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Psalm 85:11-13
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 85:11-13
New Catholic Bible
11 [a]Kindness and faithfulness[b] will meet;
righteousness and peace will embrace.
12 Faithfulness will spring forth from the earth,
and righteousness[c] will look down from heaven.
13 [d]The Lord will grant us prosperity,[e]
and our land will yield its harvest.
Footnotes
- Psalm 85:11 People will regulate their lives by the divine norms. The divine attributes, as well as the moral virtues that correspond to them, are here personified (see Pss 89:15; 97:2) as courtiers of the returning king.
- Psalm 85:11 Kindness and faithfulness: often found together to express God’s loyalty (see Pss 25:10; 40:12f; 57:11; 61:8; Ex 34:6).
- Psalm 85:12 Righteousness: personification of God’s attribute, which expresses his kingship in and over his people (see Pss 4:2; 22:31, alternative translation).
- Psalm 85:13 The goodness and blessings that the psalmist sees in a vision of the future are, for Christians, fulfilled in Christ. Yet the completion of salvation is also for Christians an object of promise and of longing expectation.
- Psalm 85:13 Prosperity: the benefits of God’s kingdom enjoyed by those who fear him: forgiveness (v. 3), reconciliation, renewal of covenant status (vv. 9-10), and fullness of restoration (vv. 10-14). Thus, faith in God leads to hope in a new age of righteousness (see Gal 5:5; 2 Pet 3:13).