# Righteousness and peace remain two things when they kiss

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P023](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P023/#char=1194,1251): "where righteousness and peace contrive to kiss each other"

The wording adapts Psalm 85:10: in the King James Version, righteousness and peace ‘have kissed each other.’ The preceding half of that verse similarly brings mercy and truth together. The psalm therefore supplies more than a picturesque biblical phrase: it presents goodness as the meeting of distinguishable goods, exactly what Chesterton needs for his ‘composite’ ideal. Peace does not swallow righteousness, nor does righteousness abolish peace. His added verb ‘contrive’ makes their agreement sound like a difficult achievement rather than an automatic consequence of maximizing either quality. [Psalm 85:10–13, KJV](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+85&version=KJV).

The surrounding psalm also qualifies the passage's apparent optimism. It asks for revival and salvation after divine anger, and its promise of peace includes a warning against returning to folly (85:4–8). Chesterton moves the image into an ideal city at the end of progress; the psalm itself speaks of restoration, the land's renewed fruitfulness, and God's people's conduct. The verbal allusion is clear, while the argument that a precisely balanced happiness requires a personal designer is Chesterton's inference, not something the quoted verse establishes. The biblical language gives his desired harmony a scriptural shape without functioning as an independent proof of that inference.

## Sources

- [Psalm 85, King James Version](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+85&version=KJV), verses 4–13, especially 8 and 10

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