^{Ps 85 13} Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps."


This Psalm is a prayer of restoration that is on the lips of the elect. It is a prayer on behalf of a nation that has gone astray. This Psalm describes the sin as being crooked or going down the path of death. Vs 13 is a summary of the entire prayer. This is always the approach of the Psalmist as he pronounces the covenant and then speaks the blessing. This is the same approach that is an example in  Ps 66 ¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; ¹⁹ but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer". He pronounces the curse upon anyone who cherishes sin but he is saying that the understanding of being a sinner is in praying the law, covenants, curses etc. The pronouncement of the promise which is "God has surely listened" is in the exercise of the orthodox practice of prayer and not the bits and spurts that comes as a result of a feeling. You can only claim what was on your lips as proof that you understand how to apply the gospel in praying the Psalms as the orthodox way of speaking the curses and pronouncing the promise. In other words orthodoxy is the practice of praying in order to create. So righteousness goes before Him...that being the kingdom of words that are spoken in the law , decrees, statutes curses etc in  pronouncing the kingdom that He establishes in our way.

The rule of the covenant is the prayer that is pronounced according to Gods unfailing love. This is why the Psalmist teaches that Gods unfailing love is pronouncing His attributes in the petition for the Psalmist needs. These twins are love and faithfulness, righteousness and truth, love and truth , etc. These twins are the light and the cloud that surrounded Israel along the way to the promise land. We must understand that orthodox speech is pronouncing the entire kingdom in these petitioning according to these twin attributes of God. The Psalmist is teaching that Gods righteousness that goes before Him is the entire kingdom that is established.

You see that the kingdom is the pure advancement of the unity of all things. He is describing the strength that is established in the land by the Lord God. The Psalmist is describing the law of creation coming together with the law of the nation. The law of creation is the success of Gods word that controls all reality. How everything is related is the law of Gods governing. He describes the unity as love and faithfulness meeting together. He is saying that faithfulness springs forth from the earth...or Gods control over creation is the perfect working of His righteousness. God the righteous governor in heaven. So God unifies the law of creation with the law of government over Israel. This is the picture of restoring Israel. So we see there is no short cut to learning orthodoxy in applying the Psalms as a creative pronouncement in our practice. Ordering our prayers according to Gods governing way.