An Advent Journey: When God Became Small — Day Eight

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13, The Message

 God, you smiled on your good earth!
    You brought good times back to Jacob!
You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people,
    you put their sins far out of sight.
You took back your sin-provoked threats,
    you cooled your hot, righteous anger.

I can’t wait to hear what he’ll say.
    God’s about to pronounce his people well,
The holy people he loves so much,
    so they’ll never again live like fools.
See how close his salvation is to those who fear him?
    Our country is home base for Glory!

Love and Truth meet in the street,
    Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!
Truth sprouts green from the ground,
    Right Living pours down from the skies!
Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;
    our land responds with Bounty and Blessing.
Right Living strides out before him,
    and clears a path for his passage.

Isn’t this passage a lovely breath of fresh air after the last several days of lament? Another reason I love the Word — it’s rich with texture and variety, with words that meet us wherever we happen to be at any given moment.

The more traditional translations of this passage usually say something like, “Righteousness and peace kiss each other,” words which I love. But I was struck by Peterson’s paraphrase of this entire selection from the psalms. He chooses the word ‘truth’ over the word ‘faithfulness,’ in the section right after the kissing bit. ‘Faithfulness’ is the English word used in many other versions of this psalm.

I like that choice. In fact, I think the two words are more synonymous than we might realize. 

Think about it. We are called to be who we are in Jesus — our truest selves. And when we are our truest, best selves, we will look more and more like Jesus, who is truth, and who is faithful.

And I love the picture of that faithful truth growing like a wild, green thing, straight out of the dust from which we came! 

Thank you, Jesus, for showing us truth, for being truth. And thank you for modeling the faithfulness of our God and inviting us to live a life that looks like yours, rich with love and laughter and self-giving.