Psalm 85

The history of Israel is full of deliverance. But there is a land that God loves more than Canaan. There is a Jerusalem above where righteousness dwells. The descent of that great bride from heaven will mean the renewal of the whole earth.

Today, the kingdom of heaven upon the earth is especially known through the church of the Jewish Messiah. How is the bride of Christ faring upon the earth? She is in constant need of the Lord's continued deliverance.

We remember the fact of the cross as the greatest display of the grace of God toward us. God forgave the iniquity of His people. He covered our sin. He withdrew His anger because of our Substitute.

But now and every day we need restoration. We feel the discipline of the Lord, and we wonder how much we can take. Will the cross, the resurrection, and the presence of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit be a present salvation for us again today? This is our plea. It is also the Lord's promise that we need embrace again by faith.

Even when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and there was so much suffering in the land, the Lord's prophet was able to remember this in Lamentations 3:21-26:

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Yes, it is good for us to wait quietly for the Lord, but it is also good for us to cry out to Him in an honest lamentation with faith. And it is good for the Lord's people to find the way to sincere rejoicing.

We need to hear what He will say to us today. We need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the great Messiah. We need to believe again in heavenly glory and to ask for glory in the church as a present supply from above. May the Lord's salvation be near to us! May the Lord's glory dwell in us now!

Steadfast love and faithfulness have met in the cross of Christ. The righteousness that insists on the fullest obedience to the Law of God and the shalom that comforts the weak have found the only way to live with each other in Him.

Because of the blood of this one Lamb, there is a new land where faithfulness springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky. The Lord will give us good gifts. The kingdom of God will yield its increase today. A way has been made for us in the footsteps of our Redeemer who endured the cross and who now reigns in the heights of heaven.