Room for renewal

Jock Stein December 03, 2025 1 2

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Psalm 85 (NIVUK)

1 You, Lord, showed favour to your land;
    you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people
    and covered all their sins.
3 You set aside all your wrath
    and turned from your fierce anger.

4 Restore us again, God our Saviour,
    and put away your displeasure towards us.
5 Will you be angry with us for ever?
    Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
    that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, Lord,
    and grant us your salvation.

8 I will listen to what God the Lord says;
    he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants –
    but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
    that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
    and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
    and prepares the way for his steps.

This is a psalm of binocular vision. After a prayer to hear what God has to say, the writer sees steadfast love and righteousness coming down from heaven, and faithfulness and peace springing up from the earth. The Lord gives good seed, the land yields a harvest. What a vision of divine blessing and human response!

And it’s yet another way to understand the wonderful integration of divine and human in our Lord Jesus. In him God shows his character, and more than that God is really present in the fullest way we can understand; it is in the person of Jesus that we see a perfect human response.

A prayer:

God, we believe that glory truly dwelt in the land of Israel when our Lord Jesus lived and died and rose again. Now let your salvation be at hand this Advent season, that we may glimpse your glory once again, as the Spirit of Jesus works in us and through us and beyond us – we ask this because your love is steadfast and your word is never empty, Amen.