"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
Psalm 85:10
Part 1
“Mercy and truth.”
In Psalm 85, the psalmist shows how mercy and truth have met for Israel. Everything God has spoken about His people is right. He has been truthful about Israel’s sin, and His threats regarding His Law, and His promises. And then blended in with that truth, is His mercy (His lovingkindness). He has forgiven their sin and spared their lives. The scriptures teach us that God is willing to give mercy, but not in the absence of the truth. He does not ignore reality for the sentiment.
“For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).
“Mercy” is from the Hebrew word that is often translated as His “lovingkindness.” It can be defined as “goodness, kindness, faithfulness.”[1] These are all qualities of God Himself. Because of these qualities, He can forgive sinners. He has shown mercy, and He does…
“Truth” is a word in the ancient text, which means “firmness, faithfulness,” and “truth.” Truth is referred to “as spoken, of testimony and judgment, of divine instruction, truth as a body of ethical or religious knowledge,” and “true doctrine.” And since the truth is unchanging, there is about it, a, “sureness… stability, continuance… faithfulness,” and it has a “reliableness” to it.
His truth never changes, and His mercy makes sinners into saints!
“Mercy and truth,”
“Are met together.”
How can this be? You might be thinking that “mercy” and “truth” are at odds with each other. After all, doesn’t truth back the law, while mercy loves forgiveness? These seem entirely incompatible! In the Word of God, our God does not see it that way!
“There is no necessary contradiction between truth and mercy; that is, the one does not necessarily conflict with the other, though the one seems to conflict with the other when punishment is threatened for crime, and yet mercy is shown to the offender – that is, where the punishment is not inflicted, and the offender is treated as if he had not sinned”[2] (Barnes).
What a beautiful truth this is!
But how can righteousness and peace ever come together? Come back tomorrow, and let’s see what God says!
Quote: “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:16).
[1] Brown, Driver, Briggs. Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.
[2] Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword. As to mercy and truth regarding the human government, here’s what Barnes said, “In this respect, the great difficulty in all human governments has been to maintain both; to be true to the threatening of the law, and at the same time to pardon the guilty. Human governments have never been able to reconcile the two”.