1 LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger. – The verbs here are in the past tense suggesting that the Psalm is recalling an event or repeated events from the history of the descendants of Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and his descendants are the Israelites. Reading the history from the time of Jacob until David was established as King the Bible gives, from the book of Exodus through the history books of the Old Testament, many examples of God’s graciousness to the recurring wayward Israelis! Perhaps the most outstanding is the rescue from slavery in Egypt but there are so many examples of a fluctuating relationship between God and His people!
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,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,
and grant us your salvation. – Now the verbs are in the future/present tense. Although there is a mention of the people in this section, there is no acknowledgment of their wayward, sinful behaviour. It is just a hope for their being able to be content and revived. Whilst revival talks about spiritual renewal, it can be used in a non-spiritual physical well-being sense. I get that the meaning here is more that they will be able to live again the prosperous life that they have known!
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly. – This seems like a challenge to God to do His job as the Israelis expect Him to be their God! And the bit ‘let them not turn back to folly’ seems to deny the responsibility that God has laid on all of Adam’s race to choose aright! God doesn’t wield a whip to make people be good, but He does offer to be with us as we seek to walk in His way!
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way. – My wife, when we have an Irish type stew goes through and picks out the potato bits (she doesn’t like potato much) and gives it to me! This last portion of Ps 85 is beautiful and gloriously true. However, I think that the sons of Korah have all managed to pick out some of the essential ingredients of God’s mercy. Ingredients which are not as comfortable with people to live with as those listed above! Such things as repentance; as not forgetting that people ‘hated’ Jesus (that is the word that He used) and so will hate His followers; as perseverance; as martyrdom. God hadn’t failed Israel they had drawn away!
Hebrews 11: 36-38 – Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Prayer: Thank You that I may have peace in the midst of war; that I may know Your love when shunned by friends; that I might rest in Your promised Salvation when living in the midst of temptation and rejection. Thank You, Father.