times (Ephesians 6:10-20) and continue in prayer and encouragement of each other.
We must continue to reach out in love to those around us with our message of hope. Hope that Jesus Christ is the one and only source of deliverance for any bondage in which we find ourselves.
vs.13 Righteousness shall go before Him and shall set us in the way of His steps.
I am also expecting Him to go before us, fight our battles, and keep us in the way He has made to accomplish this new work that has begun.
Let me encourage you as Mountain Movers to join me in removing the mountains of divisiveness, anger, and hatred and speak His truth, His goodness, His mercy, His glory into the void where these mountains once stood, continuing to praise Him for all of these (truth, goodness,mercy, glory) until we see them manifested in our nation once again.