Psalms 85:1 - Meaning and Application

The church, in trouble and distress, is here taught by God to pray to God. He is so ready to hear and answer his people that, by his Spirit in the word and in their hearts, he shapes their prayers and gives them words to speak. Even when God’s people are in a very low and weak condition, they are taught how to come to him.

They begin by gratefully remembering the great things God has done for them (Psalms 85:1-3). Their present trouble must not erase the memory of past mercy. Even when life is hard, they should recall God’s kindness in former times and praise him for it. They say with gladness that God had shown favor to their land, treating it as his own and blessing it in a special way. The favor of God is the source of all good and the wellspring of happiness for nations as well as individuals. Israel kept possession of Canaan because of God’s favor (Psalm 44:3), and without his continuing favor they would have been destroyed many times.

They also thank God that he had rescued them from their enemies and brought them back from captivity. He had restored people who had been driven out and lived as strangers in a foreign land, even as prisoners under those who oppressed them. The captivity of Jacob may last a long time, but God will bring it back in his time. They also confess that he had not dealt with them as their sins deserved (Psalms 85:2). He had forgiven the guilt of his people and covered all their sin. When God forgives sin, he covers it, and when he covers the sin of his people, he covers it completely. Their return from captivity was a sign of God’s favor only because it came with the pardon of their sin.

They also acknowledge that God had not kept his anger against them as long as they feared (Psalms 85:3). Since he had covered their sin, he had also taken away his wrath. When sin is dealt with, God’s anger comes to an end. God is at peace with us when we are made clean. This is what forgiveness means: he turned away his anger before it burned up his people. In mercy, he did not stir up all his wrath, but when an intercessor stood in the gap, he turned it aside.

From these past mercies, they are taught to ask God for grace and mercy in their present distress. They pray, “Turn us, O God of our salvation,” because the turning of their captivity must begin with the turning of their hearts. They ask God to turn them away from sin, turn them back to himself, and turn them to their duty. All whom God saves, he turns first. If there is no conversion, there is no salvation.

They also ask him to remove the signs of his displeasure that still rest on them. They pray that his anger would cease, as it had many times in the days of their fathers. The right order is clear: first turn us to you, and then turn your anger from us. When we are reconciled to God, then, and only then, we can enjoy the comfort of his being reconciled to us. They ask, “Show us your mercy, O Lord,” meaning, let us not only receive mercy, but also see clear proof of it. Let us know that you are merciful to us and have mercy stored up for us. They also pray that God would show himself on their side, graciously to them and gloriously for his own honor. “Grant us your salvation,” they say, meaning, fulfill it by your promise and then by your providence. Those who receive God’s mercy are also heirs of his salvation, because salvation comes from mercy alone.

They then speak to God with humble questions about their troubles (Psalms 85:5-6). They ask whether he will be angry with them forever. They know they would be ruined if he were, but they hope he will not. Will he draw out his anger through every generation? No, they trust he is gracious, slow to anger, and ready to show mercy, and that he will not keep contending forever. He was not angry with their fathers forever, but soon turned from the fierceness of his wrath. So why should he be angry with them forever? Are his mercy and compassion less full or less powerful than before? God will be angry forever with unrepentant sinners, because hell is nothing less than God’s wrath stretched out through endless ages. But should his people have a hell on earth?

They also ask for revival: “Will you not revive us again?” They want renewed comfort spoken to them and fresh deliverance worked for them. God had once shown favor to their land, and that had given it new life. Will he not show that favor again and revive them again? God had given the returned exiles some relief in their bondage (Ezra 9:8). Their return from Babylon was like life from the dead (Ezekiel 37:11-12). So they ask the Lord to revive them again and to put out his hand a second time to gather them in (Isaiah 11:11; Psalm 126:1, 4). “Revive your work in the middle of the years” means, let your work live again while the appointed time is still going on (Habakkuk 3:2). They ask for revival so that God’s people may rejoice and find comfort, and so that they may rejoice in God himself and give him glory. If God is the source of all our mercies, then he must also be the center of all our joys.