Psalms 85
Big idea: A psalm about the gap between a forgiveness already granted and a restoration still missing. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people; you have covered all their sin — and then, three verses later, will you be angry with us forever? The answer comes as a decision to listen: I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak. And what arrives is one of the most beautiful sentences in the Old Testament, four qualities meeting like people in a street: mercy and truth meet together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs out of the earth; righteousness has looked down from heaven.
Psalm 85 has righteousness and peace meet. Psalm 86 is one man asking for an undivided heart.
85:1–7 — Won't you revive us again?
A prayer built entirely on precedent. The first three verses are past tense — you HAVE forgiven, you HAVE covered, you HAVE turned from your anger — and they are not thanksgiving so much as evidence being entered. Having established that God has done this before, the psalm asks him to do it again, and 'AGAIN' is the word the whole request turns on.
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah. 3 You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger. 4 Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. 5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations? 6 Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your loving kindness, Yahweh. Grant us your salvation.
85:8–13 — Righteousness and peace have kissed
The psalm stops asking and listens — 'I will HEAR what God will speak' — and what it reports is peace, with a caution attached in the same verse. Then the passage everyone remembers: four qualities personified and staged as a scene. Mercy and truth meet; righteousness and peace kiss. Truth comes UP out of the ground and righteousness looks DOWN from heaven, so the meeting happens because both sides moved.
8 I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly. 9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. 10 Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 11 Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven. 12 Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness goes before him, and prepares the way for his steps.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).