Year 8, Day 222: Psalms 85-86

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The psalms for today are pleas for salvation.  The first of which is spoken in a great time of need for the psalmist’s nation.  That starts us with an interesting thought.  So often we hear the plea psalms as psalms for a personal salvation.  So often we meet a psalmist who is in great personal need or under great personal persecution.  This first psalm is a national psalm.  It is a psalm where the psalmist sees much more than themselves in peril.  They see their culture in peril around them.

When we examine this idea, we can look at what basis the psalmist has for hope.  Can God save a nation from persecution?  Of course He can!  God has already done it in the Hebrew past.  God brought the people out of Egypt.  In fact, it is in this same story that we find God’s forgiveness to a wicked generation.  God brings a faithful generation out from within the midst of an unfaithful one.  The psalmist has good reason to hope.  It God can bring faith out of unfaith, He can certainly do it again.

The psalmist has every reason to be hopeful.  The psalmist has every reason to anticipate the salvation of the Lord.  He has every reason to think about the steadfast love of the Lord.  He knows that righteousness will go before the Lord.  He knows that the blessing of the Lord can fall upon a nation.  The Lord has done it before.  He can and will do it again.

Why will the Lord do this?  Psalm 86 can shed a little light.  The Lord does this because He is great and wonderful.  The Lord does this because He longs to teach us.  The Lord does this because His nature, His character, is just.  When we walk with the Lord, we have every reason to believe and to hope.

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