13 Righteousness will go before him, making a way for his footsteps.
The seat of your kingdom is resting on righteousness and right judging: mercy and good faith come before your face.
I give you a new law: Have love one for another; even as I have had love for you, so are you to have love one for another.
And whoever has a desire to be first among you, let him take the lowest place: Even as the Son of man did not come to have servants, but to be a servant, and to give his life for the salvation of men.
If then I, the Lord and the Master, have made your feet clean, it is right for you to make one another's feet clean. I have given you an example, so that you may do what I have done to you. Truly I say to you, A servant is not greater than his lord; and he who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him.
I have been put to death on the cross with Christ; still I am living; no longer I, but Christ is living in me; and that life which I now am living in the flesh I am living by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who in love for me, gave himself up for me.
Let it then be your desire to be like God, as well-loved children; And be living in love, even as Christ had love for you, and gave himself up for us, an offering to God for a perfume of a sweet smell.
Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, To whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like God; But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men; And being seen in form as a man, he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to death, even the death of the cross.
For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us, Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame, because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his place at the right hand of God's seat of power.
Servants, take orders from your masters with all respect; not only if they are good and gentle, but even if they are bad-humoured. For it is a sign of grace if a man, desiring to do right in the eyes of God, undergoes pain as punishment for something which he has not done. What credit is it if, when you have done evil, you take your punishment quietly? but if you are given punishment for doing right, and take it quietly, this is pleasing to God. This is God's purpose for you: because Jesus himself underwent punishment for you, giving you an example, so that you might go in his footsteps: Who did no evil, and there was no deceit in his mouth: To sharp words he gave no sharp answer; when he was undergoing pain, no angry word came from his lips; but he put himself into the hands of the judge of righteousness: He took our sins on himself, giving his body to be nailed on the tree, so that we, being dead to sin, might have a new life in righteousness, and by his wounds we have been made well.
He who says that he is living in him, will do as he did.
Make me go in the way of your teachings; for they are my delight.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 85
Commentary on Psalms 85 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 85
Ps 85:1-13. On the ground of former mercies, the Psalmist prays for renewed blessings, and, confidently expecting them, rejoices.
1. captivity—not necessarily the Babylonian, but any great evil (Ps 14:7).
2, 3. (Compare Ps 32:1-5).
3. To turn from the "fierceness," implies that He was reconcilable, though
4-7. having still occasion for the anger which is deprecated.
5. draw out—or, "prolong" (Ps 36:10).
8. He is confident God will favor His penitent people (Ps 51:17; 80:18).
saints—as in Ps 4:3, the "godly."
9. They are here termed "them that fear him"; and grace produces glory (Ps 84:11).
10. God's promises of "mercy" will be verified by His "truth" (compare Ps 25:10; 40:10); and the "work of righteousness" in His holy government shall be "peace" (Isa 32:17). There is an implied contrast with a dispensation under which God's truth sustains His threatened wrath, and His righteousness inflicts misery on the wicked.
11. Earth and heaven shall abound with the blessings of this government;
12, 13. and, under this, the deserted land shall be productive, and men be "set," or guided in God's holy ways. Doubtless, in this description of God's returning favor, the writer had in view that more glorious period, when Christ shall establish His government on God's reconciled justice and abounding mercy.