Psalm 85

Psalms 85:1

“You have blessed, O Lord, Your land. This is spoken of the coming of the Savior. This properly according to the history; but according to the tropology, after we have spoken of the history, we shall discourse afterwards. You have blessed, O Lord, Your land. This we have said of the coming of the Savior. The land which had offended You, which had been defiled with idolatries, was saved when You came. You have blessed, O Lord, Your land. Let the sinner speak, and then, having obtained pardon: You have blessed, O Lord, Your land.”

Psalms 85:1

“Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land. The self existent, all sufficient Jehovah is addressed: by that name he revealed himself to Moses when his people were in bondage, by that name he is here pleaded with. It is wise to dwell upon that view of the divine character which arouses the sweetest memories of his love. Sweeter still is that dear name of "Our Father, "with which Christians have learned to commence their prayers.”

Psalms 85:2

“You have remitted the iniquity of Your people. No one remits anything except what is owed. You have covered all their sins. You have covered them with virtues, and therefore the sins do not appear. For example, You have covered iniquity with righteousness, You have covered unchastity with chastity, You have covered blackness with whiteness.”

Psalms 85:2

IN THESE two texts we have man's covering, which is worthless and culpable, and God's covering, which is profitable, and worthy of all acceptation. No sooner had man disobeyed his Maker's will in the garden of Eden than he discovered, to his surprise and dismay, that he was naked, and he set about at once to make himself a covering. It was a poor attempt which our first parents made, and it proved a miserable failure. "They sewed fig-leaves together."

Psalms 85:3

“You have mitigated all your wrath, you have turned away from the wrath of your indignation. See what penance avails: it holds off the imminent wrath of God.”

Psalms 85:3

“Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Having removed the sin, the anger is removed also. How often did the longsuffering of God take away from Israel the punishments which had been justly laid upon them! How often also has the Lord's chastising hand been removed from us when our waywardness called for heavier strokes! Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Even when judgments had been most severe, the Lord had in mercy stayed his hand. In mid volley he had restrained his thunder.”

Psalms 85:4

“Turn us, O God of our salvations. See what he says. You, for Your part, have turned away from wrath on account of Your clemency. Turn us, O God. You have turned away from wrath; turn us away from sins. Turn us, O God of our salvations. Why did he not say, "of our salvation," but, "of our salvations"? If we sinned but once, we would need one salvation. We have sinned in many things, therefore we need many salvations.”

Psalms 85:4

“Turn us, O God of our salvation. This was the main business. Could the erring tribes be rendered penitent all would be well. It is not that God needs turning from his anger so much as that we need turning from our sin; here is the hinge of the whole matter. Our trials frequently arise out of our sins, they will not go till the sins go. We need to be turned from our sins, but only God can turn us: God the Saviour must put his hand to the work: it is indeed a main part of our salvation.”

Psalms 85:5

“Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? See how the psalmist makes bold to plead. We are in time as yet and not in eternity, and does not time come to an end, and therefore thy wrath! Wilt thou be angry always as if it were eternity? Is there no boundary to thine indignation? Will thy wrath never have done? And if for ever angry, yet wilt thou be angry with us, thy favoured people, the seed of Abraham, thy friend?”

Psalms 85:6

“BRETHREN, if you will pray this prayer, it will be better than my preaching from it! And my only motive in preaching from it is that you may pray it. Oh, that at once, before I have uttered more than a few sentences, we might begin to pray by crying, yes, groaning deep down in our souls," Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?" Notice the style of the praying here—it is in the form of a question and in the shape of a plea.”

Psalms 85:6

“Wilt thou not revive us again? Hope here grows almost confident. She feels sure that the Lord will return in all his power to save. We are dead or dying, faint and feeble, God alone can revive us, he has in other times refreshed his people, he is still the same, he will repeat his love. Will he not? Why should he not? We appeal to him—Wilt thou not? That thy people may rejoice in thee.”

Psalms 85:7

“Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation. What in Latin is called "salvation" (salutare), in Hebrew is called "Jesus." Therefore in Hebrew it is said thus: Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation: Unless you first be merciful toward the human race, your Jesus will not be given to us.”

Psalms 85:7

“They pray that God would, graciously to them and gloriously to himself, appear on their behalf: " Grant us thy salvation; grant it by thy promise, and then, no doubt, thou wilt work it by thy providence." Note, The vessels of God's mercy are the heirs of his salvation; he shows mercy to those to whom he grants salvation; for salvation is of mere mercy.”

Psalms 85:7

“7 show us thy mercy, O L ORD , and grant us thy salvation. The church, in affliction and distress, is here, by direction from God, making her application to God. So ready is God to hear and answer the prayers of his people that by his Spirit in the word, and in the heart, he indites their petitions and puts words into their mouths.”

Psalms 85:8

I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me. Many think, when Moses speaks and says, "Thus says the Lord," and Isaiah, and the rest, and when it is said, "The word of the Lord came to Isaiah" or "to Ezekiel the prophet," that the speech comes from outside, and that the prophet hears through these ears of his what is spoken by the Lord. It is not so. Indeed, what does our Lord Himself say to the Pharisees and the Jews? "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Psalms 85:8

“I will hear what God the Lord will speak. When we believe that God hears us, it is but natural that we should be eager to hear him. Only from him can come the word which can speak peace to troubled spirits; the voices of men are feeble in such a case, a plaister far too narrow for the sore; but God's voice is power, he speaks and it is done, and hence when we hear him our distress is ended.”

Psalms 85:8

“Will speak - What answer God will give to my prayers. Peace - He will give an answer of peace. Saints - Not to all that are called God's people, but only to those who are truly such.”

Psalms 85:9

Nevertheless his salvation is near to those who fear him. See what he says. Those who fear the Lord have the Lord near, since fear does not yet possess perfection: "For perfect love casts out fear." Therefore we who love the Lord have him not nearby, but within. "For I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." That glory may dwell in our land. This is the land of which he says in another place, "The earth has given its fruit."

Psalms 85:9

“Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him. Faith knows that a saving God is always near at hand, but only (for such is the true rendering) to those who fear the Lord, and worship him with holy awe. In the gospel dispensation this truth is conspicuously illustrated. If to seeking sinners salvation is nigh, it is assuredly very nigh to those who have once enjoyed it, and have lost its present enjoyment by their folly; they have but to turn unto the Lord and they shall enjoy it again.”

Psalms 85:9

“They are here termed "them that fear him"; and grace produces glory (Ps 84:11).”

Psalms 85:9

“And the psalmist might well say this salvation was nigh, because the seventy weeks determined by Daniel were begun. Glory - The glorious presence of God, and the God of glory himself, even Christ, who is the brightness of his father's glory.”

Psalms 85:10

Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed. Mercy and truth have met. I see two things, which by coming together and meeting become one. Justice and peace have kissed. All this is fitted to the mystery of the Lord and Savior: this is the Son of God and of man, who is for us truth, mercy, peace, and justice, in whom the justice of the former people and the mercy of the latter are joined together into one peace. "For he himself," says the Apostle, "is our peace, who has made both one."

Psalms 85:10

“Mercy and truth are met together. In answer to prayer, the exulting psalmist sees the attributes of God confederating to bless the once afflicted nation. Mercy comes hand in hand with Truth to fulfil the faithful promise of their gracious God; the people recognise at once the grace and the veracity of Jehovah, he is to them neither a tyrant nor a deceiver. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The Lord whose just severity inflicted the smart, now in pity sends peace to bind up the wound.”

Psalms 85:10

“God's promises of "mercy" will be verified by His "truth" (compare Ps 25:10; 40:10); and the "work of righteousness" in His holy government shall be "peace" (Isa 32:17). There is an implied contrast with a dispensation under which God's truth sustains His threatened wrath, and His righteousness inflicts misery on the wicked.”

Psalms 85:10-11

“In him who is both our salvation and our glory mercy and truth have met together; God's mercy and truth, and his righteousness and peace, have kissed each other; that is, the great affair of our salvation is so well contrived, so well concerted, that God may have mercy upon poor sinners, and be at peace with them, without any wrong to his truth and righteousness.”

Psalms 85:11

“Truth has sprung up out of the earth. "I am the way and the truth and the life." He who said, I am the truth, has sprung up out of the earth. What is this truth, which has sprung up out of the earth? "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root." And in another place: "For God has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth." What do you say, Manichaean, who deny that the Savior had flesh?”

Psalms 85:11

“Truth shall spring out of the earth. Promises which lie unfulfilled, like buried seeds, shall spring up and yield harvests of joy; and men renewed by grace shall learn to be true to one another and their God, and abhor the falsehood which they loved before. And righteousness shall look down from heaven, as if it threw up the windows and leaned out to gaze upon a penitent people, whom it could not have looked upon before without an indignation which would have been fatal to them. This is a delicious scene.”

Psalms 85:11

“Earth and heaven shall abound with the blessings of this government; 12, 13. and, under this, the deserted land shall be productive, and men be "set," or guided in God's holy ways. Doubtless, in this description of God's returning favor, the writer had in view that more glorious period, when Christ shall establish His government on God's reconciled justice and abounding mercy.”

Psalms 85:12

“For indeed the Lord will give kindness. For this reason these kisses were given, that the Lord might give kindness. And our land will give its fruit. What was promised at that time, we now see fulfilled. Our land gives its fruit, when it is tilled with the plow of justice, when by fastings, when by abstinence and the other virtues it is uprooted from its old vices, so that it may render the grain of the gospel seed which it received into a hundredfold fruit.”

Psalms 85:12

“Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good. Being himself pure goodness, he will readily return from his wrath, and deal out good things to his repenting people. Our evil brings evil upon us, but when we are brought back to follow that which is good, the Lord abundantly enriches us with good things. Material good will always be bestowed where it can be enjoyed in consistency with spiritual good. And our land shall yield her increase. The curse of barrenness will fly with the curse of sin.”

Psalms 85:13

“All these things, indeed, we have said concerning the mercy of the Lord, since He came for this purpose, to save the human race. Nevertheless we ought to know that He Himself is to judge the living and the dead, He Himself will come to judge. Righteousness shall walk before Him. Do not be negligent: Righteousness shall walk before Him. And He shall set His steps in the way. See what it says, His steps: where there are no stones, where there are no thorns and thistles, where the way is level, where He can walk, where He cannot stumble.”

Psalms 85:13

“Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps. God's march of right will leave a track wherein his people will joyfully follow. He who smote in justice will also bless in justice, and in both will make his righteousness manifest, so as to affect the hearts and lives of all his people. Such are the blessings of our Lord's first advent, and such shall be yet more conspicuously the result of his second coming. Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

Psalms 85:13

“Christ, the sun of righteousness, shall bring us to God, and put us into the way that leads to him. John Baptist, a preacher of righteousness, shall go before Christ to prepare his way. Righteousness is a sure guide both in meeting God and in following him.”