3. Sin Cleansed – Joy Abounds! Psalm 85:9-13

Text: “Surely His Salvation is nigh them that fear Him; that glory may dwell in our land.  Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.  Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from Heaven.”

Psalm 85:9-11.

Good morning, Sin-cleansed Christian!  I know you by the joy glowing from your face, as, even in times of temporal trouble, it also glows from mine.  Why do our faces glow with Spiritual joy?  Because we are indeed, ‘Sin-cleansed Christians’!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  (Psalm 103:1-5

The soul that professes to have been redeemed by the Lord God, yet fails to give Him a full measure of open praise – needs to revisit the entire concept of Eternal Salvation in Christ!  There is no such person as a thankless, praise-less Christian!  Selah (now think on this!).

Back-slidden Christian: tarry not at the pig’s trough of sin – return to the joy of the Lord.

Verse 9. “Surely His Salvation is nigh them that fear Him. If to seeking sinners Salvation is nigh, it is assuredly very nigh to those who have once enjoyed it and have lost its present enjoyment by their folly; they have but to turn unto the Lord, and they shall enjoy it again.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 361)

Sinners who have never been permitted entrance into the full Presence of the Living Lord God Jehovah, literally, do not know what they are missing, never having had that joy and peace. Those that have tasted sugar, but never pure honey, know nothing of the supreme difference in quality and sweetness.  Those who live in the night cannot fully appreciate the wonder of the morning sun, or smell the freshness of the grassy fields at break of day.

However, having once experienced in all fullness such beauty and blessings – such experiences must always be sorely missed if taken away.

There is no one to be pitied and prayed for more than the genuine backsliding Christian who has allowed the sin, and lust, and greed of their old nature to lure them out of full fellowship with the Lord Who has redeemed their never-dying souls from sin.  King David knew the depth of such loss, when he sinned, wilfully, against the Living Lord God.  He cried out:

“Cast me not away from Thy Presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy Salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” (Psalm 51:11-12)

Genuine repentance from our sin, is our passport to a renewed joy in God’s Presence.

Verse 10. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. This happens when unsaved sinners, or backslidden Christians, sincerely repent, turn away from, our sin and cast ourselves on the Eternal mercies of our Holy, yet loving Lord God.

Here is what the faithful Matthew Henry (1662-1714) has to say on this matter:

“(1) When in every congress mercy and truth meet, in every embrace righteousness and peace kiss, and common honesty is indeed common, then glory dwells in a land, as the sin of reigning dishonesty is a reproach to any people.

(2.) Of the return of God's favour, and the continuance of it, thereupon. When a people return to God and adhere to him in a way of duty, he will return to them and abide with them in a way of mercy. So, some understand this, man's truth and God's mercy, man's righteousness and God's peace, meet together. If God find us true to him, to one another, to ourselves, we shall find him merciful. If we make conscience of righteousness, we shall have the comfort of peace. If truth spring out of the earth, that is (as Dr. Hammond expounds it), out of the hearts of men, the proper soil for it to grow in, righteousness (that is, God's mercy) shall look down from heaven, as the sun does upon the world when it sheds its influences on the productions of the earth and cherishes them.

(3.) Of the harmony of the divine attributes in the Messiah's undertaking. In him who is both our salvation and our glory mercy and truth have met together; God's mercy and truth, and his righteousness and peace, have kissed each other; that is, the great affair of our salvation is so well contrived, so well concerted, that God may have mercy upon poor sinners, and be at peace with them, without any wrong to his truth and righteousness. He is true to the threatening, and just in his government, and yet pardons sinners and takes them into covenant with himself. Christ, as Mediator, brings heaven and earth together again, which sin had set at variance; through him truth springs out of the earth, that truth which God desires in the inward part, and then righteousness looks down from heaven; for God is just, and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Or it may denote that in the kingdom of the Messiah these graces shall flourish and prevail and have a universal command.”  (Matthew Henry 1662-1714, in Mathew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible)

Verse 10. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.  These four Divine attributes parted at the fall of Adam and met again at the birth of Christ.” (George Horne,1730-1792)

When the Lord Jesus Christ made His Atonement for our sins, at Calvary’s Cross – it was a full and complete Atonement (at-one-ment), between a thrice Holy Lord God and the elected souls of sinful mankind.  For the redeemed, born again, Christian – all is Eternally well.

“It was good for Joseph that he was a captive; good for Naaman that he was a leper; good for Bartimaeus that he was blind, and for David that he was in trouble.  Bradford thanked God more for his prison than for parlour or pleasure. All things are for the best unto the faithful, and so God’s mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (John Boys, 1560-1643)

Genuine, soundly saved backsliding Christians all testify of the pure peace, joy, and blessings experienced – when once they quit their backsliding, confessed and forsook their besetting sins; and were gloriously restored to full fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

“…Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, said the Lord of Hosts…” (Malachi 3:7)

Verse 13. “Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall set us IN THE WAY of His steps. Full joy of heart, soul, and mind, is found only IN Christ Jesus.

 He is THE WAY, the truth, and the life – no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. Joy abounds in Christ alone.

Thought: Psalm 85: Sins forgiven and detested, equals full joy restored in Christ.