Psalm 85

Psalm 85 is one of the Korahite psalms (others include Pss. 42-49, 84, and 87-88) most probably written during the sixth-century BCE exile of Judah or possibly the late eighth-century BCE exile in the northern kingdom. [1] It is a community lament, which seeks to liturgically remember what God had once done in order to ask God to do it again.  Laments represent a community of God trying to make sense of all the negative events happening in their midst.  Psalm 85 remembers the previous acts of a God who forgives and notices the difference between that time of the promise fulfilled and the current reality from which the psalmist writes.  While not sounding as accusatory and demanding as other laments in the Psalms, this Psalm looks for God to act in the lives of God’s people in a mighty way.  

The psalm could be structured in three parts: God’s former actions on behalf of God’s people (vv. 1-3), the people’s plea for God to act on their behalf again (vv. 4-7), and what life will be like when God does act on their behalf again (vv. 8-13). The period of being between the promise and its coming to pass is a period of waiting, of crying out, of feeding the hope that things can be different, of fending off the despair that things will never change. The writer of this psalm knows that God can work a way for the people where there was previously no way.

1 Lord, you were favorable to your land;     you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;     you pardoned all their sin. Selah 3 You withdrew all your wrath;     you turned from your hot anger. [2]

Verse 1-3 addresses God by naming ways in which God had been gracious in the history of the people.  The past acts of Yahweh are remembered and pronounced in order to show the motives behind believing that the request to come in verse 4 will be answered. Ps 85:2 includes a selah that possibly would indicate to the priest to then recite a portion of Exodus 32-34, further iterating how God has already shown up and acted on behalf of the people.[3]  Remembrance of God’s actions in the past help us to ask and declare what can happen today.  

4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us. 5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Psalms 85:1-3 give the answers to the questions asked in verses 4-7: Will Yahweh be angry forever (v.5)? No, Yahweh is a God who forgives (vv. 2-3). Will Yahweh revive us again (v. 6)? Yes, Yahweh revives the people of God (v. 1). Yahweh has proven to be a God who forgives, however, will Yahweh forgive us again? The remembrance of God’s acts of forgiveness is important, because God’s forgiveness in the history of Israel many times is received through tangible events. If God acts to forgive the people and aid their return from exile, God is forgiving them by undoing or forgiving the effects of their sins which caused their exile.

Verse 5 reflects the Israelites view that God’s anger had a set time span. [4] The wrath of God would be interpreted best as a “divine absence, leaving the land infertile and the people impoverished.” [5] They call out asking God to not be angry forever, otherwise they would die!  This is a prayer for survival in the most real sense.   

8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. 9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. 12 The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

Verses 8-13 convey a confidence in the Jerusalem theology of shalom, understanding God as the “guarantor of wellbeing for the community.” [6]   Verse 8 awaits God’s response to the pleas of the previous verses.  This awaiting is not timid nor doubting, but full of confidence and assurance that God will act again for the benefit of God’s people.  Grounded in this Jerusalem theology of shalom comes the word pairs described in verses 10 and 11: steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace, faithfulness and righteousness.  These are the signs that will indicate when God has intervened in their situation again.  Creation will recover and produce for the sustenance of God’s people, just as verse 1 declares has happened in the past.    The laments of the people are practical and necessary; if God does not come through, the life and legacy of the people of God will be threatened.  

Grace is asked to abound in this psalm.  The restoration asked for can only come as a gift from God; the people of God have little control over creation and certainly cannot force God to do anything.  The psalmist comes with complete confidence that Yahweh is able to complete the requests being made.  One commentator thinks this psalm anticipates the words of the Lord’s Prayer, which prays for God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. [7] Verses 10-13 is another biblical picture of what a fully reconciled creation, the kingdom of God in its fullness, might look like.  

Psalm 85 is a prayer for downtrodden and exiled people who need to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Reimagining what God could do enables hope and perseverance for a people surrounded by darkness.  Remembering God’s promises and declarations of goodness over creation help the disheartened soul to look up again to what can still become a reality, the reality of steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace, good and increase and all of the blessings of Yahweh that can be found in between.  God did not create them and bring them out of Egypt just to leave them in despair, exiled forever.  The destruction of creation, of what God called good in the beginning, is not God’s goal.  In a reconciled time, the land produces well and grants life and sufficiency so that the people of God can live and live well, looking after and caring for the creation, that God has called good, in return.   All things will be reconciled to each other and to the glory of God in those days.  We look to the past to see the possibilities of the future and thus learn how to live best in the present, journeying well towards that promised hope and goal.   [1] Richard J. Clifford, Psalms 73-150, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 75.  [2] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical references come from the NRSV 1989 edition.  [3] Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2004), 155. [4] Clifford, Psalms 73-150, 76. [5]Ibid [6] Walter Brueggemann and William H. Bellinger, Jr., Psalms, New Cambridge Bible Commentary (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 368. [7] Brueggemann, Psalms, 368.  Also see Matthew 6:9-13 for the Lord’s Prayer.  

Bibliography Clifford, Richard J. Psalms 73-150. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003. Wesselschmidt, Quentin F. Psalms 51-150.  Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture VIII.  Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2007. deClaissé-Walford, Nancy L. Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel.  St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2004.  Brueggemann, Walter and William H. Bellinger, Jr.  Psalms. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.