What does it mean that "righteousness and peace kiss each other" in Psalm 85:10?

The last verses celebrate, in remarkable terms, the divine principles on which their blessings are then established. God's mercy and truth had now met. His promises, always true, had now been fulfilled by mercy. It is to be remarked that in the psalms mercy always precedes righteousness and truth. For Israel had forfeited all title to promise in rejecting the Lord — had come under full guilt — had no righteousness on which to lean — had been concluded in unbelief, that they also might be objects of mere mercy. But then through Christ's work these promises would now be fulfilled, and mercy and truth met. But more than this. Jehovah was their righteousness, through grace; and hence that righteousness was peace for them; and that which in judgment would have been their ruin, was in grace their peace — righteousness and peace kissed each other. I need hardly say how true these great principles are for any sinner for yet better and heavenly blessings; here they are applied to earthly ones. Truth shall spring out of the earth (that is, the full fruit and effect of God's truth and faithfulness shall be manifest in blessings, full blessings, on the earth). But it was not by a righteousness that man had wrought legally here below. Righteousness looked down from heaven. It was God's righteousness, Jehovah their righteousness. But this made it stable. Jehovah gives that which is good, and the land is blessed. Righteousness traces the path of blessing for Jehovah and Himself in the land — His own no doubt. Still His rule shall be so characterised. "A king shall reign in righteousness" — no more oppression. Justice is no longer fallen in the streets, as Isaiah 59:14 speaks; judgment is returned to it, and the government has this character. "And the fruit of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." This last, indeed, is practical; but it is the result of righteousness having looked down from heaven, yea, of its being established on the earth (compare Ps. 72:1-7, where this state is described).

And they recognize the great result of this mercy:— truth springing out of the earth, and righteousness from heaven approving it — the Lord giving His blessing, and the land yielding her increase. And they seem also to apprehend the way in which this kingdom shall be introduced. And we know it is the same way as that by which we poor Gentiles get blessing now (Rom.11:31); i.e., by the cross of Christ, where indeed "mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace kiss each other." (Rom. 3:26)

For "truth," which required death (Gen. 2:17), and "mercy," which can think of nothing but life and blessing, are here together. Death is endured according to truth, and the culprit given life and liberty according to mercy. "Righteousness" also kisses "peace," and "peace" kisses "righteousness." Instead of being offended at each other's presence, they welcome each other. For righteousness is more than honoured by that which He who makes peace offers to it on the cross; and peace is deeply satisfied, when it sees that it can publish itself to sinners on so sure a title as honoured and accomplished righteousness. And all these glories will shine in consistent beauty in that kingdom which this wondrous cross introduces. All is harmony where all was strife before.

Thus, Israel is brought to experience the pure blessing of God. They will realize that mercy and truth have met together (v. 10). Truth is not compromised in God's showing wonderful mercy to those who did not deserve it. In the past Israel has sought peace at the expense of righteousness, now they find there can be no peace without righteousness. The only way that righteousness and peace can kiss each other is by virtue of the value of the sacrifice of Christ, which will be a marvelous fact for Israel then.

(vv. 4-7) The restoration of Israel awaits the moment when they will own that God has been dealing with them in governmental anger because of their long history of failure, and that their recovery wholly depends upon God, and not upon their own efforts. Therefore they say, “Bring us back” (JND). Of old Naomi had to say, after her wanderings in Moab, “I went out … and the Lord has brought me home again” (Ruth 1:21). We, alas! can wander; it is only the Lord who can bring us back again. In like spirit the nation of Israel will be brought to own that all their own efforts, or the efforts of others, to bring them back to the land of their blessing, will be in vain. They will at last confess the Lord alone can “bring us back.” Thus they plead with the Lord to cause His people to rejoice, to shew them mercy, and grant them salvation from all their enemies.

(vv. 8-13) The closing verses give the answer to this appeal to Jehovah. Very blessedly the godly man says, “I will hear what God, Jehovah, will speak” (JND). He finds that Jehovah gives an answer of peace. They had asked for salvation to be granted (v. 7); they hear that salvation is nigh them that fear Him. They had asked for mercy (v. 7); they hear that mercy and truth are met together — that God will show mercy while maintaining truth, and that righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Peace is brought to Israel, but not at the expense of righteousness. They had asked to be “revived” (v. 6); they hear that truth shall spring out of the earth, once marked by corruption; and righteousness will rule from heaven bringing forth goodness and plenty, where there had been only evil and want.

It is very evident from the first three verses that this Psalm is prophetic of the restoration of Israel. The exercises of the remnant, preceding God's intervention on their behalf, are given in the next four verses, and then we have a statement of the divine principles on which God has acted in bringing back the captivity of Jacob, and in forgiving the iniquity of His people. They are contained in v. 10: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." A few words will explain their nature. God had made certain absolute and unconditional promises to Israel. (See Genesis 15:18 - 21; 17:1-8.) But after Sinai, the possession of their inheritance, and their blessing in the land were dependent upon their obedience to the law. Everything therefore was now connected with the fulfilment of the responsibility which they had voluntarily undertaken. (Exodus 19:3-8.) How grievously they failed, even before the terms of the law had reached the camp, as well as after they had been put into the possession of their inheritance, is fully recorded in their history in the Scriptures. They had thus forfeited everything on the ground of their responsibility, and they were entitled to nothing but judgment. And when Christ came, "a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm 'the promises made unto the fathers," they incurred the crowning guilt of all by His rejection and crucifixion. The consequence was, as the apostle shows in Rom. 11, that, having lost all claim upon the truth of God, they were as much the objects of mercy as the poor Gentiles. And God could exercise, and righteously exercise, mercy towards them, inasmuch as Christ died for "that nation." When therefore God takes up Israel again in a future day, He will, on the foundation of the death and resurrection of Christ, accomplish in His faithfulness, all His promises made to the fathers, and at the same time display His mercy in forgiving His guilty, yet beloved, people. Mercy and truth will then meet together. It is then Israel will cry, "Thy mercy is great above the heavens: and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds." (Psalm 108:4.) Righteousness and peace, moreover, will at the same time be exhibited in happy union. (Compare Isaiah 32:17.) For God has been so abundantly glorified in the death of Christ, that He can become the righteousness of those who will have none of their own: "This is His name whereby He shall be called, the Lord our righteousness." Peace will thus be secured to Israel, as indeed it is now to the believer, through the righteousness of God as revealed in the resurrection and exaltation of our blessed Lord. (Compare Rom. 4:23-25; 5:1.) It may be added that Peter expressly speaks of God's righteousness in the blessing of Jewish believers: "To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" - words which, we apprehend, could not have been used in the same way to Gentile Christians. This righteousness will be manifested before the whole world when He that scattered Israel shall gather them out of all lands and establish them in blessing, according to the thoughts of His own heart, under the sway of their glorious Messiah, when there will be "abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth."

The fourth section; as such, marks what follows as the experience which makes good — or is to make good — all that heart can desire or think in the way of blessing. Here we find, therefore, first of all, that concord of the divine attributes displayed, which is the assurance of stability for that with which it is connected. Loving-kindness is first and ruling, one may say, and yet without setting aside, — rather, maintaining with full emphasis the demands of truth. Righteousness is absolute, and yet in full and loving consent with peace towards man: they kiss each other. There was that, evidently, which had hindered, and kept them apart; but it is removed, and that which was ever in God's heart toward men is free to show itself. We cannot but realize in this the work of the cross, though divine government has acted also in the judgment of the rebellious and impenitent. Phinehas has again, as it were, done his zealous work, and in this way made atonement to offended holiness (Num. 25:11-13, notes). Here then is the foundation laid of permanent blessing. Truth is seen in the fulfilment of glorious promise, as well as in the execution of necessary judgment. Righteousness is not only consistent with, but insures the blessing of those who as sinners take refuge in the sacrifice for sin.

Now this is all-important for the soul, not to rest in forgiveness (its first urgent necessity that applies to what it is as a sinner), but to understand that it is called to the enjoyment of God, in the cloudless communion of a new nature, which being, morally speaking, the divine nature, has necessary and full delight in God, though a dependent and growing delight - we joy in God. No doubt it is and must be founded on righteousness - divine righteousness, as we shall see. It would not be God, were it not so; but it is not the settling that point with a God who is calling it in question, but enjoying God's presence, communion with Him, according to the perfectness in which we have been placed before Him, enjoying Him in the divine nature of which we are partakers. This is thus spoken of in regard to Israel: "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

142 It is mercy, for it is granted to sinners in pure and sovereign mercy; but it is truth, for it accomplishes all God promises to Israel. To us far beyond promise, for there was none of the church; but it is a stronger case. It is being in Christ and as Christ, and so before God according to the favour in which He is before Him as risen. Righteousness seemed against the sinner and was; but through the divine righteousness it associates itself with peace to the sinner. They kiss each other. Peace answers to mercy, righteousness to truth. They have - we have - peace through mercy; but righteousness by the faith of Jesus Christ brings us into the full enjoyment of the place He is in, or it would not be righteousness. Truth springs out of the earth; that is, for Israel all promised is accomplished there. With us, of course, it is sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It is not, "glory shall dwell in our land," but we are in title and place in the glory of God on high. But in all cases righteousness looks down from heaven. It is not for Israel or for us, righteousness looking up from earth to claim blessing from heaven. He has established righteousness in the very heavens. Christ is there. He is there by the righteousness of God. The righteousness was a divine heavenly righteousness; He, having glorified God, is glorified with God, and in Him, and this is divine righteousness. Our heavenly and Israel's earthly blessing both flow from it. Then comes conferred blessing too, and so surely it is all the produce of that heavenly country; its joys and privileges are made ours to enjoy.

Here we have the wonderful fact that in connection with Jesus Christ, and not law, by faith and not works, God has so maintained His rights that He approaches all men favourably in a right way; and as regards all who believe, His righteousness is upon them, that is they are justified or made right in His sight. Under law there was no satisfying of God's righteous claims, no harmonising of the "light" which had been outraged by sin with the "love" which delights in mercy. In Christ, there is all this. In Him, "mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other," and God can exercise His rights of mercy in a right way, i.e. without jeopardising the display of any attribute of this character.

"God, who is rich in mercy." So the Apostle wrote in Eph. 2:4: "Rich" is a word deep and full when applied to the most exalted Being in the universe. Mercy is a quality in which He abounds beyond the competency of any creature mind to comprehend. But righteousness and holiness — qualities of a very different character — are also found in God, or He would not be the absolutely perfect One that He is. The cross alone reconciles these in their application to guilty man. Hence the magnificent statement of the Psalmist: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 85:10). Truth and righteousness demanded justice on offenders; mercy and peace provided the costly sacrifice which has answered all the claims of God's throne, and secured pardon and eternal blessing for all who believe.

Now Exodus 12 speaks about a lamb, whose blood, shed and sprinkled upon the houses of the children of Israel, secured them when God passed in judgment through the land of Egypt. My reader, the Lord Jesus Christ is the great substance, of which the lamb of Exodus 12 was only the shadow. What a blessed wonderful spring the soul gets, when it has believed that the Lamb whose blood must be shed as an atonement for sin is the only begotten Son of God, provided, given, sent by God into the world for this very purpose. As it is written, "in this was manifested the love of God toward us, in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." There is one point of great value and importance in Exodus 12; everything is done under the hand of God, He provides all, so to speak, and then assures by His word — this is very blessed to know. The security of an Israelite in that night consisted in his being in a house whose lintel was marked with the blood of the appointed lamb previously shed in death; the sense of his security, or the known enjoyment of it, consisted in his simply believing God's testimony, "when I see the blood I will pass over you." I would say a little about the security. Nothing less than that mysterious mark on the lintel would suffice, and nothing more was required; the blood shed told of atonement made; "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev. 17:11.) It is no question as to what an Israelite was, or what he felt; what God looked for as He passed through the land that night was the lintel sprinkled with the blood of the appointed lamb; wherever that was before His eyes, God was satisfied, and they were secure; "When I see the blood I will pass over you," proclaimed both one and the other. So it is now, reader; the security now consists in my having to do with Christ, who went down into death to put away sin, nothing less would meet our dreadful case than the blood-shedding of Christ, He bore the judgment in His own body on the cross, He gave up His life; in His death we can say, "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other;" every righteous claim of God has been met by the death of Christ; all that was contrary to God has been for the believer put away for ever. How secure is the soul in such an answer!