1. Lord, thou
hast been favorable unto thy land.
The self-existent, all-sufficient Jehovah
is addressed: by that name he revealed himself to Moses when his people were in
bondage. It is wise to dwell upon that view of the divine character which
arouses the sweetest memories of his love. Sweeter still is that dear name of
“Our Father,” with which Christians have learned to commence their prayers.
The psalmist speaks of Canaan as the Lord’s land, for he chose it for his
people, conveyed it by covenant to them, conquered it by his power, and dwelt
in it in mercy. It is our land that is devastated, but O Jehovah, it is
also thy land. The psalmist dwells upon the Lord’s favor to the chosen
land, which he had shown in a thousand ways. God’s past doings are prophetic of
what he will do; hence the encouraging argument: thou hast been favorable to
thy land, therefore deal graciously with it again.
It is clear that Israel was not in exile, or the prayer
before us would not have referred to the land but to the nation.
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. When oppressed through their sins, the Ever-merciful One
had chased away the invaders and given his people rest: this he had done not
once, nor twice, but times without number. Many a time have we also been
brought into soul-captivity by our back-slidings, but we have not been left
therein; the God who brought Jacob back from Padan-aram to his father’s house
has restored us to the enjoyment of holy fellowship; will he not do the same
again? Let us appeal to him with Jacob-like wrestlings, beseeching him to be
favorable to us notwithstanding all our provocations. Let declining churches
remember their former history, and with holy confidence plead with the Lord to
turn their captivity yet again.
2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Often had he done this. Who is so slow to anger, so ready
to forgive? Every believer in Jesus enjoys the blessing of pardoned sin, and
should regard this as the pledge of all other needed mercies. He should plead
it with God—“Lord, thou hast pardoned me, and wilt thou let me perish for lack
of grace, or fall into thine enemies’ hands? Thou wilt not thus leave thy work
unfinished.” Thou hast covered all their sin. All of it, every spot and
wrinkle, the veil of love has covered. Covering it with the sea of the
atonement, blotting it out, making it to cease to be, the Lord has put it so
completely away that even his omniscient eye sees it no more. Not without a
covering atonement is sin removed, but by means of the great sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus, it is most effectually put away by one act, forever.
3. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Having removed the sin, the anger is removed also. How
often did the longsuffering of God take away from Israel the punishments which
had been justly laid upon them! How often also has the Lord’s chastising hand
been removed from us when our waywardness called for heavier strokes! Thou
hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. When ready to
destroy, he had averted his face from his purpose of judgment and allowed mercy
to interpose. The book of Judges is full of illustrations of this, and the
psalmist does well to quote them while he intercedes. Is not our experience
equally studded with instances in which judgment has been stayed and tenderness
has ruled? What a difference between the fierce anger which is feared and
deprecated here, and the speaking of peace which is foretold in verse 8. There
are many changes in Christian experience, and therefore we must not despair
when we are undergoing the drearier portion of the spiritual life, for soon,
very soon, it may be transformed into gladness.
4. Turn us, O God of our salvation. This was the main business. Could the erring tribes be
rendered penitent, all would be well. It is not that God needs turning from his
anger so much as that we need turning from our sin; here is the hinge of the
whole matter. Our trials frequently arise out of our sins, but only God can
turn us. When someone learns to pray for conversion there is hope for him: he
who turns to prayer is beginning to turn from sin. It is a very blessed sight
to see a whole people turn unto their God; may the Lord so send forth his
converting grace on our land that we may live to see the people flocking to the
loving worship of God. And cause thine anger toward us to cease. When
sinners cease to rebel, the Lord ceases to be angry with them; when they return
to him he returns to them; indeed, he is first in the reconciliation, and turns
them when otherwise they would never turn of themselves.
Thus the psalmist asks for his nation priceless blessings,
and quotes the best of arguments. Because the God of Israel has been so rich in
favor in bygone years, he is intreated to reform and restore his backsliding
nation.
5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? See how the psalmist makes bold to plead. We are in time as
yet and not in eternity, and does not time come to an end, and therefore thy
wrath? Wilt thou be angry always as if it were eternity? And if forever, yet
wilt thou be angry with us, thy favored people, the seed of Abraham, thy
friend? That our enemies should be always angry is natural, but wilt thou,
our God, be always incensed against us? Every word is an argument. Men in
distress never waste words. Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all
generations? Will sons suffer for their fathers’ faults, and punishment
become an entailed inheritance? When we are under spiritual desertion we may
beg in the same manner that the days of tribulation may be shortened, lest our
spirit should utterly fail beneath the trial.
6. Wilt thou not revive us again? Hope here grows almost confident. We are dead or dying,
faint and feeble; God alone can revive us; he has in other times refreshed his
people; he is still the same; he will repeat his love. We appeal to him: Wilt
thou not? That thy people may rejoice in thee. Thou lovest to see thy
children happy with that best of happiness which centers in thyself; therefore
revive us, for revival will bring us the utmost joy. Gratitude has an eye to
the giver, even beyond the gift—thy people may rejoice in thee.
Those who were revived would rejoice not only in the new life but in the Lord
who was the author of it. Joy in the Lord is the ripest fruit of grace; all
revivals and renewals lead up to it. By our possession of it we may estimate
our spiritual condition. A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as
impossible as spring without flowers, or daydawn without light.
7. Show us thy mercy, O Lord. We cannot see it or believe it by reason of our long woes,
but thou canst make it plain to us. And grant us thy salvation. This
includes deliverance from the sin as well as the chastisement; it reaches from
the depth of their misery to the height of divine love.
8–13. Having
offered earnest intercession for the afflicted but penitent nation, the sacred
poet in the true spirit of faith awaits a response from the sacred oracle. He
pauses in joyful confidence, and then in ecstatic triumph he gives utterance to
his hopes in the richest form of song.
8. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. When we believe that God hears us,
it is but natural that we should be eager to hear him. Only from him can come
the word which can speak peace to troubled spirits. Happy is the suppliant who
has grace to lie patiently at the Lord’s door, and wait until his love acts
according to its old custom and chase all sorrow far away. For he will speak
peace unto his people, and to his saints. Even though for a while his voice
is stern with merited rebuke, the Father will reassume his natural tone of
gentleness and pity. The speaking of peace is the peculiar prerogative of the
Lord Jehovah. Yet not to all does the divine word bring peace, but only to his
own people, whom he means to make saints, and those whom he has already made
so. But let them not turn again to folly. For if they do so, his rod
will fall upon them again, and their peace will be invaded. Those who would
enjoy communion with God must avoid all that would grieve the Holy Spirit; not
only the grosser sins, but even the follies of life must be guarded against by
those who are favored with the delights of conscious fellowship. Backsliders
should study this verse with the utmost care; it will console them and yet warn
them, draw them back to their allegiance and at the same time inspire them with
a wholesome fear of going further astray. To turn again to folly is worse than
being foolish once; it argues willfullness and obstinacy.
9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him. Faith knows that a saving God is always near at hand, but only
(for such is the true rendering) to those who fear the Lord, and worship him
with holy awe. In the Gospel dispensation this truth is conspicuously
illustrated. 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 will enjoy it again. We
have not to go about by a long round of personal mortifications or spiritual
preparations; we may come to the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we did at the
first, and he will again receive us.
That glory may dwell in our land. The object of the return of grace will be a permanent
establishment of a better state of things, so that gloriously devout worship
will be rendered to God continuously, and a glorious measure of prosperity will
be enjoyed in consequence.
In these two verses we have, beneath the veil of the letter,
an intimation of the coming of the Word of God to the nations in times of deep
apostasy and trouble, when faithful hearts would be looking and longing for the
promise which had so long tarried. By his coming, salvation is brought near.
10. Mercy and truth are met together. The people recognize at once the grace and the veracity of
Jehovah; he is to them neither a tyrant nor a deceiver. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. The Lord, whose just severity inflicted the
smart, now in pity sends peace to bind up the wound. The people being now made
willing to forsake their sins, and to follow after righteousness, find peace
granted to them at once.
This appears to be the immediate and primary meaning of
these verses; but the inner sense is Christ Jesus, the reconciling Word. In
him, the attributes of God unite in the salvation of guilty people. God is as
true as if he had fulfilled every letter of his threatenings, as righteous as
if he had never spoken peace to a sinner’s conscience. It is the custom of
modern thinkers to make sport of this representation of the result of our
Lord’s substitutionary atonement, but had they ever been themselves made to
feel the weight of a sin upon a spiritually awakened conscience, they would
cease from their vain ridicule.
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth. Promises which lie unfulfilled, like buried seeds, will
spring up and yield harvests of joy; and people renewed by grace will learn to
be true to one another and their God, and abhor the falsehood which they loved
before. And righteousness shall look down from heaven, as if it threw up
the windows and leaned out to gaze upon a penitent people, whom it could not
have looked upon before without an indignation which would have been fatal to
them.
In the person of our adorable Jesus Christ truth is found in
our humanity, and his deity brings divine righteousness among us. There is a
world of meaning in these verses, only needing meditation to draw it out. The
well is deep, but if you have the Spirit, it cannot be said that you have
nothing to draw with.
12. Yea, the Lord
shall give that which is good.
Being himself pure goodness, he will readily return from his wrath, and deal
out good things to his repenting people. Our evil brings evil upon us, but when
we are brought back to follow that which is good, the Lord abundantly enriches
us with good things. And our land shall yield her increase. When the
people yielded what was due to God, the soil would recompense their husbandry.
13. God’s
march of right will leave a track his people will joyfully follow. He who smote
in justice will also bless in justice, so as to affect the hearts and lives of
all his people. Such are the blessings of our Lord’s first advent, and such
will be yet more conspicuously the result of his second coming.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
