Psalms 85:1-13
1 LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
7 Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
8 I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
This psalm would seen to have been written in a day when some Divine deliverance had been wrought for the people of God. Yet the singer is conscious that in the heart of the people there remain dispositions not in harmony with the will of God; and therefore, there abides with them a deadness and a lack of joy. And yet further he is confident that God, Jehovah, had purposes of the highest and best for His own; and moreover, that He will accomplish these purposes.
These three matters are evident in the three fold movement of thanksgiving offered (vv. Psa 85:1-3), of petition presented (vv. Psa 85:4-7), and of confidence affirmed (vv. Psa 85:8-13). In the thanksgiving the relation between captivity and sin is remembered, and the ending of the first by the putting away of the second is declared. Yet the imperfection of their loyalty crates the long discipline of sorrow and shame, and the prayer is that God will turn the people to Himself. And this is surely His will, for when he pauses to hear what Jehovah will say, he hears tender and gracious words which tell of salvation, first in the spiritual realm, and then in the material. In this psalm which breathes the spirit of the tender compassion of God, the name Jehovah is the predominant one.