SOAP Journal 03-31-2008 (Psalm 85:10-13)

Scripture:

Psalm 85:10-13 Loyal love and faithfulness meet; deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. Faithfulness grows from the ground, and deliverance looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, and our land will yield its crops. Deliverance goes before him, and prepares a pathway for him.

Observation:

The personification of lovingkindness, faithfulness, deliverance and peace show the active nature of the Lord's "good blessings" - "Yes, .. " is another way of saying what preceded. The meeting of the blessing "factors" comprises a form of "aligning of the planets" - a seasonal combination of God's attributes on display among His people and nation. This follows a season of judgment and indeed God will not and has not "remain(ed) angry forever" (earlier). The one tangible is "our land will yield its crops" - one would think a normal occurrence but in the mix of judgment and blessing, clearly it's the hand of God that fills the storehouses.

Application:

We can say that in Christ we have been delivered from judgment and it's true at the end of things, but enduring hardship as discipline and reckoning it pure joy when trials come have an aspect of our flesh being under active judgment. My own unwillingness to give up coffee, my income, my self-produced blessings, etc., are subjects of scrutiny in the Spirit - I know that full well. But trial also comes as a season - we live in a fallen world whose fallenness affects (and afflicts) us. The coming of blessing is a welcome event where deliverance and peace kiss and lovingkindness and faithfulness meet together. Pleasant times are on their way!!

Prayer:

Father, as the psalmist wrote, I must not return to my foolish ways. I pray You make me a candidate for Your promise, Your blessing and prosperity. Let me be pure, obedient, faultless in Your sight, for I give You all the glory. Amen.