Where Mercy and Truth Meet!

10 10 Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good;
And our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before Him,
And shall make His footsteps our pathway.

 We often think that mercy and truth don't go together too well.  Mercy is giving people what they don't deserve, and truth is giving people what they do deserve.  What gives?  How can God be both merciful and gracious and truthful and righteous?  

 One of the ways we can know this is that none of us are righteous.  None of us follow the truth all the time. When we sin, God is justified in His sentence.  The wages of sin is death.  But the free gift of God is mercy, because of His great love for us.  Though we deserve punishment God has mercy on us and forgives us.  Earlier in the psalm it said,

 "You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people;
You have covered all their sin. 
3 You have taken away all Your wrath;
You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger."

 The context of this psalm is the people of Israel after they had forsaken God.  God had judged them and they were in exile because of their sin.  But the psalmist knew that because of God's great love that He would restore His people.  But to do this their sin needed to be covered. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve put on garments from animal skins to cover up their sin against God.  

But God has covered up our sins and blotted out the stain of our iniquities.  God has cleaned us up through who He sends in the New Testament, His one and only Son.  When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." 

 John says this about Jesus, who is a reflection of God's mercy and truth.  He said, "The Word became flesh dwelt among us full of grace and truth."

 Why is this important? God has to be truthful toward us. But because mercy and truth have met together, God pours our His blessing on us and we can walk in His righteousness which light up our pathway all the way to heaven!

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