‘Grant us Your salvation’
[Psalms 85]
The article ‘Fulfill your salvation’ teaches us some lessons: (1) The first lesson is that we should be faithful to God even in small things. Many people spend most of their lives regretting their bad habits. Although they talk about being reborn into a new life, they never actually set out to fulfill their salvation. You have the privilege of entering more fully into your salvation every moment. Whenever God gives permission, use it. (2) The second lesson is that we should listen to God. We must live in God's presence. And we must avoid things that lead us away from Him. We must find Him who dwells in us and pour out our hearts on Him. We must love God more than anything else. We must give our plans to God's will. We need to discover what He wants from us and do it quickly. Even small things become big when we do God's will. (3) The third lesson is that we must do what God has asked of us in love and obedeince. That's enough. No matter how difficult and uncomfortable our situation becomes, we are free because we have received it all from God's hand. The greatest thing is to accept the pain without being discouraged (Internet).
I remember the contents of the book Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones' Ephesians 3 Sermon Book that I read yesterday evening. The fact that the people who believe in Jesus are people who rejoice and glad in pain. We aren’t just accepting the pain given to us in our reality by thinking that it will get better. We accept it with joy. We should accept it all from God's hand. Then we are free. Therefore, when we suffer, we should not be discouraged or despair, but rather long for God's salvation (deliverance).
If we look at Psalms 85:7, we can see the psalmist longing for God's salvation: “Show us Your lovingkindness, O LORD, And grant us Your salvation.” I would like to think about how God saves us when we ask for the salvation of the Lord in four processes under the heading “Grant us Your salvation” based on Psalms 85.
First, the Lord who saves us turns away His burning anger from us.
Look at Psalms 85:3-4: “You withdrew all Your fury; You turned away from Your burning anger. Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.” As those who long for the Lord's salvation, the first thing we must do after we sin is to seek the Lord's lovingkindness (v. 10). Although we should be punished as a result of our sin, we should ask the Lord to turn away His anger from us instead of imposing punishment on us. The psalmist prayed to God, “grant us Your salvation,” and prayed that all of His anger against us would be withdrew and ceased (vv. 3-4). Then he pleads with God with faith believing that God would never be angry with His people He loved: “Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?” (v. 5) Look at what the psalmist confesses in Psalm 30:5 – “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; ….” Our God is a God who is slow to anger. His anger is but for a moment. Therefore, when we have sinned and provoked God's anger, we must ask God for His lovingkindness and mercy and turn away all His anger against us. And when we pray, we must pray in fear of the Lord (85:9). In such fear, we must ask for God's salvation. Then the God who saves us will turn away from us all His anger against us.
Second, the Lord who saves us covers all our sin.
Look at Psalms 85:2 – “You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah.” The grace that the Lord gives us after He first turns all the anger against us in saving us (v. 1) is covering all our sins. In other words, our God forgives all our sins in saving us. Our God, rich in love and grace, who has forgiven our sins in the past and covered all our transgressions (v. 2), is pleased to and wants to forgive our sins even now. Why does God please and want to forgive our sin? The reason is because God wants to show His lovingkindness (v. 7). That was why the psalmist prayed to God like this: “For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (25:11).
Even though our sins are great, God's love for us is even greater. That’s why our God forgives our great sins with His great love in saving us. And God speaks peace to us (v. 8). Therefore, like the psalmist, we must decide to listen to this word of God (v. 8). And we must not turn back to folly (v. 8). In other words, we must never go back to sin. Regarding the truly blessed people, the psalmist David says in Psalm 32:1-2: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!” Those who are forgiven of their sins and whose sins are covered are blessed. Those whom God doesn’t impute iniquity are blessed. These blessed people have no deceit in their hearts. In other words, they honestly and sincerely confess and ask God for forgiveness without hiding their sins before Him. This is our responsibility. We must honestly confess all our sins to God and ask Him for forgiveness. Then God, who is rich in love and grace, will cover all our sins.
Third, the Lord who saves us revives us again.
Look at Psalms 85:6 – “Will You not Yourself revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?” God takes away all His anger against us in saving us, covers all our sins, and revives us again. In other words, He restores and revives our souls. The guilty soul needs to be restored after repentance. After repentance of the repressed heart due to sin, the soul needs to be restored and revived through God's Word along with God's forgiveness of sins. In Psalms 85, we can see how the psalmist describes in detail the work of the salvation of God who revived him again by looking at verse 1: “… You restored the captivity of Jacob.” Here, “Jacob's captivity” refers to Israel who was captured by Babylon or other nations (Park). The fact that the psalmist longed for God's work of salvation and asked for revive his soul again indicates that he prayed for the freedom of the Israelites who had been captive. Therefore, he asked for the Israelites to return to the land of Canaan. In a word, the psalmist asked for “restoration” [“You restored the captivity of Jacob” (v. 1b), “Restore us, O God of our salvation” (v.4a)].
The God of our salvation is the Lord who makes us to rejoice in Him by reviving us (v. 6). First, of course, we are rejoicing because we have been restored (saved). But in the end, God makes us rejoice and be glad in God Himself (v. 6, Park). I remember the first question on the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 1: (Q) What is the chief end of man? (A) Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. God is the Lord who makes His chosen people to enjoy Him by making them to glorifies Him. He revives us and raises us up so that we can live in the presence of the Lord (Hos. 6:2).
Fourth and last, the Lord who saves us gives us what is good.
Look at Psalms 85:12 – “Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce.” The God who restores us is the very good God who freely gives us good things while letting us live before Him. He is not a God who gives us only spiritual blessings abundantly. He is the God who gives us abundant material blessings as well. He is God who does not spare good things for those who walk uprightly (84:11). Look at Romans 8:32 – “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” The God who doesn’t spare us the only Son, Jesus, but gives us salvation by giving Jesus up on the cross, is the God who gives us freely all good things. According to the apostle Paul, God loved us and blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3). He chose and predestined us before creation and gave us redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And He made us His children (vv. 4-5). God has freely given us all these spiritual blessings in the One He loves (v. 6). In this way, we are living by receiving the blessings that God has freely given us.
What kind of God is our God? First, God is the God who knows me best (Ps. 139). Second, God is the God who loves me the most (Rom. 8:32). Third, God is the God who gives me the best things right now (Ps. 84:11; 85:12). This God poured out all His wrath on His begotten Son, Jesus. The wrath that He should have been poured out on us, instead He poured it out on Jesus. And in order to forgive all our sins, He put all our sins on Jesus and made Him die on the cross. However, God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. And in Jesus, He gave us every spiritual blessings freely (Eph. 1:3).
After praising the God of salvation,
James Kim(Always living day by day because of God’s goodness)