Psalm 85:11

EXPOSITION

Verse 11. Truth shall spring out of the earth. Promises which lie unfulfilled, like buried seeds, shall spring up and yield harvests of joy; and men renewed by grace shall 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. This is a delicious scene. Earth yielding flowers of truth, and heaven shining with stars of holiness; the spheres echoing to each other, or being mirrors of each other's beauties. "Earth carpeted with truth and canopied with righteousness," shall be a nether heaven. When God looks down in grace, man sends his heart upward in obedience. The person of our adorable Lord Jesus Christ explains this verse most sweetly. In Him truth is found in our humanity, and his deity brings divine righteousness among us. His Spirit's work even now creates a hallowed harmony between his church below, and the sovereign righteousness above; and in the latter day, earth shall be universally adorned with every precious virtue, and heaven shall hold intimate intercourse with it. There is a world of meaning in these verses, only needing meditation to draw it out. Reader, "the well is deep," but if thou hast the Spirit, it cannot be said, that "thou hast nothing to draw with."

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 10-11. See Psalms on "Psalms 85:10" for further information.

Verse 11. Truth shall spring. The literal sense is, that the promises which for a long time are not fulfilled, and seem like seeds or roots hidden and concealed under ground, when they shall be fulfilled, shall be considered to spring up, to grow, etc. Lorinus.

Verse 11. Spring. The Metaphor is taken from flowers and trees. In the Greek the expression is aneile, that is, has sprung like the morning, for anatllw and anatolh are properly said of the rising of the sun and moon. Le Blanc.

Verse 11. Shall look down. This looking down, pqvg rendered generally parakuptw in the Greek, implies such a look as in 1 Peter 1:12 , angels give into the things of salvation, and such a look as the disciples gave into the sepulchre. It is really the Righteous One who is resting over them in complacent love, not as in Psalms 14:2 53:2, but fulfilling Psalms 102:19-20 . Andrew A. Bonar.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

None.