God, Let Us See Your Kindness
and Grant Us Your Salvation
Last week’s reading from Isaiah was post Exile. In today’s reading from Isaiah, the prophet is sent by God to announce to a broken people that their exile is coming to an end. In today’s Psalm 85 the exiles have returned to God’s city of Jerusalem to begin the hard work of rebuilding. The psalmist imagines a new and thriving Israel, the kingdom of God, built on justice, kindness, truth and mercy. God proclaims “peace to the people.” This peace will bring healing to all. We encounter God’s proclamation of peace in many ways: reading the Bible, opening our hearts to God in prayer, and listening to the prophetic voices of others. If God’s people respond to the gifts of kindness and truth, justice and peace, wholeness between God and people, among neighbors, and with the land itself, the ideal of shalom will be restored. Let us be open to the voice of God.
O God, let me hear what you have to say,
for you will speak peace to your people,
to those who are near you, and who turn to you in their hearts.
Your salvation is near for those who fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth, have embraced; justice and peace will kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice will look down from heaven.
You will give what is good, our land will yield its increase.
Justice shall go before you and make a path for your steps.
[verses adapted from People’s Companion to the Breviary © 1997 by the Carmelites of Indianapolis]