Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 85:1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. LORD, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
1. thou hast been favourable ] Thou art propitiated: once more Thou graciously acceptest Thy people, and receivest them back into Thy favour. The ban of Jer 14:10; Jer 14:12 is removed. Cp. Psa 77:7; Psa 106:4; Hag 1:8.
thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob ] Or, as R.V. marg., returned to. But more probably the phrase means, thou hast turned the fortune of Jacob. See note on Psa 53:6. Here doubtless the restoration of the nation from the Babylonian exile is meant.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. God has forgiven and restored His people.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land – Margin, well pleased with. The idea is that he had been kind or propitious to the nation; to wit, on some former occasion. So Luther, (vormals) formerly. The reference is to some previous period in their history, when he had exercised his power in their behalf.
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob – That is, at the time referred to. It is not necessary to suppose that the allusion is to the period immediately preceding the time when the psalm was composed, but it may have been any period in their history. Nor is it necessary to suppose that the people had been removed from their land at the time, for all that would be necessary to suppose in interpreting the language would be that the land had been invaded, even though the inhabitants still remained in it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 85:1-13
Lord, Thou hast been favourable unto Thy land.
A psalm of deliverance; songs and sighs
A part of the nation had returned, but to a ruined city, a fallen temple, and a mourning land, where they were surrounded by jealous and powerful enemies. Discouragement had laid hold on the feeble company, enthusiasm had ebbed away, and heart as well as faith had been lost. This psalm accurately reflects such a state of things, and is reasonably taken as one of the earliest post-exilic psalms.
1. The first portion presents one great fact in three aspects, and traces it to Jehovah. The restored Israel had been sent back by the conqueror as a piece of policy, but it was God who had done it, all the same. The blessed fact is joyously announced in Psa 85:1, and the yet more blessed fact of forgiveness, of which it is a token, in Psa 85:2. The word rendered forgiven implies that sin is regarded as a weight, which God lifts off from the pressed-down sinner; while that for covered regards it as a hideous stain, which He hides. Our sins weigh us down, and are rank, and smell to heaven. Verse 8 ventures still deeper into the sacred recesses of the Divine nature, and traces the forgiveness to a change in Gods disposition. His wrath has been drawn in, as, if we may say so, some creature armed with a sting retracts it into its sheath.
2. God turns from His anger, therefore Israel returns to the land. But the singer feels the incompleteness of the restoration, and the bitter consciousness suddenly changes joyous strains to a plaintive minor in the second part (Psa 85:4-7). Turn us, in Psa 85:4, looks back to brought back in Psa 85:1, and is the same word in the Hebrew. The restoration is but partially accomplished. Similarly the petitions of Psa 85:5 look back to Psa 85:8, and pray that Gods wrath may indeed pass utterly away. The prayers are grounded on what God has done. He does not deliver by halves. He is not partially reconciled. The remembrance of the bright beginning heartens the assurance of a completion. God never leaves off till He has done. If He seems to have but half withdrawn His anger, it is because we have but half forsaken our sins.
3. The third portion brings solid hopes, based on Gods promises, to bear on present discouragements. In Psa 85:8 the psalmist, like Habakkuk (Hab 2:1), encourages himself to listen to what God will speak, 2 will hear, or, rather, Let me hear. Faithful prayer will always be followed by faithful waiting for response. God will not be silent when His servant appeals to Him, but, though no voice breaks the silence, a sweet assurance, coming from Him, will rise in the depths of the soul, and tell the suppliant that He will speak peace to His people, and warn them not to turn to other helps, which is folly. The peace which He speaks means chiefly peace with Himself, and then well-being of all kinds, the sure results of a right relation with God. But that peace is shivered by any sin, like the reflection of the blue heaven in a still lake when a gust of wind ruffles its surface. Verses 9-13 are the report, in the psalmists own words, of what his listening ear had heard God say. First comes the assurance that Gods salvation, the whole fulness of His delivering grace, both in regard to outward and inward evils, is nigh them that fear Him. They, and only they, who keep far away from foolish confidence in impotent helps and helpers shall be enriched. That is the inmost meaning of Gods word to the singer and to us all. The acceptance of Gods salvation purifies our hearts to be temples, and is the condition of His dwelling with us. The lovely personification of verses 10-13 have passed into Christian poetry and art, but are not rightly understood when taken, as they often are, to describe the harmonious meeting, in Christs work, of apparently opposing attributes. Mercy and faithfulness blend together in all Gods dealings with His people, and righteousness and peace are inseparable in His peoples experience. These four radiant angels dwell for ever with those who are Gods children. In verse 11 we have a beautiful inversion of the two pairs of personifications, of each of which only one member appears. Truth, or faithfulness, came into view in verse 10 as a Divine attribute, but is now regarded as a human virtue, springing out of the earth; that is, produced among men. They who have received into their hearts the blessed assurance and results of Gods faithfulness will imitate it in their own lives. Conversely, righteousness, which in verse10 was a human excellence, here appears as looking from heaven like a gracious angel smiling on the faithfulness which springs from earth. Thus heaven and earth are united, and humanity becomes a reflection of the Divine. Verse 12 presents the same idea in its most general form. God gives good of all sorts, and, thus fructified, earth shall yield her increase. Without sunshine there are no harvests. God gives before He asks. We must receive from Him before we can tender the fruit of our lives to Him. In verse 18 the idea of Divine attributes aa the parents of human virtues is again expressed by a different metaphor. Righteousness is represented doubly, as both a herald going before Gods march in the world, and as following Him. It makes His footsteps a way for us to walk in. Mans perfection lies in his imitating God. Jesus has left us an example that we should follow His steps. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Genuine piety
This psalm present to us genuine piety in three aspects.
I. Acknowledging the mercies of the past.
1. Restoration to their country. Thou hast brought back, etc. He brought them from Egypt and from Babylon.
2. Absolution of their sins. Thou hast forgiven, etc. When sin is forgiven it is covered; it does not reappear any more in producing suffering and anguish. Its guilt and power (not its memory) are crushed.
3. The cessation of penal afflictions. Thou hast turned thyself, etc. Genuine piety can recount such blessings in the past as these, and even of a higher order. The presence of present afflictions should not drown the remembrance of former mercies.
II. Deploring the evils of the present.
1. The sense of estrangement from God. Turn us, O God of our salvation. Departure from God is our ruin, return is our salvation. The separation between man and his Maker arises, not from His turning from man, but from the turning of man from Him.
2. The sense of the displeasure of their Maker. Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever? This really means, Wilt Thou afflict us for ever; shall we be ever in suffering? Gods anger is not passion, but antagonism to wrong.
3. The sense of deadness. Wilt Thou not revive us again? etc. They had been politically dead (Eze 27:1-36.), and they were religiously dead. Such are some of the evils they deprecate in this psalm; and for their removal they now implore their God.
III. Anticipating the good of the future. I will hear what God the Lord will speak. Piety here fastens its eye on several blessings in the future.
1. Divine peace. He will speak peace unto His people. He will one day speak peace–national, religious, spiritual, peace to all mankind.
2. Moral unity. Mercy and truth are met together, etc. These moral forces, ever since the introduction of sin, have been working, not only separately, but antagonistically; and this has been one of the great sources of human misery; but in the future they will coalesce, unite.
3. Spiritual prosperity. Truth shall spring out of the earth, etc. From the hearts of men truth shall spring as from its native soil, and it shall grow in stately beauty and affluent fruitage. And righteousness shall look down from heaven, delighted with the scene. (Homilist.)
The responsibility of favoured nations
It is true that the God of nations has His special calling and election for each of the races of mankind. To quote Bishop Westcott: History on a large scale is the revelation of the will of God; and in the history of the greatest nations we may expect to find the will of God for them. They are themselves the record and the retribution of their past, and the prophecy of their future. We Englishmen must be blind and thankless, indeed, if we fail to recognize Gods ordination in our own history, Gods warnings and promises in our fortunes. Surely He has been favourable unto this land of ours, until every acre of it is holy ground. To us also God has granted prophets, and captains, and reformers in long succession to bring back our captivity, until freedom means more in England to-day than it means anywhere else in the world. And upon us, too, God has laid the burden of a duty and destiny which we still only half discern. He has given us a charge which we can never fulfil abroad except as we become faithful to our vocation at home. To realize the very hand of the living God laid on our nation to-day humbles us into awe and seriousness and searchings of heart. The proud vision of Empire fades into a solemn sense of the Divine Imperator who ordains our inheritance for us; because the kingdom, and the power, and the glory are His own. (F. H. Darlow.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXXXV
Thanksgiving to God for restoration to the Divine favour, 1-3;
prayer for farther mercies, 4-7;
the psalmist waits for a gracious answer in full confidence of
receiving it, 8.
He receives the assurance of the greatest blessings, and exults
in the prospect, 9-13.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXXV
The title of this Psalm we have seen before, Ps 42:1. As to the time, it seems to have been written during, or even after, the return from the Babylonish captivity. In the three first verses the psalmist acknowledges the goodness of God in bringing the people back to their own land; he next prays to God to restore them to their ancient prosperity. In the spirit of prophecy, he waits on God, and hears him promise to do it; and then exults in the prospect of so great a good. The whole Psalm seems also to have a reference to the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.
Verse 1. Lord, thou hast been favourable] Literally, Thou hast been well pleased with thy land.
Thou hast brought back the captivity] This seems to fix the time of the Psalm to be after the return of the Jews from Babylon.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Unto thy land, i.e. unto thy people, in removing the sad effects of thy displeasure.
The captivity; the captives, as the word is used, Psa 14:7; 68:18, and elsewhere.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. captivitynot necessarilythe Babylonian, but any great evil (Ps14:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land,…. The land of Canaan, which the Lord chose for the people of Israel, and put them into the possession of it; and where he himself chose to dwell, and had a sanctuary built for him; and therefore though the whole earth is his, yet this was his land and inheritance in a peculiar manner, as it is called, Jer 16:18, the inhabitants of it are meant, to whom the Lord was favourable, or whom he graciously accepted, and was well pleased with and delighted in, as appears by his choosing them above all people to be his people; by bringing them out of Egyptian bondage, by leading them through the Red sea and wilderness, by feeding and protecting them there; and by bringing them into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, and settling them in it; and by many temporal blessings, and also spiritual ones, as his word and ordinances; but especially by sending his own Son, the Messiah and Saviour, unto them; and which perhaps is what is here principally intended:
thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob; or, “the captives” m of Jacob; in a temporal sense, both out of Egypt, and out of Babylon; and in a spiritual sense from sin, Satan, and the law; the special people of God often go by the name of Jacob, and these are captives to the above mentioned; and redemption by Christ is a deliverance of them from their captivity, or a bringing of it back, for he has led captivity captive; and in consequence of this they are put into a state of freedom, liberty is proclaimed to these captives, and they are delivered, and all as the fruit and effect of divine favour.
m “captivam turbam”, Junius Tremellius i. e. “captivos”, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The poet first of all looks back into the past, so rich in tokens of favour. The six perfects are a remembrance of former events, since nothing precedes to modify them. Certainly that which has just been experienced might also be intended; but then, as Hitzig supposes, Psa 85:5-8 would be the petition that preceded it, and Psa 85:9 would go back to the turning-point of the answering of the request – a retrograde movement which is less probable than that in shuwbeenuw, Psa 85:5, we have a transition to the petition for a renewal of previously manifested favour. ( ) , here said of a cessation of a national judgment, seems to be meant literally, not figuratively (vid., Psa 14:7). , with the accusative, to have and to show pleasure in any one, as in the likewise Korahitic lamentation- Psa 44:4, cf. Psa 147:11. In Psa 85:3 sin is conceived of as a burden of the conscience; in Psa 85:3 as a blood-stain. The music strikes up in the middle of the strophe in the sense of the “blessed” in Psa 32:1. In Psa 85:4 God’s (i.e., unrestrained wrath) appears as an emanation; He draws it back to Himself ( as in Joe 3:15, Psa 104:29; 1Sa 14:19) when He ceases to be angry; in Psa 85:4, on the other hand, the fierce anger is conceived of as an active manifestation on the part of God which ceases when He turns round ( , Hiph. as inwardly transitive as in Eze 14:6; Eze 39:25; cf. the Kal in Exo 32:12), i.e., gives the opposite turn to His manifestation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Prayer in Time of Trouble. | |
To the chief musician. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
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 show us thy mercy, O LORD, 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. The people of God, in a very low and weak condition, are here taught how to address themselves to God.
I. They are to acknowledge with thankfulness the great things God had done for them (v. 1-3): “Thou has done so and so for us and our fathers.” Note, The sense of present afflictions should not drown the remembrance of former mercies; but, even when we are brought very low, we must call to remembrance past experiences of God’s goodness, which we must take notice of with thankfulness, to his praise. They speak of it here with pleasure, 1. That God had shown himself propitious to their land, and had smiled upon it as his own: “Thou hast been favourable to thy land, as thine, with distinguishing favours.” Note, The favour of God is the spring-head of all good, and the fountain of happiness, to nations, as well as to particular persons. It was by the favour of God that Israel got and kept possession of Canaan (Ps. xliv. 3); and, if he had not continued very favourable to them, they would have been ruined many a time. 2. That he had rescued them out of the hands of their enemies and restored them to their liberty: “Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob, and settled those in their own land again that had been driven out and were strangers in a strange land, prisoners in the land of their oppressors.” The captivity of Jacob, though it may continue long, will be brought back in due time. 3. That he had not dealt with them according to the desert of their provocations (v. 2): “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, and not punished them as in justice thou mightest. Thou hast covered all their sin.” When God forgives sin he covers it; and, when he covers the sin of his people, he covers it all. The bringing back of their captivity was then an instance of God’s favour to them, when it was accompanied with the pardon of their iniquity. 4. That he had not continued his anger against them so far, and so long, as they had reason to fear (v. 3): “Having covered all their sin, thou hast taken away all thy wrath;” for when sin is set aside God’s anger ceases; God is pacified if we are purified. See what the pardon of sin is: Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, that is, “Thou hast turned thy anger from waxing hot, so as to consume us in the flame of it. In compassion to us thou hast not stirred up all thy wrath, but, when an intercessor has stood before thee in the gap, thou hast turned away thy anger.”
II. They are taught to pray to God for grace and mercy, in reference to their present distress; this is inferred from the former: “Thou hast done well for our fathers; do well for us, for we are the children of the same covenant.” 1. They pray for converting grace: “Turn us, O God of our salvation! in order to the turning of our captivity; turn us from iniquity; turn us to thyself and to our duty; turn us, and we shall be turned.” All those whom God will save sooner or later he will turn. If no conversion, no salvation. 2. They pray for the removal of the tokens of God’s displeasure which they were under: “Cause thine anger towards us to cease, as thou didst many a time cause it to cease in the days of our fathers, when thou didst take away thy wrath from them.” Observe the method, “First turn us to thee, and then cause thy anger to turn from us.” When we are reconciled to God, then, and not till then, we may expect the comfort of his being reconciled to us. 3. They pray for the manifestation of God’s good-will to them (v. 7): “Show us thy mercy, O Lord! show thyself merciful to us; not only have mercy on us, but let us have the comfortable evidences of that mercy; let us know that thou hast mercy on us and mercy in store for us.” 4. 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.
III. They are taught humbly to expostulate with God concerning their present troubles, Psa 85:5; Psa 85:6. Here observe, 1. What they dread and deprecate: “Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? We are undone if thou art, but we hope thou wilt not. Wilt thou draw out thy anger unto all generations? No; thou art gracious, slow to anger, and swift to show mercy, and wilt not contend for ever. Thou wast not angry with our fathers for ever, but didst soon turn thyself from the fierceness of thy wrath; why then wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Are not thy mercies and compassions as plentiful and powerful as ever they were? Impenitent sinners God will be angry with for ever; for what is hell but the wrath of God drawn out unto endless generations? But shall a hell upon earth be the lot of thy people?” 2. What they desire and hope for: “Wilt thou not revive us again (v. 6), revive us with comforts spoken to us, revive us with deliverances wrought for us? Thou hast been favourable to thy land formerly, and that revived it; wilt thou not again be favourable, and so revive it again?” God had granted to the children of the captivity some reviving in their bondage, Ezra ix. 8. Their return out of Babylon was as life from the dead,Eze 37:11; Eze 37:12. Now, Lord (say they), wilt thou not revive us again, and put thy hand again the second time to gather us in? Isa 126:1; Isa 126:4; Psa 126:1; Psa 126:4. Revive thy work in the midst of the years, Hab. iii. 2. “Revive us again,” (1.) “That thy people may rejoice; and so we shall have the comfort of it,” Ps. xiv. 7. Give them life, that they may have joy. (2.) “That they may rejoice in thee; and so thou wilt have the glory of it.” If God be the fountain of all our mercies, he must be the centre of all our joys.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 85
The Prayer of A Patriot
Scripture v. 1-13:
This Is a patriotic psalm of the sons of Korah whose first interest was in their country and their God.
Verses 1-3 describe six things God had done for Israel in bringing her out of captivity abroad, back to her homeland, as follows:
Verse 1 declares:
1. a) “Lord thou hast been favorable to thy land,” or well pleased toward your land, Psa 77:7.
2. b) “Thou hast turned again or reversed the captivity of Jacob,” a faith-vision of God’s sure promises to preserve, never desert His people, as certified Psa 14:7; Jer 30:18; Jer 31:23; Eze 39:25; Joh 3:1; See too Psa 80:3; Psa 80:7; Psa 80:19.
Verse 2 continues:
3. a) “Thou hast forgiven (pardoned) the iniquity of thy people,” Isa 55:7.
4. b) “Thou hast covered (Heb kaphar) atoned for, all their sin, Selah.” Meditate upon, digest, or find soul nourishment in this; This indicates reconciliation effected thru the blood-offering of the redeemer, from all iniquity, Psa 32:1; 1Pe 1:18-19; Tit 2:13; Hos 10:8; Rev 6:16.
Verse 3 adds:
5. a) “Thou hast taken away (turned or borne away) all thy wrath,” as signified Exo 32:12; 1Jn 1:7; 1Pe 3:18.
6. b) “Thou has turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger,” from waxing hot in judgment, to utterly destroy Israel, or the people of God, La 3:22; Psa 37:23; 1Co 11:31-34.
Verse 4 appeals “turn us, O God of our salvation,” (our deliverance) of the past, our hope of present and future deliverance from the presence and power of sin and judgment, as described 2Co 1:10, “and cause thine anger to cease,” in chastening and judgment upon us;” So intense is the faith appeal that the Hebrew language indicates it as having already been done, so faithful is God in and to His covenant and promises to His people, Pro 3:3-5; Heb 13:5.
Verse 5 laments “wilt thou be angry with -us forever?” with no end, with the refrain, “wilt thou draw out (stretch out, extend, or expand) thine anger to all generations?” For, ordinarily His “anger endureth but a moment,” Exo 34:6-7; Psa 30:5; Psa 7:10-13; 1Jn 1:8-9.
Verses 6, 7 appeal “wilt thou not revive (turn us and revive us) again,” as in former days, “that thy people may rejoice in thee.” His turn in favor toward them, and their and their rejoicing again in Him, Psa 71:20; Psa 80:18; Deu 32:39; Hos 6:2. The appeal continues, “show us thy mercy, O Lord … and grant us thy salvation,” or liberation, that rejoicing might break forth again in all Israel, Psa 126:5-6; Php_4:4; See too that such is a fruit of salvation, Act 2:46; Act 8:39; Act 16:34; Gal 5:22; Rom 5:11. True joy is a resource of strength, Neh 8:10.
Verse 8 adds, “I will hear (heed or obey) what the Lord Jehovah will speak,” an ideal for every person who has ears to hear Luk 14:35. “For he (the Jehovah-Lord, the covenant God) will speak peace unto His people, and (or even) to His saints,” the true people of Israel, those who confessed and followed Him in an obedient, spiritual walk-and-worship manner, as pledged Psa 29:11; Isa 57:19; Zec 9:10; Joh 4:27. It is added, “but let them not turn again to folly,” 2Pe 2:20. For such will surely, justly “be beaten with many stripes,” chastened justly, Luk 12:47.
Verse 9 declares that “Surely (without fail) his salvation is nigh those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land,” national blessings come from God for a walk of obedience, to such as reflect faith in and obedience to the Messiah-deliverer, to those who reflect His glory, Joh 1:14; Zec 2:5; Luk 2:32; Eze 43:7. May that glory be revealed thru His own, Eph 3:21.
Verse 10 declares “mercy and truth are met together (or embraced with affinity); Righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” as reconciliation is made between the offended God and the returning offender, with Jesus Christ as the mediator-redeemer. What a reunion! What a happy day! as heaven’s inhabitants rejoice, Luk 15:7; Luk 15:10; Luk 15:23; Luk 15:32. See also Psa 72:3; Mic 7:20; Joh 1:17; Isa 32:17; Luk 2:14; Isa 45:24-25.
Verse 11 prophesies “truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven,” in that day of the certain restitution of all things to God, from their fallen state; It was revealed in Christ as He first came, and it will be ultimately comprehended by all the earth when He comes again, in triumph, power, and great regal glory, as certified Isa 45:8; Psa 72:3; Act 3:20-23; 1Co 15:23-28; 2Th 1:6-10; 2Co 5:11-21.
Verse 12 adds “the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land (Israel’s of promise) shall yield her increase,” with the curse removed, blooming again, filled with milk and honey, Jas 1:17; Psa 67:6.
Verse 13 concludes that “righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us (put or place us) in the way of His steps;” Blessed steps and ways, in ‘the way, “Joh 14:6. See also Isa 11:3-5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1 O Jehovah! thou hast been favorable to thy land. Those who translate these words in the future tense, in my opinion, mar their meaning. This psalm, it is probable, was endited to be sung by the people when they were persecuted by the cruel tyranny of Antiochus; and from the deliverance wrought for them in the past, they were encouraged to expect in the future, fresh and continued tokens of the divine favor, — God having thereby testified, that their sins, however numerous and aggravated, could not efface from his memory the remembrance of his covenant, so as to render him inexorable towards the children of Abraham, and deaf to their prayers. (474) Had they not previously experienced such remarkable proofs of the divine goodness, they must necessarily have been overwhelmed with the load of their present afflictions, especially when so long protracted. The cause of their deliverance from captivity they attribute to the free love with which God had embraced the land which he had chosen for himself. Whence it follows, that the course of his favor was unintermitted; and the faithful also were inspired with confidence in prayer, by the reflection that, mindful of his choice, he had shown himself merciful to his own land. We have elsewhere had occasion to remark, that nothing contributes more effectually to encourage us to come to the throne of grace, than the remembrance of God’s former benefits. Our faith would immediately succumb under adversity, and sorrow would choke our hearts, were we not taught to believe from the experience of the past, that he is inclined compassionately to hear the prayers of his servants, and always affords them succor when the exigencies of their circumstances require it; especially as there remains at all times the same reason for continuing his goodness. Thus the prophet happily applies to believers of his own day, the benefits which God in old time bestowed upon their fathers, because both they and their fathers were called to the hope of the same inheritance.
(474) “ Ou, si est ce que .” — Fr. marg. “Or, Yet.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.To the chief Musician. See Introduction to Psalms 57. A Psalm for the sons of Korah. See Introduction to Psalms 42.
There seems, says Perowne, every reason to conclude that this Psalm was written after the return of the exiles from the Babylonish captivity. It opens with an acknowledgment of Gods goodness and mercy in the national restoration, in terms which could hardly apply to any other event. But it passes immediately to earnest entreaty for deliverance from the pressure of existing evils, in language which almost contradicts the previous acknowledgment. First, we hear the grateful confession, Thou hast turned the captivity of Jacob; and then we have the prayer, Turn us, O God of our salvation. If the third verse contains the joyful announcement, Thou hast withdrawn all Thy wrath, &c., the fifth pleads as if no such assurance had been given: Wilt Thou for ever be angry with us? &c. The most probable way of explaining this conflict of opposing feelings is by referring the Psalm to the circumstances mentioned by Nehemiah (Neh. 1:8). The 126th Psalm is conceived in a some-what similar strain.
A GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION
(Psa. 85:1-3.)
I. Of national deliverance. Lord, Thou hast been favourable unto Thy land; Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thus the Psalmist acknowledges the goodness of God in the restoration of His people from the Babylonish captivity. At the very beginning of the Psalm the poet expresses the identity of Gods interest and theirs. Thy land. God had chosen this land to be the dwelling-place of His people. He had driven out the heathen from it, and established His worship in it. This intimacy of relation to it is named evidently with a view of obtaining further manifestations of His favour towards it. It is well when we can realise and plead in our prayers the identity of Gods interest and ours. When we are devoted to His work, and seek the accomplishment of His purposes, and aim at His glory, when we live for Him, we may plead with Him in our distresses that His favour shown to us will promote His own cause. The Psalmist traces their deliverance to the favour of God. All their happiness and prosperity flowed to them from His goodness. We may regard their distress as illustrating the troubles into which we are brought by reason of our unfaithfulness to God. Our backslidings of heart have been many, and our consequent spiritual darkness and distress great, yet God in His favour has restored to us the light and help of His countenance. It was a happy and helpful thing for the Jews in their present troubles, that they were so wealthy in recollections of great blessings from God in past times. Such recollections would
1. Inspire them with hope.
2. Encourage them in prayer.
3. Incite them to effort.
II. Of the removal of the Divine anger. Thou hast taken away all Thy wrath; Thou hast turned Thyself from the fierceness of Thine anger. The captivity was regarded as a sign of the Divine wrath; and their restoration as a sign that that wrath no longer burned against them. God is angry with His people when they sin against Him. His wrath ever burns against sin. He longs to save sinners from their sin. Sin is the abominable thing which He hates. The Psalmist gratefully recollects past seasons in which God had turned away His anger from them. The recollection of those seasons would encourage the Hebrews in pleading with Him to remove His displeasure from them. What He had formerly done He would probably do again.
III. Of the bestowal of forgiveness. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people; Thou hast covered all their sin. Not only had He removed His anger from them, but had forgiven the sin which caused His anger, and restored unto them His favour. The forgiven soul has the assurance that God will not charge his sins against him. The Bible is rich in declarations of the readiness of God to pardon all who penitently seek Him. (See Psa. 130:4; Isa. 55:7; Jer. 33:8; 1Jn. 1:9.) The expressions used by the Psalmist indicate the completeness of Gods forgiveness. Thou hast forgiven, borne away, the sins of Thy people. There is doubtless a reference to the scape-goat which was sent out into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people, and never more returned. Thou hast covered all their sin. It is all hidden away. It is all completely hidden away. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. The recollection of Gods former forgivenesses encouraged the Psalmist to pray for His forgiving mercy at this time. He is unchangeable. What He has done for His penitent people in times past, He will do for them again if they approach Him in penitence.
CONCLUSION.We have grateful memories like these of the Psalmist. Let them have their due and proper effect upon us. They should inspire us with
1. Humility. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. What if He had? What, but utter ruin?
2. Gratitude. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?
3. Confidence. This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide unto death.
AN EARNEST SUPPLICATION
(Psa. 85:4-7.)
The prayer presented to God in these verses is for His deliverance of His people from the affliction or distress from which they were suffering at this time. The deliverance which is implored is represented in several aspects; but let us notice
I. That with a view to their salvation the people pray for repentance. Turn us, O God of our salvation. This petition indicates a right understanding of the state of the case, and augurs well for the success of their prayer. They had turned themselves to folly and sin, and now they pray that God would turn them from their sin, and grant them true repentance. The first and chief thing for the erring tribes of Israel was that they might be turned from sin unto God. It would have been in vain if they had prayed for the removal of the Divine anger apart from this change in themselves. The beginning of their distresses was in themselves, and in order to their complete restoration there must be a change in themselves. This is true as regards the salvation of the soul. If there is no conversion, no turning of the soul from sin unto God, there is no salvation. The Psalmist, speaking for the people, asks God to turn them. It needs the power of Divine grace to convert a soul. Salvation both in its origin and completion is the work of God. Yet when a soul turns to God in prayer, and prays for repentance, it is a sign that its salvation has already begun.
The deliverance which is implored is represented
II. As a cessation of Gods anger. Cause Thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever! &c. They rightly regarded their distresses as a sign of the Divine anger because of their sins. And they plead with God that He would remove that anger from them. Mark with what force they plead. Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever?. Is there no boundary to Thy wrath? Is the flame of Thy fury unquenchable? His anger had continued so long that it almost seemed to them as though it would never cease. Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever? It is true that we have sinned against Thee, and merited Thy displeasure; yet we are Thy people, and the sheep of Thy pasture. Thus they appeal to His compassion towards His own, as an argument for the removal of His wrath. Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever? God had made Himself known to them as The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and could He be angry with them for ever? The idea seems opposed to His own revelation of Himself. And, blessed be His name! His anger ceases as soon as any person or any people turn from their evil ways in penitence to Him. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man; the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
III. As a manifestation of His mercy. Show us Thy mercy, O Lord. They sought salvation from their troubles or calamities as a favour from the hand of God. They felt that they did not deserve it, could not ask for it on any ground of merit, so they seek it as a mercy from God. Mercy is the disposition whereby God is inclined to succour those who are in misery, and to pardon those who have offended. It is to the mercy of our God that we look for salvation. It is to His mercy that we are indebted for the countless blessings of life. Archbishop Tillotson has well said: Consider how many evils and miseries that every day we are exposed to, by His preventing mercy are hindered, or, when they were coming upon us, stopped or turned another way. How oft our punishment has He deferred by His forbearing mercy; or, when it was necessary for our chastisement, mitigated and made light! How oft we have been supported in our afflictions by His comforting mercy, and visited with the light of His countenance, in the exigencies of our soul and the gloominess of despair! How oft we have been supplied by His relieving mercy in our wants; and, when there was no hand to succour, and no soul to pity us, His arm has been stretched out to lift us from the mire and clay, and, by a providential train of events, brought about our sustenance and support! And, above all, how daily, how hourly, how minutely we offend against Him; and yet, by the power of His pardoning mercy, we are still alive! For, considering the multitude and heinousness of our provocation, it is of His mercy alone that we are not consumed, and because His compassions fail not. Whoso is wise will ponder these things, and he will understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
IV. As a quickening. Wilt Thou not revive us again? Their condition was like that of our world in winter The earth is cold, the winds are bleak, the trees are bare and show no signs of life, the flowers are all withered and gone, the fruits of field and garden are all gathered; death seems to reign on all hands. But how the scene changes with the advent of spring. All things seem to burst into a new life of wondrous wealth and beauty. The people pray that they in like manner may be quickened from their state of desolation into a state of life and prosperity. Revive us with comforts spoken to us, revive us with deliverances wrought for us. This prayer for revival is one which we, both as individuals and as churches, need to present frequently to God. The petition implies
1. The presence of life. Where there is utter death it is folly to talk of revival.
2. The decline of life. The healthfulness and vigour have departed. Lifes pulse beats feebly.
3. The desire for the renewal of the freshness and power of life. Where this desire is strong, decline will soon be superseded by growth, and barrenness be changed to fruitfulness.
4. The conviction that God only can impart such renewal. A true revival cannot be got up by any man, or any number of men. O Lord, revive Thy work.
V. As a means to their joy in God. That Thy people may rejoice in Thee.
1. Their revival would be a joy to them. The removal of their distress and the return of prosperity would make glad their hearts.
2. Their joy would be in God. When God changeth the cheer of His people, their joy should not be in the gift, but in the Giver. If God be the fountain of all our mercies, He must be the centre of all our joys.
3. God willed their joy. Of this they were persuaded, or they would not have pleaded for deliverance on this ground, that it would give them joy. God takes pleasure in the joy of His people. Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. He is eternally and infinitely blessed, and He delights in the blessedness of His people. Our songs of gladness are more pleasing to His ear than any sighs of sadness can possibly be. (a) There is always joy in a revival of religion. Nothing is so much fitted to make a people happy; nothing diffuses so much joy (comp. Act. 8:8). () This is particularly joy in God. It is because He comes near; because He manifests His mercy; because He shows His power and His grace.Barnes
Such, then, are the aspects in which their salvation is viewed in this prayer to God.
CONCLUSION.Our subject addresses itself to individuals and churches in which vitality has declined, and depression exists.
1. Here is encouragement for you. Our God is the God of our salvation. His mercy is infinite. His salvation is unto the uttermost. He is both able and willing to raise you from your low estate into health and prosperity.
2. Here is example for you. In earnest supplication take your case unto Him. First seek to be made right yourselves, and then to be made happy. First pray, Turn us, O God of our salvation, and then, Wilt Thou not revive us again, that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? And His salvation will not tarry, and His joy will not be withheld.
THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION
(Psa. 85:6.)
Many Christians have come to have a distaste for the word revival when used with reference to religious work. There has been so much exaggeration, so much fanatical excitement, and so much transient profession, that I cannot wonder at the revulsion which many sober-minded Christians feel when they hear the very word revival. All got-up revivals are bad. You cannot organise a true revival; you cannot treat spiritual influences as fixed quantities. As a matter of fact, there have been extraordinary visitations of Divine influence; there have been seasons when the Holy Ghost has made the earthquake, the fire, the rending wind, and the stormy tempest His ministers, and when men have been shaken with a wholesome fear, not knowing the way, yet feeling the nearness of the Lord. There have been great birthdays in the Church, when prodigals have come back to sonship, when shepherds have returned with recovered flocks, and the dead have risen to immortal life. There have, too, been times when the people have realised with special vividness the personality and life-giving power of the Holy Ghost; when they have had the keys of interpretation wherewith to unlock the boundless treasures of the Divine Word; when prayer was as the speech of love that never wearies; when the Sabbath shed its sacred glory over all the days of the week; when Gods house shone with heavenly lustre, and all life throbbed in joyful harmony with the purposes of God. Cannot such delights be more permanently secured? At the same time, we are not constituted for constant rapture; we have to contend with the deceitfulness of the flesh; we have to fight and suffer upon the earth, &c. Still there is danger that we may be content with low attainments. There is a steady and penetrating glow of piety, there is a fervour of love, there is an animated intelligence, a zealous affection, a godly yearning for personal progress and social evangelisation, which, when found together, make up a life of delight in God, and blessed service for men. To promote this realisation I ask your attention to a few suggestions.
I. As individual Christians, and as churches of Jesus Christ, we need to be very clear in our doctrinal foundations. Let us get a distinct idea of the principal points in the Christian faith. Beginning with the doctrine of sin, let us strive after Gods view of it. To Him sin is infinitely hateful; He cannot tolerate it with the least degree of allowance; it troubles His otherwise perfect and happy universe; it despoils human nature; it is the cause of death and the source of hell. To under-estimate the heinousness of sin is to put ourselves out of the line of Gods view; to understand sin is to understand redemption. Sin interprets the cross; sin shows what is meant by Gods love. Have we, as individuals and churches, lost the true notion of sin? Is it no longer infinitely abominable to us? Is it toned down to something almost indistinguishable? We cannot be right in our relation to Jesus Christ until we regard sin with unutterable repugnance.
Out of a true knowledge of sin will come a true appreciation of Jesus Christ as the Saviour. I could sum up my creed in a sentence, yet that sentence contains more than all the libraries in the world: I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD! My heart hungers for Him, my sin cries out for His mercy, my sorrow yearns for His coming; and when He does come He speaks just the word that my soul needs; He understands me; He knows me altogether; He can get down into the low, dark pit into which sin has thrown me; He draws me to His cross; He hides my sins in His sacrifice; He shows me how God can be honoured, yet the sinner forgiven; He destroys the devil, and puts within me the Holy Ghost; He so fills me with life that death has no longer any terror with which to affright me.
If we lay firmly hold of these two points, viz., the sinfulness of sin and the work of Jesus Christ, we shall come to know what is meant by what I have ventured to call the glow of piety. Only the liberated slave can know the joy of freedomonly the recovered leper can appreciate fully the blessing of health. Do we know sin in its essential, unchangeable loathsomeness? Do we love Jesus Christ as the only, the Almighty, and the ever-blessed Saviour? Then, out of this should come an intense fervour of piety. We should have strength here.
II. We must have a public ministry which it faithful to the spirit and demands of Jesus Christ. All Christian ministers are called to be faithful to Jesus Christ in seeking the salvation of men. We must not throw off the old wordsRepentance, Faith, Salvationand the things that they signify must be the very life-blood of our ministry. In any genuine revival of interest in Christianity there must be a revived interest in a preached Gospel. The sanctuary will be thronged, and the thronging listeners will be justly impatient of everything that does not bear immediately and intensely upon the salvation of men. Then must we be made to feel that the doctrines of the Gospel are humbling doctrines; that they smite down our natural pride and self-trustfulness; that they kill before they make alive; that out of our utter impoverishment and nothingness they bring all that is distinctive and enduring in Christian manhood. I am confirmed in the opinion that we should devote ourselves with increasing earnestness to seeking the salvation of men when I look at the character of our general congregations. We address the public, not a select few; we speak to men whose whole time is engrossed in worldly engagements; we speak to the poor, the unlearned, the sorrowing; we address the young, the careless, the worldly; and to such there is nothing that can be preached that will so instantly touch the heart as the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Whilst there will be this full and bold proclamation of evangelical doctrine in the pulpit, there will be a system of teaching proceeding more privately. Some men have a peculiar gift in biblical teaching, and those men should be encouraged to pursue their laborious but most necessary vocation. The preacher and teacher should be fellow-labourers. The preacher should collect men into great companies, arrest their attention by earnest and convincing statements of Christian truth, and then pass them on, so to speak, to the critical and patient teacher. Thus the man of God will become thoroughly furnished; having received deep instruction, he will be able to give a reason for the faith and hope that are in him, and he will be strong to resist the importunities of those who are driven about by every wind of doctrine.
III. There is one feature in our public Christian life which I should like to see more fully brought outI mean the bearing of individual testimony on behalf of Jesus Christ. By no means seek to supplant what is known as the regular ministry, but supplement it; and at all costs destroy the impression that nobody has a good word to say for Christianity except its paid teachers. Why should not the banker, the great merchant, and the eminent lawyer say publicly what God has done for their souls?Dr. Parker. Abridged from The City Temple.
AN ENCOURAGING ANTICIPATION
(Psa. 85:8-13.)
The Psalmist, as the representative of the people, having reviewed Gods former mercies to them, and urged their prayer for salvation from their present distresses, resolves to listen for the Divine response to their supplication. I will hear what God the Lord will speak. He becomes silent, that he may hear the voice of God. His anxiety and fervour of prayer are stilled, and he seeks to attain that state of spiritual attention that shall catch the first whisper of the Divine voice, and of spiritual receptiveness that shall secure the first instalment of the Divine blessing. Having spoken to God, it becomes us to listen for His reply. The Psalmist expected an answer from God, and therefore he waited and listened for it. In this he is at once a rebuke and an example to us. A rebuke, inasmuch as we have so frequently offered our prayer without any real thought of its being answered. We have not waited Gods reply, because we did not expect Him to reply. An example. When we pray let our prayer be real; let us honour God by our confidence, and then, like the Psalmist, we shall expect and listen for His voice in reply to us.
The Psalmist is confident that God will grant a favourable answer to their prayer. He will speak peace unto His people. Thus, in general, does he speak of the response which he expected from God. Gods reply would be such as would impart to them outward peace in deliverance from their troubles, and inward peace in the communications of His grace. And now the Psalmist, with some particularity, sets forth his anticipations as to Gods answer to their prayers. Consider
I. The blessing anticipated. Several particulars are mentioned by the poet.
1. Deliverance from their distresses. His salvation is nigh them that fear Him. His hand was nigh to help them; and their deliverance would be effected speedily. Such was the confident anticipation of the distressed people. And surely every tried and oppressed child of God now may feel equally confident that, in answer to prayer, He will speedily appear bringing salvation with Him.
2. Exaltation to honour. That glory may dwell in our land. The glory of the Divine presence and worship. Gods presence would be manifested in their salvation; and, being delivered from the evils under which they groaned, they would render to Him a more hearty and more constant worship. The glory of national prosperity. Our land shall yield her increase. Husbandry should be diligently prosecuted, and Gods blessing would come down upon the land in sun and shower; and fruitful seasons and abundant harvests would be the result. There should be an increase of worship and of spiritual prosperity, and an increase of work and of material prosperity. And in their spiritual peace and temporal happiness, their glory as the people of God would be manifest, and His glory as the God of His people would be manifest also.
3. Prevalence of moral excellence. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. This may be understood, says Matthew Henry, and we think correctly, of the reformation of the people and of the government, in the administration of which all those graces should be conspicuous and commanding. The rulers and ruled shall all be merciful and true, righteous and peaceable. When there is no truth or mercy all goes to ruin (Isa. 59:14-15; Hos. 4:1); but when these meet in the management of all affairs, when these give aim, when these give law, when there is such plenty of truth that it sprouts up like the grass of the earth, and of righteousness that it is showered down like rain from heaven, then things go well. When in every congress mercy and truth meet, in every embrace righteousness and peace kiss, and common honesty is indeed common, then glory dwells in a land, as the sin of reigning dishonesty is a reproach to any people. In support of this interpretation of these verses we remark
(1.) The absence of these moral qualities had often led to disastrous results in the history of Israel.
(2.) The prevalence of these moral qualities would follow the fulfilment of their petition, Turn us, O God of our salvation.
(3.) The prevalence of these moral qualities is conducive in a great degree to social and commercial prosperity.
(4.) The prevalence of these moral qualities is the securest bulwark and the brightest glory of any nation. This was indeed a bright and cheering anticipation of the poet and the people.
II. The character of those for whom the blessing is anticipated. Certain marked features in the character of the people who should receive this blessing are indicated.
1. Consecration to God. His people, His saints. They were a people called of God, and consecrated to God. They were subject to His will, and sanctified by His grace.
2. Veneration of God. Them that fear Him. Salvation is far from the wicked, but it is nigh them that regard God with sincere and becoming reverence.
3. Obedience to God. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps. The idea of the last clause appears to be that the effect of the coming of the Lord for their salvation would be to dispose men to tread in His footsteps, to be imitators and followers of Him in respect of righteousness. The blessings of salvation are for the obedient. The new salvation rests throughout upon the foundation of the new obedience. Hence the warning, Let them not turn again to folly; for if they did, their prosperity would vanish, and their distresses would return again. The same is true of the blessings of the Gospel. Our Lord saves His people from their sins, not in their sins. We must walk in the way of His steps, if we would share His blessedness.
CONCLUSION.What is the salvation for which we are looking? Is it deliverance from a hell of material torment, and the enjoyment of a heaven of self-indulgence? Then the ideas of the ancient Jews were more advanced and spiritual than ours. The salvation of a state is not in its great armaments, or its vast wealth; but in the prevalence of mercy and truth, righteousness and peace. The salvation of individuals is in their conformity with the will of God, in reverencing Him, in consecration to Him. If these things are realised in us, great will be our blessedness.
THE SPEAKER, THE LISTENER, THE PEACE
(Psa. 85:8.)
Let us meditate on this verse under the following heads:
I. The listener. I will hear, says the writer of this Psalm. He speaks as a listener, as one whose ears are open. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. This is our true attitude into which we come at conversion. God said, Hear, and your soul shall live; He opened our ears to hear as the learned, i.e., as one who is under teaching. So we began to listen; and, in listening, found life. Such is to be our life; a life of listening; not to man, nor self, nor the world, but to God. As creatures, listening is our proper attitude, much more as sinners. Let the willing ear be ours. How much we lose by the closed ear!
II. The Speaker. God the Lord; God, even Jehovah. Other speakers may win the ear of the multitude, but it is to God the Lord that the saint listens. His voice is powerful. Its tones are penetrating; its words attractive. God speaks as one entitled to be heard, expecting to be heard. He speaks with authority, waiting for our obedience to the heavenly voice. To less than such a speaker we do not feel constrained to listen, but to Him we must. He speaks, we cannot but hear.
III. The message. He will speak peace to His people. He is the God of peace; He maketh peace in His high places. Peace is the substance of the message that has all along been carried to us; peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh; peace in heaven; peace on earth; peace between man and God; the peace of pardon, the peace of reconciliation; the peace that passeth all understandingpeace through the blood of the cross, through Him who is our peace. It might have been wrath, nay, ought to have been wrath; but it is not wrath, only peace; for He is long-suffering and slow to wrath; nay, God is love!
IV. The confidence. The Psalmist knows what He is to expect from such a God. Before the peace comes, he knows that it is coming; for he knows the God to whom he is called upon to listen. This is the confidence which he has in Him. He does not listen uncertainly, as not knowing what will come forth. He has heard of this God beforeof what He does and speaksand he opens his ear in happy confidence. He is sure that no wrath will come, only love, only peace. This God is the God of salvationthe God who gave His Son. Shall He not then speak peace?
V. The issue. Let them not return to folly; or, and they shall not return to folly. He does not say, Let them not turn to folly, and then He will speak peace to them; but He will speak peace first, and then they shall not return to folly. This is Gods order; the true and Divine order; the reverse of mans. It is not first holiness and then peace, but first peace and then holiness. The root of all holiness is peace with God. Till the clouds are rolled away and the sun shines out, we cannot be warmed and enlightened. Till the frost is gone, and the ice dissolved, the river cannot flow on and water the fields. Christ did not say, Go, and sin no more, and I will not condemn thee; but, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more. The first step to a holy life is being at peace with God. This great point between us and God once settled, we are free to devote our undivided energies to the work of progress; not till then.
A saint, then, is one who has listened to God; who has heard the words of peace from His lips; who has believed them; who has been reconciled; and who knows that he is so. Therefore he seeks to be holy. He hates his former folly. He does not return to it. He does not make his free pardon a reason for returning to it.
Brethren, be consistent. Show that the peace you have received is a holy peace.H. Bonar, D.D. Abridged from Light and Truth.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 85
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Praise, Prayer and Prophecy lead up to the Reconciliation of Earth and Heaven.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 85:1-3, Praise to Jehovah for what he has Already Done. Stanza II., Psa. 85:4-7, Prayer for what Remains to be Done. Stanza III., Psa. 85:8-9, A Divine Word Sought by the Prophet. Stanza IV., Psa. 85:10-13, The Final Reconciliation Announced.
(Lm.) Psalm.
1
Thou hast shewn favour Jehovah to thy land,
thou hast restored the fortunes[194] of Jacob,
[194] Or: turned the captivity.
2
Thou hast forgiven[195] the iniquity of thy people,
[195] Or: taken away.
thou hast covered all their sin,
3
Thou hast withdrawn all thine indignation,
thou hast turned thee from the glow of thine anger.
4
Restore us O God of our salvation,
and break off thy vexation with us:
5
To the ages wilt thou be angry with us?
wilt thou prolong thine anger to generation and generation?
6
Wilt not thou thyself again give us life,
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
7
Shew us Jehovah thy kindness,
and thy salvation wilt thou give to us?
8
Let me hear what the Mighty One[196] Jehovah will speak:
[196] Heb: ha el.
surely he will speak peace
unto his people
and unto his men of kindness
and unto such as turn their hearts unto him.[197]
[197] So it shd. be (w. Sep. and Vul.)Gn.
9
Assuredly near unto such as revere him is his salvation,
so shall glory abide in our land.
10
Kindness and truth have met together,
Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other:
11
Truth out of the earth doth spring forth,
and Righteousness out of the heavens hath looked down:
12
Yea Jehovah giveth that which is good,
and our land yieldeth her increase:
13
Righteousness before him marcheth along,
and Peace hath made a path of his steps.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 85
Lord, You have poured out amazing blessings on this land! You have restored the fortunes[198] of Israel,
[198] Literally, brought back the captivity.
2 And forgiven the sins of Your peopleyes, covered over each one,
3 So that all Your wrath, Your blazing anger, is now ended.
4 Now bring us back to loving You,[199] O Lord, so that Your anger will never need rise against us again.
[199] Or, Turn to us.
5 (Or will You be always angryon and on to distant generations?)
6 Oh, revive us! Then Your people can rejoice in You again.
7 Pour out Your love and kindness on us, Lord, and grant us Your salvation.
8 I am listening carefully to all the Lord is sayingfor He speaks peace to His people, His saints, if they will only stop their sinning.
9 Surely His salvation is near to those who reverence Him; our land will be filled with His glory!
10 Mercy and truth have met together. Grim justice[200] and peace have kissed!
[200] Literally, righteousness.
11 Truth rises from the earth and righteousness smiles down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord pours down His blessings on the land and it yields its bountiful crops.
13 Justice goes before Him to make a pathway for His steps.[201]
[201] Or, set us in the way of His steps.
EXPOSITION
There is a marked difference between the Praise with which this psalm opens and the Prayer which follows thereon. The Praise saysThou hast withdrawn all thine indignation: the Prayer saysHow long shall thine anger continue? How is this apparent contradiction to be removed? Some critics have proposed a time solution, by renderingThou hadst withdrawn it; but (as it has returned again)How long shall it continue? And this is a possible reconciliation; since a season of Divine favour may be followed by one of Divine displeasure, and under the displeasure the former favour may be pleaded as a reason for its restoration. But perhaps a dramatic solution may be more commended, by supposing two parties to be successively represented: first those who are elated with what has already been done by restoring mercy, and who simply give thanks; and, second, those who are oppressed with the burden of what yet remains to be done, and who, in view of that, can scarcely believe that Jehovahs displeasure has yet been turned away. To the successive representation of these two classesthe optimists and the pessimiststhe well-known antiphonal character of the Temple-worship would easily lend itself; and, after one Choir had offered the Praise, another might give expression to the Prayer, and thus both classes be assisted to address Jehovah in the language which lay nearest their hearts. Perhaps what chiefly commends this dramatic solution of the difficulty is, that it thus gives occasion for a prophetic soloist to intervene with a proposal to seek a new Divine word which shall meet the whole present situationLet me hear what the Mighty One, Jehovah, will speak; and then, in turn, this solo, in form as well as effect, furnishes a strong lead up to what in any case must be regarded as the climax of the psalm. The soloist says in effectLet me hear a new Divine word to meet our present need, about which we so greatly differ; and then, in Psa. 85:10, the Divine Pronouncement beginsperhaps voiced by the united choirsKindness and Faithfulness have met together.
It is submitted that such a setting as this sends us back to what we have called the prophetic solo with new zest, to admire its comprehensive fulness: Surely he will speak peace, well-being, prosperity (shalom); and that, with a graciously manifold inclusiveness, unto his people, Israel, as a whole; And unto his men of kindness, the Levites, in particular, in the centre of his people, to whom many promises await fulfilment (cp. Intro., Chap III., Kindness); Andthanks to Dr. Ginsburg for the regrouping of the Hebrew letters whereby we are enriched with this new clauseunto such as turn their hearts unto him; including, not only the Ten Tribes, but all in any nation who seek him, especially as the concluding description, such as revere him, is in the New Testament the favourite phrase for denoting the reverers of Israels God lying on the outside of Israel. There is still another hint included in this significant solo which mightily helps us upwards to the high level of the coming climax; and it is found in the wordsSo shall Glory abide in our land; as to which, we could imagine how it would quiver on the lips of Hezekiah, Asaph, Micah and Isaiah in those days of intense excitement, when as yet the Glory of the Divine Presence had not departed! Right clearly then follows the climax at last, which assuredly lacks nothing of sublime beauty to render it worthy of being so regarded; namely, as the Divine Response to the Soloists appeal. We seem to have reached a land of Beulah, in which Angels are hovering around. Kindness and Faithfulness have met togetheras if after fulfilling divergent missions, or serving opposing interestshave met for friendly parlance at last. Yea righteousnessif anything, sterner than Faithfulness, and Peace if anything more serene and practical than Kindness, have fallen into each others embrace, and kissed each other. The harmony of divergencies, the reconciling of opposites, is the clear note struck, and far resounding. Full many a time when Kindness has cried, Forgive! Faithfulness has had to protest, Punish! Thou hast threatened! When Righteousness reminds that there can be no peace while wrongs continue, Peace meekly pleads that the wrongs be stayed, that evil be overcome of good. And here, see, these heavenly messengers embracing and kissing each other! There can be no mistaking the significance of the representation. But it may be thought: Yea, as Divine Attributes these are all harmonisable in God. As if to check such a relinquishment of the human and practical, the figure is broken, and the personification of Faithfulness is dropped, for the express purpose of conveying the conception of the impartation of the Divine Quality of faithfulness to the hearts and lives of men. Divine faithfulness therefore now becomes a seed for earthly sowing and human growthrapid, vigorous growth: Faithfulness out of the earth doth spring forth. No wonder that when this point is reached Righteousness, the sterner brother of Faithfulness, retaining his personality, the better to suit his intelligent survey of the fruitful earth, looks down from heaven, with satisfied and delighted gaze on the fair prospect. Nor is all this mere poetic sentimentality: it is spoken to a nation which for the sins of their souls were being punished by the overthrow of their houses and the trampling down of their soil by the hands and feet of invading hosts. And therefore, not to mock such a nation, in whose history the heavenly and the earthly have ever gone hand-in-hand, the advancing promise condescends upon temporalities, first in general terms, seeing that the words that which is good will include earthly blessings as well as heavenly, political as well as social; and seeing further that this inclusion of temporalities is further made certain by the specific promise. And our land shall yield her increase. The great Reconciling Promise then runs onward in the further proviso, Righteousness before himour heavenly Kingmarcheth along, seeing that nothing less can please him, nothing less durst meet his face; And Peaceif so, with Briggs, we should respell the wordsAnd Peace hath made a path of his steps: so that as in this inspection of his inheritance he shews himself to be, so all his servants must be also: they must become imitators of Him.
A splendid climaxa worthy ideala practical standardan inspiring prophecy! Yet, alas! largely unfulfilled! Glory once essayed to dwell in the land; but there was no room for it: it was veiled, and by the majority it was mistaken for Shame! Such of us as have caught a glimpse of him, as the glory of the Father, feel that all holy Reconciliation lies embosomed in Him. His life and teaching, his Death and Resurrection, and Spirit-ministry from Heaven, have in them the potent charm of the embrace and kissing of Angels. And for the rest we are content to work and wait.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
There is a marked difference between the Praise with which this psalm opens and the Prayer which follows thereon. What is it? How can we reconcile the thoughts?
2.
Discuss the prophetic solo as here used.
3.
Graham Scroggie says of this psalm: The psalm reflects the feelings of Judah shortly after the return from Babylonian captivity, and with it we should read Haggai and the early part of Zechariah. The people had expected much from their deliverance, but the harsh realities of their enterprise had stripped off its imaginative charm. Discuss this possibility.
4.
Rotherham considers Psa. 85:8 through Psa. 85:13 as the Divine Response to the Soloists appealis this reasonable? Discuss.
5.
Verse six of this psalm is a request of perennial need: Wilt thou not revive us again; that thy people may rejoice in Thee? How can this prayer be answered today?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Thou hast brought back.See Psa. 14:7; Psa. 68:18. The expression might only imply generally a return to a state of former prosperity, as in Job. 42:10, but the context directs us to refer especially to the return from exile. (See Introduction.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Thou hast been favourable unto thy land The first three verses are an acknowledgment of national restoration. The six verbs in those verses are in the past tense, but it is the recent past. “Favourable,” here, is generic, the particulars follow. “Thy land” refers to Lev 25:23, “The land is mine;” hence no title in fee simple could be given from one to another.
Brought back the captivity Turned the captivity; brought back the captives, a description which could apply only to the restoration under Zerubbabel. Ezr 1:2-4. It does not necessarily imply that the exiles had already reached their own land but that they were set free by Cyrus.
Probably, however, the first colony had already reached Palestine. Ezr 2:1; Ezr 2:64
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 85
Historical Background – This Psalm seems to be post-exilic because it refers to the return of the Captivity (Psa 85:1).
Psa 85:1, “(To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.) LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.”
Psa 85:1 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.) LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
Psa 42:1
“But if it be necessary also from the ancient Scriptures to bring forward the three who made a symphony on earth, so that the Word was in the midst of them making them one, attend to the superscription of the Psalms, as for example to that of the forty-first, which is as follows: ‘Unto the end, unto understanding, for the sons of Korah.’ For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the Book of Exodus, Aser, which is, by interpretation, ‘instruction,’ and the second Elkana, which is translated, ‘possession of God,’ and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, ‘congregation of the father,’ yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought with true harmony, and the three speak as one, ‘As the heart panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul alter thee, O God.’ But also they say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, ‘O God, we have heard with our ears.’” ( Origen’s Commentary on Mat 14:1) [92]
[92] Origen, Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, trans. Allan Menzies, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, ed. Allan Menzies (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1896, 1906), 495.
Psa 85:6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Psa 85:6
Psa 85:10-11 Comments – Note these insightful words from Marietta Davis regarding the meaning of mercy and truth meeting together when she was beholding the birth of our Saviour on earth:
“Another voice said, ‘This day the love of God is manifested to man, who is fallen, who is “dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph 2:1). Now salvation appears. Now truth moves from the eternity of its existence, clothed in the garments of salvation (Isa 61:10). Justice and mercy meet upon the fallen planet, and they embrace over prostrate humanity. Justice declares itself against sin. Thus the eternal throne is vindicated, and the government of the kingdom is perpetuated. Meanwhile, mercy pleads the cause of the sinner, who is exposed to unremitting sorrow because of transgression.’” [93]
[93] Marietta Davis, Caught Up Into Heaven (New Kensington, Pennsylvania: Whitaker House, 1982), 106-7.
In this vision Mercy continued to plead with Justice for the soul of a poor sinner. Once the Son was offered as a sacrifice upon Calvary, then Justice withheld his hand of judgment.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Prayer for the Welfare of the Country.
v. 1. Lord, Thou hast been favorable unto Thy land, v. 2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people, v. 3. Thou hast taken away all Thy wrath, v. 4. Turn us, v. 5. Wilt Thou be angry with us forever? v. 6. Wilt Thou not revive us again, v. 7. Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, v. 8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people, v. 9. Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, v. 10. Mercy and truth are met together, v. 11. Truth, v. 12. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, v. 13. Righteousness shall go before Him,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THIS is a psalm written after a signal display of God’s mercy towards Israel, but when there was still much wanting to make the condition of the people altogether satisfactory. It consists of a thanksgiving for the deliverance vouchsafed (Psa 85:1-3); a prayer for further and more complete restoration to favour (Psa 85:4-7); and a joyful anticipation of the granting of the prayer, and of the bestowal on Israel, ultimately, of all temporal and spiritual blessings (Psa 85:8-13). There are no such distinct and definite allusions in the psalm as to tie it down to any particular date; but, on the whole, it would seem to suit best either the time of Zerubbabel (Ezr 3:1-13; Ezr 4:1-24.) or that of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 9:1-15; Ezr 10:1-44; Ne 2-6.).
Psa 85:1-3
The thanksgiving. God is thanked for two things especially:
(1) for having granted his people forgiveness of their sins (Psa 85:2, Psa 85:3); and
(2) for having, partially at any rate, removed his chastening hand from them, and given them a return of prosperity (Psa 85:1).
Psa 85:1
Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land; or, “thou art become gracious” (Kay, Cheyne)a preceding time during which God was not gracious is implied (comp. Psa 77:7-9). Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. It is most natural to understand this of the return from the Babylonian captivity; but possible that some lighter affliction may be intended, since is used, metaphorically, for calamities short of actual captivity (see the comment on Job 42:10).
Psa 85:2
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin. God’s remission of punishment, and restoration of his people to favour, was a full indication that he had “forgiven their iniquity” and “covered their sins.” This was so vast a boon, that a pause for devout acknowledgment and silent adoration seemed fitting. Hence the “selah,” which is at the end of the second verse, not of the first, as Hengstenberg states.
Psa 85:3
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Forgiveness of sins implies the cessation of wrath, though it does not necessarily imply the cessation of punishment. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. This expresses the meaning better than the marginal rendering.
Psa 85:4-7
The prayer. Two things are prayed forfirst, that God will turn the hearts of his people wholly towards himself (Psa 85:4); and secondly, that he will complete his work of deliverance by removing the traces, that still exist, of his past anger (Psa 85:5-7). Israel is still in a state of great distress and weakness, suffering from the natural consequences of its sins, which keep it depressed and sad.
Psa 85:4
Turn us, O God of our salvation. Thou art turned to us (Psa 85:1); let us also be turned to thee. We cannot turn of our own mere wish to turn; we need thy helping grace (comp. Psa 80:3, Psa 80:7, Psa 80:19). And cause thine anger toward us to cease. Verbally, this contradicts Psa 85:3, whence it has been supposed by some to come from the mouth of another speaker. But really there is no contradiction, if we understand, both here and in the next verse, by God’s anger, the effects of his anger, which were still continuing (comp. Ezr 3:12, Ezr 3:13; Ezr 4:4-24; Ezr 9:2-15; Neh 1:3; Neh 2:17; Neh 4:1-22; Neh 5:1-19).
Psa 85:5
Wilt thou be angry with us forever? This is equivalent to “Wilt thou still go on punishing us?” Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? or, “from generation to generation?” This suits well the first period after the return from the Captivity, when the depressed condition of Israel continued for several generations.
Psa 85:6
Wilt thou not revive us again! literally, wilt thou not return and revive us? (comp. Psa 71:20). So Ezra prays God to “give Israel a little reviving in their bondage” (Ezr 9:8). That thy people may rejoice in thee. The “revival” and “rejoicing” came in Nehemiah’s time, when the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem was kept “with gladness, both with thanksgiving, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps” (Neh 12:27).
Psa 85:7
Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Compare the devout petitions of the Church morning and evening, “O Lord, show thy mercy upon us. And grant us thy salvation” (Order for Morning and Evening Prayer).
Psa 85:8-13
The joyful anticipation. The psalmist anticipates a favourable answer to his prayer, and proceeds to note down the chief points of it. God will “speak peace to his people” (Psa 85:8), bring his salvation near to them (Psa 85:9), contrive a way by which “mercy and truth,” “righteousness and peace,” shall be reconciled (Psa 85:10, Psa 85:11), shower blessings on his land (Psa 85:12), and guide his people in the way marked out by his own footsteps (Psa 85:13).
Psa 85:8
I will hear what God the Lord will speak; i.e. “I will wait now and hear the Divine answer to my prayers” (comp. Hab 3:1, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me”). For he will speak peace unto his people. He will give them a gentle answerone breathing peace and loving kindness. And to his saints. And especially he will so answer the elite of his peoplethe khasidim, “his saints,” or “loving ones.” But let them not turn again to folly (comp. Ezr 9:10-14). If, after the deliverance that they had experienced, they turned again to such “folly” as had brought on their misfortunes, it would make their end worse than their beginning.
Psa 85:9
Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; or, will be nigh. The answer to the prayer in Psa 85:7. That glory may dwell in our land. Professor Chevne asks, “What glory?” and suggests, “The true Shechinah, the manifested presence of Israel’s God.” But it may be doubtful whether anything more is meant than a return of earthly glory and prosperity, such as that for which Nehemiah laboured and prayed.
Psa 85:10
Mercy and truth are met together. God’s mercy and God’s truth are reconciled and brought into harmony. The psalmist does not sayprobably does not knowhow, He accepts the fact of the reconciliation, which is revealed to him (Psa 85:8) by faith, and boldly announces it. The explanation was reserved for the coming and teaching of Christ. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. “Righteousness” and “peace” are synonymous with “mercy” and “truth.” Here they are personified”represented as angels in human form” (Cheyne).
Psa 85:11
Truth shall spring out of the earth (comp. Isa 45:8). One result of the reconciliation of God’s mercy and truth shall be a growth of righteousness among men. The pardoned people of God shall bring forth much fruit. And righteousness shall look down from heaven. God’s righteousness “looks down from heaven” (like the sun), to draw up and mature the feeble plant of man’s righteousness, which, without it, would come to nothing.
Psa 85:12
Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; i.e. shower blessings on his laud, both spiritual and temporal. And our land shall yield her increase. Other crops may be included, but the special reference is to a large increase of good works.
Psa 85:13
Righteousness shall go before him. Prepare the way, i.e; for the restoration of the people to God’s favour (compare the first clause of Psa 85:11, and the second of Psa 85:12). And shall set us in the way of his steps; i.e. cause his people to walk in the way marked out by his footstepsi.e. by the indications of his will either in nature or in the written Word.
HOMILETICS
Psa 85:6
Revival.
“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” The prayers of Scripture, like its promises, never grow old. They deal not with the changing surface and circumstances of life, but with its living heart and abiding needs. So this prayer of the old psalmist is as fresh and fit for our lips today, as when the ink was wet in which he wrote. The same Spirit who inspired him also “helpeth our infirmities.”
I. THE BLESSING SOUGHT: REVIVAL. This word has come to be often used for a season of extraordinary religious activity, attended by numerous conversions. But it properly means the quickening, strengthening, elevating, of life already possessed; but perhaps feeble, declining, threatened with extinction. This must be God’s work, by the power of his Spirit. “Wilt thou not revive us?” All life, natural and spiritual, is from God nod in God. At the back of all force is his power; at the back of all causation, his will; at the back of all law, his wisdom (Psa 33:6; Psa 104:30). But there is this wonderful and glorious difference between the realm of natural and of spiritual lifein the outward material world we have to deal with laws; the power working under and behind those laws is inscrutably hidden. But in spiritual life it is just God‘s power we have to deal with; the laws according to which it is put forth are mostly beyond our ken. In the natural world there is ample range for prayer; but in the spiritual we are shut up to prayer. We are to pray for daily bread, for which we must work, as well as for forgiveness of sin, for which we cannot work. But with this differencethe ungodly husbandman will reap his harvest, if he works for it, though he does not pray; but pardon, and the grace of God’s Spirit, will not be given to those who do not ask (Luk 11:13; Jas 1:5; 1Jn 1:9).
II. HOW WILL THIS QUICKENED LIFE SHOW ITSELF? In:
1. Lowlier humility. Deeper consciousness of sin, need, weakness. That Church, of all the seven addressed in the Apocalypse, which said, “I am rich, and have need of nothing,” was the very one that was in the very jaws of death (Rev 3:17). We put this note of revival first, because our Lord puts it first in describing the character and blessedness of his true disciples (Mat 5:3-5). The first token of revived life in a frozen limb is intense pain; the flesh that is past feeling is past cure (see Eph 4:19; Pro 26:12).
2. Increased spirit of prayer. More urgent habitual sense of need of prayer. Disposition to more frequent prayer (however brief). Perhaps at first no increased freedom and delight, but rather depressing sense of the weakness, coldness, unworthiness of our prayers. More earnestness, especially in prayer for others. Stronger faith in God’s promises (not in our own prayers). Perseverance and patience. Out of all this must come, sooner or later, both delight and power in prayer, the presence of the Holy Spirit with our spirit, bringing our desires into harmony with God’s will, and helping our infirmities.
3. Growing love of God‘s truth. The Bible will be dearer to us, fuller of light and help. Christ’s word will abide in us (Col 1:9-11).
4. Deeper, more inspiring, controlling views of the love of God in Christ. (Eph 3:16-19.)
III. RESULTS OF REVIVAL. “That thy people,” etc. The psalmist was thinking of God’s chosen nation, Israel. That is no hindrance to our application of both prayer and promise. The conditions and forms of national life and of Church life are wholly different from what they were then; never can be the same. But principles abide. Righteousness still exalts a nation. “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord!” A dead or lukewarm Church cannot be a joyful Church; nor a lukewarm worldly Christian a joyful Christian. Suppose all English men, women, children, to become true, earnest, loving disciples of our Lord Jesus, “filled with the Spirit;” the whole face of society and national life would be changed, because its heart would be changed (Act 8:8). Meanwhile, revival, with all its fruits, either in the Church or in the nation, must begin in the hearts and homes of Christians. Then the joy of the Lord will be our strength. All turns (remember) on this word, “thou.” With God is life’s fountain. In him our bodies live: how much more our spirits! (Joh 15:5; Php 2:13).
Psa 85:8
The purpose of God’s gracious chastenings.
“He will speak peace but let them not turn again to folly.” The spirit of this psalm is compounded of penitence and praise, humility and hope; inspired by great troubles and great deliverances. This verse expresses what we may call the moral, the very heart of the psalm; the golden link between the thanksgivings blended with confessions of Psa 85:1-7, and the splendid promises of Psa 85:9-13. The lesson is twofoldfirst, that sin is folly, most of all in God’s people; and secondly, that God’s gracious purpose in chastening is to keep us from sliding back into sin, turning again to folly.
I. SIN IS FOLLY. Q.d. it is acting in disregard of known consequences. The Hebrew word here translated “folly” also means “hope” or “confidence”the blind confidence of one who knows that “the end of these things is death,” yet listens to the tempter who says, “Ye shall not surely die;” that “the wages of sin is death,” but counts on their not being paid. He sins in spite of warning, reason, experience; hoping he may seize “the pleasures of sin for a season,” and yet escape its eternal consequences. No man chooses perdition. But it comes to the same thing whether you leap over a precipice or walk along the brink with your eyes shut. Sometimes the sinner sins with open eyes, and, just because he knows the danger, flatters himself he can stop in time. He is not on the brinkonly on the gentle grassy slope; but involuntarily his steps quickenhe cannot stophe is lost! A traveller through the snow knows that the one fatal danger is to yield to sleep. “Only for five minutes,” he says; and closes his eyes, never to open again. Or a thirsty wayfarer in the desert is warned that a spring is poisonous. The bones of those who have encamped near it whiten the ground. “One draught only!” he says; and presently his bones whiten with the rest. Every one is ready to say, “He sought his fate; has only himself to blame.” Are there none amongst us to whom conscience (if awake) would answer, “Thou art the man”? “Their eyes have they closed” (Mat 13:15). They have “forsaken the fountain of living waters” (Jer 2:13). They “heard the sound of the warning (Eze 33:5; Heb 10:28, Heb 10:29). If sin is folly, trumpet, and took not the clearer the light, the greater the folly. Therefore the sins of Christians must be the greatest folly. This does not apply to sins of infirmity, against which we are watching, fighting, praying, of which the Christian is sadly conscious, but which have not “dominion over” him. But what these lead to, if we fail to watch, fight, pray: willing yielding to temptation, wilful persistence in wrong, against conscience, loving what we are pledged and bound to hate, ceasing to strive to please God;this is indeed to “turn again to folly.”
II. GOD‘S PURPOSE IN HIS DEALINGS WITH HIS CHILDREN IS TO PREVENT THEM TURNING BACK TO SIN. This both in his mercy and in his chastening.
1. In his mercy. “I will hear,” etc. God’s purpose in forgiving sin is both to incline and to enable us to forsake it. Its guilt is cancelled, that its power may be destroyed. Else forgiveness were useless, wasted. The cross of Christ, constantly set forth in the New Testament as the atonement for our sins, the reconciliation whereby we are brought back to God (Rom 5:9, Rom 5:10), is as plainly set forth as the mightiest motive to holiness (Gal 2:20; see the whole of Rom 6:1-23.).
2. God’s chastening discipline has the same end in view (Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11; Psa 119:67, Psa 119:71). The danger is real. Christians are exposed to the ordinary temptations which beset human nature, though with diminished force; and have some special temptations. We need constantly to open our hearts to the force of all the motives here suggested.
(1) God’s forgiving mercy, and our enjoyment of it (Rom 12:1).
(2) God’s chastening, and our experience of it.
(3) God’s promises, and our hope.
(4) God’s warning, “Let them not turn again to folly,” and the unspeakable folly and misery of neglecting it.
For the ransomed slave to run back to slavery, the released prisoner to hanker after his cell and fetters, the man restored to health to long for his sick-room, the blind whose eyes have been opened to shut himself up in the dark,seems less insane than for those who “have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” to be “again entangled therein and overcome” (2Pe 2:20; Heb 6:4-6).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 85:1-13
Temporal mercies of little avail without such as are spiritual.
There had been great outward mercies (see Psa 85:1-3). Probably the wonderful deliverance of Judah, Jerusalem, and Hezekiah from the threatened might of Assyria was the occasion of this burst of thanksgiving. But the psalmistit may have been Isaiah himselfwhilst grateful, indeed, for God’s deliverance, as he well might be, was nevertheless sore distressed at the spiritual condition of his countrymen (see Isaiah’s denunciations of the wickedness of his people, Isa 1:1-31. and passim). There needed, therefore, to be an inward conversion as well as an outward deliverance such as they had experienced. And until this spiritual reformation was brought about, the anger of God rested on them still. Hence the prayer, “Revive us again,” etc. In this psalm we have
I. THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MERCIES RECEIVED, (Verses 1-3.)
II. EARNEST PRAYERS FOR YET GREATER ONES, (Verses 4-7.)
III. CONFIDENT BELIEF THAT THE LORD WILL ANSWER, (Verse 8)
IV. JOYFUL ANTICIPATION OF THE BLESSINGS THE LORD WILL GIVE. (Verses 9-13)S.C.
Psa 85:6
Revival
I. NOTE THE CHIEF WORD OF THIS VERSE: “REVIVE.” It implies:
1. Life. The new creation has been accomplished, the passing from death unto life has taken place.
2. But that life has declined, and therefore needs revival. How often this occurs! Our spiritual life is not as our natural life, which is weakest at the beginning and end; but the spiritual life is strong in the vigour of its first love, nor does it ever at the last hour fall from God, but in the midst of the years, like the wires of the telegraph between the posts, it often falls to its lowest. The causes are not a few, but may be summed up in onethe not abiding in Christ.
3. The life which has declined can be revivedthe health and vigour come back again, the backsliding be healed.
II. WHAT IT EXPRESSES. It is an earnest prayer, an impassioned pleading for revival. It means, “Oh that thou wouldst revive us again!” Now, this reveals:
1. Consciousness of need. There may be the need, as at Laodicea, and no consciousness of it; but when such prayer as this is heard, it shows that the soul is wide awake to its needs.
2. Distress on account of it. Earnest anxiety is aroused; the work of conviction has been done; this prayer proves it.
3. The confession of it, and the casting of the soul on God for its need being met; and this could not be without there being also:
4. Confidence that God would answer his prayer. A child must see the look of “Yes” in his lather’s face, or else he will soon give over asking; but when he does see that look, what a vehemency of asking then ensues! And so with the child of God here. He has seen that look of “Yes” on the Father’s face, and hence this confident earnestness. Such are the characteristics of every such prayer as this. Note
III. ITS PLEA. “That thy people may rejoice in thee.” So then it is plainly taught that a low religious life and a joyous one are incompatible; there must be a reviving if there is to be rejoicing. Hence it is that to so many people religion seems rather a distress than a delight. They are, as it has been said, like a man with a headache; he would not like to lose his head, but he is very uncomfortable with it. A man was once invited to eat of some apples from a certain orchard, but he promptly declined. His friend was much surprised, and asked him the reason. “Oh,” said he, “I took of some of your apples the other day, which were hanging over the hedge, and I am quite sure I do not want any more of them.” “Ah,” said the other, “I am not surprised; those apples were a poor lot; but I put them there on purpose for the boys, who are always taking what does not belong to them. But come into the middle of the orchard, and try the fruit there, which is of a very different sort.” And so it is with many Christians; they take only the hard sour fruit of the religious life; that which is full of delight is in the midst of the garden of God, whither as yet they have never entered. It is good to be God’s servants at all, better, far better, to be of those who rejoice, whose service of God is not a drudgery, but a delight; best of all when the rejoicing is in God, not in his blessings merely, but in him. God wants us to rejoice in him; the world will be more surely won for God when more joy characterizes his servants, and for ourselves, it is the surest guarantee of steadfastness.S.C.
Psa 85:8
What God the Lord will speak.
Note, by way of introduction, that we have here:
1. A personal resolve. “I will hear.” Some would not; others could not; others would offer to hear for him and report; but the psalmist makes the wise resolve that he will hear for himself. It is ever best to go direct to God, and employ no intermediaries.
2. It is also a firm resolve. Whether the word be rendered “I will,” or “I would,” or “let me hear,” it denotes resolve. And no one will ever hear what God the Lord will speak unless his will be settled in that purpose. The devil hates such hearing of God, and will do all in his power by raising up every kind of hindrancewho knows not this?to prevent it.
3. It is a sincere resolve. The hearing means no mere listless listening, but it is that of the heart, with real desire to hear what God the Lord will speak. Therefore the hearing will be, as it ever should be, attentive, prayerful, obedient. Consider
I. THE SPEAKER. God the Lord. Three things are taught.
1. That God the Lord will speak. His very name involves this. He is the covenant God; hence his name Jehovah, Lord, is added, which declares him to be the God of Israel. But such name indicates that he will not be heedless of his people’s prayer. And he has spoken of old time. Their records are full of the story of his interpositions in their times of need. And it is what we should expect, the need of his speaking being so great. Revelation, incarnation, atonement, the work of the Holy Ghost, are all antecedently probable; man, God’s offspring, needing them so terribly.
2. That we can hear. This is man’s distinction; he is a spiritual being, and can receive messages from God, who is a Spirit; he does perpetually receive and respond to them: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said,” etc.
3. That what God speaks is what man needs to hear. Man has heard enough of what his own sinful heart has to say, and of what his fellow men say, in their doctrines, imaginations, counsels, and a miserable hubbub and confusion their discordant utterances make; but the psalmist resolves to come away from all this, and hear God. It is our wisdom as well as his.
II. WHAT HE SPEAKS. “Peace unto his people.”
1. Peace with himself. They have quarrelled with him, rebelled again and again, but now when they turn to him his word shall be of peace.
2. And amongst themselves. “He stilleth the tumult of the people:” the nations shall learn war no more.
3. And in their own hearts. “The Spirit beareth witness with our spirits,” etc. (Rom 8:1-39.; Luk 7:48). None can over-estimate the worth of this peace, and none need be without it.
III. HOW DOES GOD SPEAK?
1. Authoritatively. “He speaks, and it is done.”
2. My his Spirit.
3. Through the Holy Scriptures, and by the voice of his providence and the response of our conscience and reason.
IV. THE CONDITION ON WHICH HE SPEAKS. “Let them not turn again,” etc.
1. It is implied that they have now turned from their folly. Note that name for sin; sometimes it is called by far sterner names. But is it not “folly”? All these prayers and vows show that there has been repentance.
2. Let them not turn again. There is no need that any should. And we never shall if we abide in Christ.S.C.
Psa 85:9
The saints’ salvation, the land’s glory.
They who fear God may be sure that he will come and save them, not alone for their own sake, but also for the sake of the land in which they dwell. The salvation of any sinner is for the blessing of very many. God has respect to others outside ourselves when he saves any one of us. The glory of the whole nation is furthered thereby; the blessing of the Church is the blessing of the land. For in such land there dwells
I. SPIRITUAL GLORY. How God is worshipped, loved, praised; how mightily his Spirit works in men’s hearts, when he comes in saving power!
II. MORAL GLORY. The work of God in men’s souls ever “makes for righteousness.” Vice, profanity, and all ungodliness are abashed, and slink away when the power of God is made known.
III. NATIONAL GLORY. For “righteousness exalteth a nation:” when once has such a nation perished?
IV. SANCTUARY GLORY. To the Jew, the temple of the Lord was his glory. “The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.” And what are all our sanctuaries and services if in them God’s salvation is not seen?
V. HARVEST GLORY. (Cf. Psa 67:1-7; “Then shall the earth yield,” etc.) There is close connection between inward character and outward condition.S.C.
Psa 85:10
Our foes become our friends.
It is difficult, indeed impossible, to say what was the actual thought of the writer when he penned the words of our text; for they are true in several ways. He represents mercy and truth as going in different directions, and with opposite intent, but they meet, and are brought into harmony as though at variance before. And it is the same with righteousness and peace; there seemed no common course of action open to them; they must be opposed; but, lo! they embrace, and all discord ceases between them. Now, where is such union of opposites to be seen? And we answer
I. IN GOD. In the wisdom of God when devising our salvation. Christ is the Wisdom of God, because in him, whilst mercy has full scope, nevertheless, the Law is magnified and made honourable. There was no compromise, no tampering with the holy Law of God, although God did so love the world as to save it (Joh 3:16). Love reigns, yet the Law is fulfilled as it never was or could be before, and is magnified in infinitely higher way than if in vindication of God’s broken Law the whole human race bad been forever condemned (cf. Rom 8:4). All this was shadowed forth by the tables of the Law being placed within the ark of the covenant, on which rested the mercy seat, and whereon was sprinkled the atoning blood (1Jn 2:2). Thus in God those attributes which seemed to be and were hostile to us, and those which alone seemed our friends, met together, were reconciled, and, as it were, kissed each other.
II. IN MAN. Probably this was the thought of the psalmist. He is exulting in the anticipation of the regenerated moral life of God’s people when his salvation should come to them; cruelty and inhumanity should give way to mercy, and truth between man and man should replace their too common falsehood and lies; righteousness, justice, fair dealing, should prevail instead of fraud and wickedness, and peace should banish war. “Earth should be carpeted with truth as with fair flowers, and be canopied over by righteousness as with the beautiful sky, or as by night with the glorious stars.” Men should “serve God in holiness and righteousness without fear, all the days of their life.”
III. IN CHRIST. The text may be taken, has been so, as descriptive of the holy and beautiful life of our Lordof him “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” In him, as in no other, those contrasted qualities of our humanity, which in us are generally so ill balanced, found perfect equipoise and harmony. The Divine symmetry and fair proportions of the holy life, “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” (Eph 3:18), were seen in all their beauty. He was “the perfect Man, Christ Jesus,” the lovely Image on which the saints gazed with perpetual, adoring rapture, and grew towards whilst they gazed, and so became the saints, the holy ones, they were. Yes, in him our text was indeed fulfilled. And
IV. IN GRACE. (See 1Co 1:30.) What is the true Christian but one who has known in his own experience the power of the perfect Christ? Some believe in a Christ whom they have fashioned to themselves, as all fondness and compassion and pity, who will not be stern with any one. Others conceive of him only as an awful Judge, launching out the thunderbolts of his wrath against wretched, sinful men. But the grace which saves is that told of Titus (Tit 2:11-14). Grace includes mercy and truth, righteousness and peace.S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 85:1
Recognition of national mercies.
This psalm belongs to the “sons of Korah,” and we can hardly be wrong in associating it with the early years of the restoration from the Babylonish captivity. “The psalm shows that union of thankfulness for restoration, of sense of present distress and weakness, and of bright Messianic hope, which is especially characteristic of the writings of this period.” “It opens with an acknowledgment of God’s goodness and mercy in the national restoration, in terms which could hardly apply to any other event.” Plumptre connects the psalm with the Assyrian distress in the time of Hezekiah. Other writers, among whom may be named Spurgeon, insist on the Davidic authorship, and connect it with distress from the Philistines. There is one grave peril attending the separation of Christianity into small sections. The national relations of God are likely to be underestimated, and the merely local relations of God to individual experience, and to the experience of small communities, overestimated. While fully recognizing that God bears close and saving relations to the individual, it may yet be properly urged that he bears relation to each nation, is at the heart of its calamities and of its triumphs, working for the nation now as truly as for the nation of Israel in the olden time. God is in history. But this means that God is in history while the history is in the making. And God should be discerned in political struggles, in social movements, in philanthropic enterprises, in national deliverances. To many persons the national thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from imperilling illness, was a delightful proof of the readiness of the English people to respond when God’s hand in the bestowment of national mercies is pointed out to them. Two things may be illustrated and impressed.
I. RECOGNIZING NATIONAL MERCIES IS A NATIONAL DUTY. Apply to ordinary mercies, such as are illustrated by the yearly harvest. Then the national heart turns to God; and a national voice of thanksgiving is uplifted to him. Apply to special mercies, such as:
1. Preservation from, or removal of, epidemic disease.
2. Mastery of elements of social disturbance.
3. Hopeful changes of political relationships.
4. Victory for the national army.
5. Removal of difficulties that put the national peace in peril.
II. HELPING THE NATION TO RECOGNIZE ITS MERCIES IS THE DUTY OF THE NATIONAL LEADERS. More especially of those who believe in God, and are consecrated to the work of rendering witness for him. Mistake is often made by limiting the work of God’s ministers to the “spiritual” and “personal” parts of their work. Every true minister is a leader of his people in recognizing God’s work in the nation, and in renewing national thanksgiving and trust.R.T.
Psa 85:3-5
Incomplete redemptions.
While thankfully acknowledging all that God has done for his people, the psalmist clearly sees that it was but the “fierceness” of God’s wrath from which he had turned, and that some of his wrath remained, seeing that the work of national recovery was incomplete, and heavy burdens still pressed on the people. Perowne recalls the circumstances of the exiles as Nehemiah found them. They were “in great affliction and reproach.” “It was only in the midst of perpetual opposition and. discouragement that he was able to carry on his work. The bright prospect which was opening before the exiles had been quickly dashed. They had returned, indeed, but it was to a desert land and a forsaken city, whose wails were cast down, and her gates burned with fire; whilst jealous and hostile tribes were ever on the watch to assail and vex them. Hence it is that the entreaty for mercy follows so hard upon the acknowledgment that mercy has been vouchsafed.” As a person might look, in a depressed mood, on the returned exiles, God’s redemption was incomplete. Their restoration to their own land had brought them apparently no rest, no consolation, no hope for the future.
I. THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH GOD‘S REDEMPTIONS ARE NEVER COMPLETE. They are always redemptions from some calamities, not redemptions from all calamities. Every redemption is a beginning, holding within it the promise of something more that God is about to do. Open this fully out by showing that a spiritual redemption is to be followed by a bodily redemption. Christ wins the soul, and then proceeds to win the whole human sphere, and eventually all creation. The great redemption removes the soul penalties of sin; but it is not a perfect redemption until it has removed all the bodily penalties and disabilities of sin also. As a matter of Christian experience, we always feel, with the apostle, as if redemption were something yet to come. As we read our lives, they are still spheres for a divinely redemptive work. The full salvation “is ready to be revealed in the last time.” Redemption thought of as complete checks a living dependence. Redemption thought of as incomplete keeps us in close reliance on the present and ever-working Redeemer.
II. THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH GOD‘S REDEMPTIONS ARE EVER IN PROGRESS. They are only incomplete as the building at which the workmen are working. Those exiles would be comforted as they realized God with them, delivering and rescuing, and carrying, in practical detail, to its perfection his gracious redemptive thought.R.T.
Psa 85:6
Quickening as God’s work.
In his very striking image of the dry bones in the valley, the Prophet Ezekiel, in a most emphatic way, declares that “quickening,” “requickening,” is the work of God, and of God alone. When man works he must stop short at imparting life,that is beyond him. He may copy the forms of living things, but at the end of all his works it must be said, “There is no breath in them.” God gives all life. “Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon the slain, that they may live” (Eze 37:9, Eze 37:10).
I. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST CONSTANTLY NEEDS REQUICKENING. This is true of all the ages. We have to take account of the ever-recurring tendency to flag and taint and fail. Men have never been able to keep up to the high levels which they may at times have attained. The whole history of Israel is a series of illustrations of this truth. Back from all reformations and revivals Israel constantly fell into indifference, or into formality. It may be shown that:
1. Times of special strain are followed by rebounds. An army is never in such peril as in the relaxed hours that follow a great victory.
2. Mere continuance tends to develop into formality. As with constant practice at the piano, the player comes to play without thinking.
3. Energetic people, who must be doing, are always in danger of neglecting the culture of the interior life. It may be well searchingly to examine ourselves, and see whether we need requickening.
II. REQUICKENING IS IN THE POWER OF GOD ALONE. We must not only admit that as an abstract truth; we must feel that as a truth bearing direct relations to ourselves. The limit of man’s doing may be illustrated by the garden plants. We water them, and they do not care for our work, or respond to it. We can do little more than wash the dust from their leaves, and moisten the air around them. God rains his heavenly rains upon them, and they respond at once; lift up their heads, hold out firmly their leaves, and evidently feel the thrill of new life. One of the most delightful and inspiring views we can get of God sees him ever at work, restoring things that have gone wrong, and reviving things that are flagging. He is the Source of all life,that we admit. He is the Restorer and Requickener of all life,that we want to feel.
III. WHETHER WE BE REQUICKENED DEPENDS UPON OURSELVES. There are conditions in us for which God ever waits. His work cannot be all that he would have it be until we are in right condition.
1. We must see our need of requickening.
2. We must put away the self-indulging things which have been injuriously telling on our life.
3. We must be in attitude of prayerof united prayer.R.T.
Psa 85:6
Revivals; or, discerning the signs of the times.
They who read the times, with keen interest in the spiritual vitality of the Church, cannot fail to recognize the need of spiritual revival. The features of religious life may, in essence, be those characteristic of every age, but there may be subtleties and severities in their forms and settings at particular seasons which make them unusually effective for evil.
I. ONE SIGN OF OUR TIMES IS VASTLY INCREASED INTELLIGENCE. Science has developed. Literature has unfolded. Education has become a mania. In our pride we are saying, “We are wiser than our fathers.” But this is attended with perilous moral evils. It is so easy now to become proud in our imaginations, confident in our reasoning, and scornful of the higher powers of the soul, in our admiration of the powers of the mind.
II. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE INTENSE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE. Facilities are now afforded for meeting the cravings of bodily pleasure which have nourished the cravings into a soul mastering passion. The world of landscapes, of art, of science, of music, of poetry, of play, lays its treasures now at the feet of the poorest. And no good man can begrudge the world’s toilers the relief which these later days can provide. But the passion for that which is pleasing is telling seriously on the sense of duty, and even on the higher moral qualities, on the reserve and self-restraint, which belong to the essence of noble character. What we like is coming to rule, rather than what we ought.
III. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE PRESSURE OF BUSINESS, AND THE HASTING TO BE RICH. Typified in the man who regretted the compulsory Sunday rest, because then he had no chance of making money. Success in life is fast becoming the modern Baal that outrivals Jehovah.
IV. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE CALL FOR INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL, RATHER THAN SPIRITUAL PREACHING. Men ask for “essays;” they chafe under “persuasions.” They seek for “soothings;” they do not want “reproofs,” “correction in righteousness,” and inspirations to the pursuit of holiness.
V. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE MULTIPLICATION OF ORGANIZED FORMS OF CHRISTIAN WORK. Machinery taking the place of life. Men paying for the doing of what they should do themselves. Christ claims our personal service, the expression of our soul’s vitality; and that claim can never be commuted for any money payment, or entrusted to any substitute. If, then, we can see signs of the Church’s falling from its vocation, let us see that:
1. God must not be thought of as separated from the interests of a decaying Church. To cease to connect God with its condition is the last stage of a Church’s decline.
2. God must be sought as the only Source of spiritual revival. We cannot remedy spiritual evils by any form of personal effort, if those are made apart from dependence on God.
3. The revival of God’s Church begins in the revival of individual souls.R.T.
Psa 85:8
Expectancy of grace.
Illustrate by the words of the Prophet Habakkuk (Hab 2:1), “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me.” The psalmist had been praying for full restoration, and gracious requickening of the national life. And the text reveals his attitude after prayer. Of answer he felt assured. Then for it he waits watchfully. His attitude is one of expectancy. And that attitude honours God. The New Testament commends “praying,” and “watching thereunto.”
I. THE ATTITUDE OF EXPECTANCY GIVES VALUE TO THE PRAYER. It declares that the man’s heart was in it; that the subject was of vital interest to him; and that he believed in God as the “Prayer answerer.” It does more than this. It reveals that in the prayer there was a true submission. The man who watches for answer cannot but feel that the answer depends on the infinite wisdom and good will of his heavenly Father. He who truly says, “Thy will be done,” watches that he may know the will, in order that he may do it. A prayer that is not followed by watching is a prayer of which God need take little heed, seeing it is evident that the man who prays cares but little about that for which he prays.
II. THE ATTITUDE OF EXPECTANCY SHOWS FIRM GRIP OF THE PROMISES. What the promises connected with prayer assure is answersome kind of answer. But not the particular form and kind of answer which we desire. The man of faith lays hold of this promise of answer. No prayer is disregarded by God. If we may use an earthly figure which is suggestive, he never leaves his letters unanswered. But expectancy always links with submission, and leaves the form of answer to the Infinite Love. Illustrate by the response that came to the psalmist. The social and moral evils, that seemed to limit the Divine restoration, were gradually mastered, and true hearts can recognize, in gradual removal of evils, specific answers to their prayers.
III. THE ATTITUDE OF EXPECTANCY NOURISHES THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER. Because it keeps up the sense of dependence on God; and prayer is but the expression of that dependence. It is a first impulse to pray, when the soul is full of the spirit of dependence. Lose that, and the soul makes prayer the last thing. Keep that, and prayer is always the first thing. Meeting our expectancy, Christ seems to say to us, “According to your faith be it unto you.”R.T.
Psa 85:8
Self-pleasing is folly.
“But let them not again turn to folly,” or presumption. Sometimes the infatuation of sin is meant by the term “folly.” Sometimes it is a synonym for “idolatry.” Here the thing which is regarded as foolish is “following the devices and desires of their own heart,” rather than watching for and doing the will of their God. A book was written some years ago to show that “all sin is folly.” Wrong doing, in the long run, serves nobody’s real interests. And it has often been shown that the skill devoted to evil schemes would have accomplished valuable results, if only it had been devoted to right and good things. The special point in the text is, that the saints are those who have been set right, delivered from self-pleasing, and it is folly indeed for them to turn back upon the old spirit and the old ways.
I. THAT SELF–PLEASING IS FOLLY IS SHOWN BY THE NATURE OF THINGS. Mall is not an independent, self-ordered being. “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” He is God’s child, and is no more safe, going alone, than is any other child.
II. THAT SELF–PLEASING IS FOLLY IS SHOWN BY THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE. It is but the fact that we have fallen into needless perplexities, difficulties, and sorrows, when we have tried to take our own independent course. We never have been strong and safe except when we leaned on God, and fully opened our heart and life to Divine guidance. Find the things in life which have turned out to be foolish; and searchingly inquire into the moods of mind and heart that were related to them.
III. THAT SELF–PLEASING IS FOLLY IS DECLARED IN THE DIVINE WORD. (See Psa 49:13, “This their way is their folly.”) The self-pleasing of the Israelites is represented by the expression, “a stiff-necked and uncircumcised generation;” and in their history there are plentiful scenes of calamity into which their foolish self-willedness led them. The psalmist earnestly deprecates a return upon such self-pleasing which brings such needless difficulties. “He that sinneth,” in his self-will, “sinneth against his own soul.” It is true that he is wicked before God; but it is also true that he is foolish, in view of his highest interests.R.T.
Psa 85:11
God and man working together.
“Truth springeth out of the earth; and righteousness hath looked down from heaven.” This is poetic phraseology, which more prosaically may be stated thus: “When man is faithful to God, then God will be found faithful to man; and so God and man will work together for good.” The psalmist sees quite plainly that the incomplete redemption can only be completed if the people put away their evils, and show themselves fully loyal to God. But he is quite confident that, if they do, then God will surely be faithful to them, and finish in them his work of grace. That God is to men as men are to him, and that he and they must work together if the full blessing is to be realized, was stated by an earlier psalmist. “With the merciful man thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” Open this subject by illustrating the following topics:
I. GOD AND MAN IN OPPOSITION. What God wants, man refusing. Show the confusion thus caused. And the hopelessness of man’s state, if he persists in “running on the bosses of Jehovah’s buckler.”
II. GOD AND MAN IS INDIFFERENCE. This represents the more usual state of things. Men are often not strong enough to actively resist; but they say, “Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?” And they say to him, “Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!” But that indifference, which puts outside the Divine love and lead, is every whit as perilous for us as active opposition.
III. GOD AND MAN IN HARMONY. This is the ideal statethe relation designed in man’s creation. Here naturally come in evangelical teachings respecting the way in which the designed harmony was lost, and the way in which that harmony can be recovered. The beauty of the scene suggested by these figures should be dwelt on. “This is a delicious scene. Earth yielding flowers of truth, and heaven shining with stars of holiness; the spheres echoing to each other, or being mirrors of each other’s beauties. ‘Earth carpeted with truth, and canopied with righteousness,’ shall be a nether heaven. When God looks down in grace, man sends his heart upward in obedience”R.T.
Psa 85:13
God’s righteousness opening a way.
“The meaning of this difficult verse may probably be as follows: Righteousness shall go before him (Jehovah), and shall make his footsteps a pathway for his servants to walk in.” “God’s march of right will leave a track wherein his people will joyfully follow.” Aben Ezra curiously explains this verse to mean, “He shall cause the man of righteousness to walk before him, and makes his footsteps for a way to him.” Plainly the verse must be treated in the harmony of the psalm. Evidently the latter tart is a vision of the spiritual and temporal deliverances and blessings which would surely come to the exilesthough now in much distressif they turned heartily to Jehovah, and persisted in serving him in truth and righteousness. Among the blessings anticipated was prosperous harvesting from the land; and with this naturally goes safe guidance of national affairs, and a way out of national difficulties. God’s faithfulness would go before the people in all their public affairs, opening for them the way in which they should go (see the term “righteousness” in verse 11).
I. GOD‘S RIGHTEOUSNESS, OR FAITHFULNESS, IS ACTIVE FOR HIS PEOPLE‘S GOOD. It is “going before him;” it is not quiescent. “God for us” means “God working for us.”
II. GOD‘S ACTIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TRIUMPHANT OVER DIFFICULTIES. Opening ways implies that ways have been closed. Hindrances have blocked them.
III. GOD‘S ACTIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS WORKS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE REDEMPTIVE PURPOSE. There is an inspiring sense in which we may be sure that God must be true to himself. If he has purposed a thing, he will surely overcome all difficulties in the way of its accomplishment. If he has planned the full redemption and sanctification of believers, it does not matter how impossible that may seem to him; “God’s righteousness will surely go before him, and make a way.“R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 85:8
Listening for God’s voice.
The psalm was written on the return from Captivity.
I. THE. BURDEN OF GOD‘S SPEECH TO MAN. Peace. Peace with him.
1. The way of peace.
2. The nature of peace.
II. A DETERMINATION TO LISTEN. Man listens to man.
1. According to the claims of the speaker to be heard.
2. When the subject is interesting and important.
3. When the subject is important to him. Then we give the closest attention.
III. THE PRACTICAL EFFECT OF GOD‘S SPEECH. “Let them not turn again to folly,” i.e. wickedness. The wickedness will then be aggravated. It is then so well known to be wickedness. “If I hadn’t spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin.”S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 85.
The Psalmist, from an experience of former mercies, prayeth for the continuance thereof: he promiseth to wait thereon, out of confidence of God’s goodness.
To the chief musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
Title. lamnaeach libnei korach mizmor. This psalm is a thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercy in turning their captivity, and an humble prayer for the confirming, continuing, and perfecting this mercy. It has some degree of application to David’s return to Jerusalem after his flight from Absalom; but much more to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the captivity. After having in the first three verses acknowledged the goodness of God, in bringing them back to their own land; from the fourth onward, the author prays God to restore them again to their ancient prosperity. In the eighth he hears God’s promise to do it; upon which, in the four last verses he bursts forth into an exultation at the prospect.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 85
To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah
2Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land:
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
3Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people;
Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
4Thou hast taken away all thy wrath:
Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
5Turn us, O God of our salvation,
And cause thine anger toward us to cease.
6Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
7Wilt thou not revive us again:
That thy people may rejoice in thee?
8Shew us thy mercy, O Lord,
And grant us thy salvation.
9I 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.
10Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;
That glory may dwell in our land.
11Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
12Truth shall spring out of the earth;
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
13Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good;
And our land shall yield her increase.
14Righteousness shall go before him;
And shall set us in the way of his steps.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition. After a retrospect of the former mercy bestowed upon the people, (Psa 85:2-4), there is uttered a prayer for a renewed manifestation of the same mercy during present sufferings from the anger of God (Psa 85:5-8). The intention is then announced of listening with gladness to Gods pledge of peace to His people, because its fulfilment in their deliverance was certain to those who really feared Him (Psa 85:9-10). This fulfilment with its wealth of blessings is finally described in strains of poetic rapture (Psa 85:11-13), which bear a great resemblance to Isa. 39:16f.; Isa 45:8; Isa 59:14. We receive an impression from the Psalm which compels us to assign its composition to the period succeeding the return from the Exile. There is no sufficient ground for connecting it with the peace concluded with Antiochus III (Hitzig). It is more than doubtful whether we are justified in inferring from Psa 85:13 a season of the year long before harvest. The assumption is altogether arbitrary that the first part contains the prayer of the Church, and the second a hymn of exhortation and promise by the priests in response (Ewald, Olshausen, De Wette). The construction of the perfects in Psa 85:2-4 as pluperfects (Ewald, Olshausen, Baur) is unnecessary. [These commentators suppose the reference to be to a period long past, and hence their view of the force of these verbs.J. F. M.] The opinion is unfounded, that Psa 85:5 f. recall the former prayer of the people (Hitzig), or that they contain that of those who remained still in exile as distinguished from those who had returned (Venema). If the whole psalm be viewed as prophetic (the older commentators) or as having no historical back-ground (Hengst., Clauss.), the exposition is modified accordingly. The expressions indicate a national judgment, not in conception as in Psa 14:7, but in reality; and Psa 85:9 b, hints that the present misfortunes of the people were the deserved consequences of their folly (Delitzsch). This idea is lost in the text of the Sept. where we have the rendering: and to those who turn their hearts to Him. [This rendering is due to a wrong conception of the word and to a false construction of the clause. This word was supposed to be capable of the same meaning as the form which once means inward parts.Most of the English commentators agree with the view defended above. Dr. Alexander does not feel justified in referring it to any particular period He says: The idea that the benefit acknowledged was deliverance from the Babylonish exile has arisen from a false interpretation of the last clause of Psa 85:1, the true sense of which may be illustrated from Psa 14:7. Captivity is a common figure for distress and Gods revisiting the captives for relief from it. And again: It seems to be appropriate to every case in which the fulfilment of the promise in Lev 26:3-13 was suspended.J. F. M.].
Psa 85:11 ff. Mercy and truth are met together (prterite), and therefore appear as united and co-operating harmoniously, in consequence of Gods glory or majesty again dwelling in the land when the people should become converted to His fear. It is opposed to the context to change the compassion and truth of God into the human virtues of kindness and faithfulness (Hupfeld), or love and faithfulness, (Hitzig). So also is the change of glory into honor (most). A like harmony exists between righteousness and peace, of which it is said literally that they are joined together. [It is more correct to say that it is said literally: they have kissed each other, the word being onomatopoetic, and then to present the idea of union as conveyed by that figure.J. F. M.] They do not appear here as gifts of God, and consequences of His mercy and truth (most). Still less are they represented as human righteousness and earthly peace (Hitzig), but as heavenly attributes in their Divine union. They are rightly personified in this sense, and represented frequently in works of art as angels or messengers of God kissing each other (comp. Pipers evangel. Kalender, 1859, p. 24 ff., 1867, p. 63). It is this righteousness thus united with peace which the Psalmist beholds as looking down from heaven well-pleased with the land, in which Gods glory dwells, and from which it causes to spring forth from Divine seeds united truth and mercy. In the next verse the dealings of the Covenant God answer to this looking down, and the grateful conduct of the nation to the merciful dealings of God. The fruit of the land, therefore, according to the context, cannot be the fruit of harvest (Hitzig) but the blessed results of reconciliation, that righteousness which walks before God and follows in His train when He manifests His presence in the land. This sense is found in the words, whether we render the last clause: and set (their steps) upon the way of His steps (Olshausen, Delitzsch in his first edition), or: make His steps a way, that is, walk in His footsteps (Hupfeld), or: conform to the ways of His steps (Ewald), or: mark, regard attentively the way of His steps (Delitzsch now), or: designate, make known the way of His steps (Hitzig). It is, at all events, wrong to translate: make their steps a way (Hengst.), or sets its steps upon the way that is, sets out upon the way, has its course, is really and truly, (most of the older expositors until De Wette). For the suffix in must refer to God, on account of the parallelism with . [The rendering of Hupfeld is probably the correct one, representing the most natural construction of the words. The apocopated form mingles an aspiration with the declaration, and does not justify us, as Perowne supposes, in giving to the whole verse the force of a desire.J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. God does not only forgive the special sins of individuals, He blots out also the common transgressions of a whole people, and removes their common guilt in the dispensation of His mercy. This gracious dealing does not, however, make provision for the future transgression of the same people. But the compassion before experienced encourages to prayer for a repeated turning away of His anger, and strengthens the hope of renewed blessing. And therefore must Gods people be mindful of the one when they are reminded of the other, and make both subserve the building up of the Church.
2. But, in order to realize this aim, it is above all necessary, that they be intent upon hearing what God says. For this purpose they do not require any new revelation from Him, but can resort to His words, familiar as they have so long been to His people, and expound and apply them for the instruction and consolation and warning and exhortation of themselves and others. For His word as a testimony to His truth not only agrees in all its parts with itself, it satisfies also the needs of His people, and answers perfectly the purposes of God. For it reveals His thoughts of salvation and peace, and announces their actual fulfilment in the world by the advent of righteousness, which it shows to be caused not merely by His general dispensation of favor and mercy, but specially by His glory dwelling upon earth. And thus the history of revelation becomes a history of redemption, and all of a Messianic character.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It is good to hear the word of God, but His people must also govern their lives thereby.We cannot meditate upon the mercy of God, without being reminded of the sins of ourselves and others; may both of them urge us to true penitence and to lively faith!In spite of all the tokens of Gods mercy, sin has not yet disappeared from the world; but mercy is still stronger than sin.The well-being of a nation is derived from the dwelling of Gods glory in it.God has thoughts of peace in relation to His people, and fulfils them in conformity with His truth, but always in harmony with His righteousness.Many ask to be spared from the anger of God, and most dread the consequences of sin, but salvation is high only to those who fear God.God must bless the land if it is to yield its fruit; but the best fruits are those of righteousness, which are pleasing to God, and are the results of His working.Whatever we have on earth that is good comes down from heaven.
Starke: The nearer men are to repentance the nearer are they to mercy; but the further away they are from conversion, the less do they receive of this treasure.Gods mercy makes a joyful heart.Honor paid to God results from His fear, and is largely increased by surpassing tokens of His help.Righteousness is a fair ornament in a land, and a strong pillar upholding the government, the country, and the people; but righteousness and peace must stand together.Frisch: Gods anger and displeasure will be averted in accordance with the conditions laid down by Himself, if men seek first in Him the grace of conversion, and not till then the alleviation and removal of punishment.Tholuck: The sense of mercy must ever be as abiding as the feeling of guilt is deep.
Guenther: Let us learn at last what promotes the peace of a country, and cease seeking in the clouds and in the soil the causes of death and public calamities, and discern above the clouds the chastening hand of God, who visits in His merciful anger for our conversion the sins which are committed upon earth by His human children.Taube: The cry of faith in distress is prompted by a knowledge of the former mercy of God towards His people; the look of faith and hope is inspired by listening to His word.Detlefsen: Let us honor our God (1) by humble gratitude for His help, (2) by firm reliance upon His promises, (3) by a pious walk before Him.
[Scott: Having spoken unto the Lord in prayer we should compose ourselves to hear Him speak to us by His word; and to expect an answer by His Spirit or in His providence. He will certainly speak peace to His people whom He has separated and sanctified to Himself.
Barnes: Those who have been afflicted and restored should feel themselves exhorted not to return to their former course of life, (1) by their obligations to their Benefactor, (2) by the remembrance of their own solemn vows when in affliction, (3) by the assurance that if they do return to their sin and folly, heavier judgments will come upon them.J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is another of the gospel Psalms, and truly precious it is, when opened to the believing soul by God the Holy Ghost. It appears, in its first view, as if it referred to some temporal deliverance of the church; but if the Reader look diligently into it, he will find some points which have a higher note, and sing of spiritual mercies by Jesus Christ.
To the chief musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If we first advert to Israel’s history as a history of the church, we may trace abundant proofs of God’s favor, from the moment they were formed into a church, through all their eventful pilgrimage. They got not the possession of their land by their own sword, neither was it their own arm that helped them. Psa 44:1-3 . And so again in their subsequent captivity, in Babylon, it was the Lord’s deliverance, not their strength. But we lose the chief beauty of the Psalm, as well as interest in it, if we go no farther than the view of temporal mercies and old deliverances. Surely the Lord’s graciousness to his land and to his people is doubly sweet and blessed, when read with an eye to Christ. Here the Lord hath indeed brought back his people from the captivity of sin and Satan, from the bondage of corruption, and the shadow of death. Here the Lord hath indeed forgiven their iniquity, and covered all their sins, by casting them into the depths of the sea of the Redeemer’s blood. Mic 7:18-20 ; 1Jn 1:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Prayer of a Patriot
Psa 85:6
An old commentator has summed up the purport of this Psalm in the following words: ‘The prayer of a patriot for his afflicted country, in which he pleads God’s former mercies and by faith foresees better days’. Such a Psalm reminds us, first of all, that a good Christian must be a good patriot, ardently concerned for the truest welfare of his own people and his native land. Moreover, it suggests that we may appropriate to this England of ours in a modified yet real and profound sense the sacred word which applied originally to Israel.
I. This Psalm, with the reiterated stress which it lays on the pardon of man’s sin and the turning away of God’s wrath, reminds us of one truth which Christian workers never dare forget. The first and the supreme need of men is their need to be forgiven. In the eyes of the Apostles the world seemed divided into two great classes, the forgiven and the unforgiven. Compared with this ultimate distinction nothing else seriously matters. While we strive for social betterment and take counsel together over plans and efforts to cure the evils which afflict our land, let us give due place to that Divine remedy which implicitly includes the rest.
II. Wilt Thou not quicken us again? We implore Him who is the Lord and Giver of life to revive among us that life of the spirit which is so apt to be stifled and deadened by the pressure of the world. Nothing can give thoughtful Englishmen greater concern than the decay of high ideals alike in the politics and the literature of the nation. And in the Church itself, while we raise vast sums of money and multiply our religious machinery, do we not grow painfully aware of a certain dearth and poverty of spiritual passion which can only be reinspired and rekindled from above?
III. We note finally this test and touchstone of a real revival. It fills Christians with new joy and delight in God Himself. As the Holy Ghost comes upon us and the power of the Highest overshadows us the Church breaks out in a fresh Magnificat, and sings: ‘My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour’. And the Church becomes the irresistible missionary when it can chant that victorious song.
T. H. Darlow, The Upward Galling, p. 134.
References. LXXXV. 6. C. Perren, Revival Sermon, p. 271. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (10th Series), p. 210. J. Kerry, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 161. LXXXV. 9. E. Bickersteth, Thoughts in Past Years, p. 283.
Psa 85:10
‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,’ was the text of Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the great Independent divine, at the opening of Parliament, 27 January, 1659, when Richard Cromwell was installed as Protector. The sermon is a reasonable plea for liberty of conscience, and an exhortation to unity and peace seed cast on stormy waters, not to be found till after many days.
J. K.
Reference. LXXXV.11. P. Brooks, The Law of Growth, p. 20.
The True Outlook for Faith
Psa 85:13
I. Why should the Psalmist say that God’s righteousness goes before Him; why should he not have written, ‘His righteousness will be seen as He is passing by’? Because this latter would not be true. It is nut as God passes that His righteousness is seen. The idea I take to be that we cannot expect to understand the goodness of God until His plan has been unfolded. We feel His action today; we shall only learn its wisdom tomorrow. We see the storing of vegetable matter in the depths of the earth; we say, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ By and by it is dug up for coal; it becomes the source of household fires and the means of swift locomotion. We find that in its buried state it has been waiting to be the minister to human civilization, and we say to God, ‘Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off Thou hast made provision in advance’. We see a man of great powers immured in a wilderness; we say again, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ By and by the wilderness becomes a thoroughfare, and the solitude is broken. We find that in his buried state the man has been waiting for the hour of a great destiny, and we cry to God, ‘The completed years have praised Thee’. We see the Priest of human souls crucified by the world; we say once more, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ By and by that Cross becomes His glory, His kingdom, His crown. We find that in His buried state He has redeemed the world, and we cry to God, ‘The fullness of the time has justified Thee’.
II. In all these acts the righteousness of God has gone before Him. It has not been seen while He was passing by. The thing seen was something apparently adverse to God something which seemed to derogate from His providence. But the object present to the Divine eye was always the future. It rested not on the buried vegetation but on the coming coalfield, not on the deserted place but on the desert made populous, not on the death in humiliation but on the days when such humiliation should be deemed the climax of glory. To see the righteousness of God you must see Him by tomorrow’s light.
G. Matheson, Messages of Hope, p. 93.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Revival of Religion
Psa 85:6
It is well known that many Christians have come to have a distaste for the word “revival” when used with reference to religious work. To some extent I share that distaste. There has been so much exaggeration, so much fanatical excitement, and so much transient profession, that we cannot wonder at the revulsion which many sober-minded Christians feel when they hear the very word “revival.” We believe that all got-up revivals are bad. You cannot organise a true revival; we cannot treat spiritual influences as fixed quantities; as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so, often, is that sudden, profound, and irresistible impulse which rouses the Church, and breaks in beneficently upon the deadly slumber and delusive security of the world. As a matter of fact, there have been extraordinary visitations of divine influence; there have been seasons when the Holy Ghost has made the earthquake, the fire, the rending wind, and the stormy tempest his ministers, and when men have been shaken with a wholesome fear, not knowing the way, yet feeling the nearness of the Lord. There have been great birthdays in the Church, days on which thousands have been crucified with Jesus Christ, and multitudes have begun to sing loudly and lovingly his praise. There have been days of high festival in the sanctuary, when the silver trumpets have sounded, when prodigals have come back to sonship, when shepherds have returned with recovered flocks, when women have found the piece that was lost, and the dead have risen to immortal life. There have, too, been times when the people have realised with special vividness the personality and life-giving power of the Holy Ghost; when they have had the keys of interpretation wherewith to unlock the boundless treasures of the divine word: when prayer was as the speech of love that never wearies; when the Sabbath shed its sacred glory over all the days of the week; when God’s house shone with heavenly lustre, and all life throbbed in joyful harmony with the purposes of God. We refer to these things as to matters of fact, and in doing so we wish to know whether such delights cannot be more permanently secured. At the same time let it be clearly said that we could not bear the strain of an ecstatic life; we are not constituted for constant rapture; we have to contend with the deceitfulness of the flesh; we have to fight and suffer upon the earth when the spirit would gladly escape on the wings of the morning to untroubled and hallowed scenes. Still, there is danger in supposing that because we cannot always live at the highest point of spiritual enthusiasm, we may be content with low attainments, or with a neutrality which attracts no attention to itself. Now there is something between the flame of a blazing ecstasy and the grey ashes of a formal profession; there is a steady and penetrating glow of piety, there is a fervour of love, there is an animated intelligence, a zealous affection, a godly yearning for personal progress and social evangelisation, which, when found together, make up a life of delight in God and blessed service for men. To promote this realisation we offer a few suggestions of whose value you can quickly form a sound opinion.
First of all, we are more and more assured that, as individual Christians, and as churches of Jesus Christ, we need to be very clear in our doctrinal foundations. Do let us get a distinct idea of the principal points in the Christian faith. Beginning with the doctrine of sin, let us strive after God’s view of it. To him sin is infinitely hateful; he cannot tolerate it with the least degree of allowance; it troubles his otherwise perfect and happy universe; it despoils human nature; it overthrows all that is divine in manhood; it calls into existence the worm that gnaws for ever; it is the cause of death and the source of hell. To underestimate the heinousness of sin is to put ourselves out of the line of God’s view; to understand sin is to understand redemption. Sin interprets the Cross; sin shows what is meant by God’s love. Have we, as individuals and churches, lost the true notion of sin? Is it no longer infinitely abominable to us? Is it toned down to something almost indistinguishable? We cannot be right in our relation to Jesus Christ, we cannot be just to his holy Cross, until we regard sin with unutterable repugnance, until we rise against it in fiery indignation, fighting it with all the energy of wounded love, and bringing upon it the condemnation of concentrated and implacable anger. We are not speaking of what are called great sins; nor thinking of murder, of commercial plunder, of adultery, drunkenness, or theft; we are speaking of sin as sin, sin nestling secretly in the heart, sin rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel, sin indulged in secret places, sin perverting the thought, sin poisoning the love, sin sucking out the life-blood of the soul; thinking of sin, not of sins of the fact, not of the details; we ask, with passionate yet well-considered pointedness, Have we not been led to underestimate the guilt of sin?
Out of a true knowledge of sin will come a true appreciation of Jesus Christ as the Saviour. Apart from this, he will be a strange teacher; with it, he will be the Redeemer for whom our hearts have unconsciously longed when they have felt the soreness and agony of sin. We could sum up the Christian creed in a sentence, yet that sentence contains more than all the libraries in the world. The short but all-including creed, the faith which bears us up above all temptation and all controversy, the faith in which we destroy the power of the world, and soar into the brightness of eternal day, is this: I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God! The heart hungers for him, our sin cries out for his mercy, our sorrow yearns for his coming, and when he does come he speaks just the word that the soul needs; he understands us; he knows us altogether; he can get down into the low, dark pit into which sin has thrown us; he draws us to his Cross; he hides our sins in his sacrifice; he shows us how God can be honoured, yet the sinner forgiven; he destroys the devil, and puts within us the Holy Ghost; he so fills us with life that death has no longer any terror with which to affright us. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God; his word is the best witness of its own power; it touches life at every point; it is most precious when most needed; it goes into our business, and lays down the golden rule; it follows us in our wanderings, and bids us return; it is always pure, noble, unselfish, unworldly; it gives us a staff for the journey, a sword for the battle, a shelter from the storm, and in the last darkening hour it gives us the triumph of immortality. This is the witness of ten thousand times ten thousand histories. We do not wonder at worldly or dead-hearted men calling this declamation: to them it is declamation; to them, indeed, it is madness; yet can we, who have known what it is to have Christ coming to us through all our sin, say of a truth that, when we are most mad, we are most wise, the ecstasy of love is the reason of faith.
If we lay firmly hold of these two points viz., the sinfulness of sin, and the work of Jesus Christ we shall come to know what is meant by what we have ventured to call the glow of piety. Only the liberated slave can know the joy of freedom only the recovered leper can appreciate fully the blessing of health. Let an emancipated slave tell of the joys of liberty, and the man who has never felt the grip of a shackle will at once pronounce him a declaimer; let a recovered leper say all he can of the delights of health, and the man who has never known a day’s sickness will probably think him more or less of a fool. It is so with our preaching, or with our true Christian living; it is not set in the common key of the world; it cannot be judged by the rules of carnal criticism; when it is praised as regular, thoughtful, prudent, let us beware, lest under these flattering names be hidden a deep, yet almost unconscious apostasy. By these strong words we seek to point out as the only solid basis of a genuine revival of religion the need of being distinct and positive in our faith. Let us know what we believe. Let us be able to say with sureness and thankfulness what is the Rock on which we stand.
Do not say that this is clipping the wings of mental freedom; do not charge me with narrowness or sectarianism; only be on the Rock, and you shall have upward scope enough; only be sure about Jesus Christ as at once the Interpreter of sin, and the Saviour of sinners, and you may fly far on the wings of fancy; you may bring gems from many a mine, and flowers from many a garden. You may have your own way of saying things, you may speculate, and suggest, and discuss, only never turn sin into a flippant riddle, and never set up the Saviour as a mere conundrum in theology. Are we thoroughly at one on these two points? Do we know sin in its essential, unchangeable loathsomeness? do we love Jesus Christ as the only, the Almighty, and the ever-blessed Saviour? Then, out of this should come an intense fervour of piety. We should have strength here; we should come back to these points from all the wanderings of fancy, and all the bewilderments of temptation; we should hasten to these doctrines when the anxieties of religious thought are heavy upon us; we should publish, these doctrines in explanation and defence of an enthusiasm which must appear as madness to those who have not seen the unseen or felt the power of an endless life. To have one strong point of faith is of more consequence than to enjoy the most splendid speculations, which vanish like an enchanted dream when touched by the realities of sorrow and death. To the young and ardent let me particularly, and with most anxious love, give a word of caution. There are not wanting men who will tell you that it is of little or no consequence what you believe. To the young mind this is very pleasant: it saves trouble, it leaves conscience untouched, it looks like liberty. Let me speak strongly yet soberly about this teaching. Having examined it, seen its effects on many men, and watched its general results, I am prepared to characterise it as a lie. I do not hesitate to teach that faith is the very root of life. What a man most deeply believes, that he most truly is. All earnest life is but a working out of earnest conviction. No man can live a deep, true, great life who lives upon the chances of the day, without convictions, without purposes, without principles on which he is prepared to risk the whole issue and destiny of his life. You will, after all, leave much unsettled; you will not encroach one iota upon the liberty of any man; you will still hold your mind open to receive new impressions, new visions of truth, new aspects of duty; yet you will have no standing-place, no home, no rest, until you can say with the love and fire of your heart, I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
In the next place, having a distinct idea of what we truly believe, we must have a public ministry which is faithful to the spirit and demands of Jesus Christ. We would speak with great caution upon this point, so far as personal methods of ministry are concerned. Every man must preach in the way that to him is best, most powerful, and most useful. What we wish to say is, that all Christian ministers are called to be faithful to Jesus Christ in seeking the salvation of men. In my view of ministerial life, there is too much attention paid in the pulpit to controversial subjects. We have a great positive work to do. We have affirmative truths to teach. We have to cast out devils, not by controversy, but by divinely-revealed and authoritative truths. If we wish to take our part in the controversies of the world, the press is at our service; in the pulpit let us preach the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and mightily plead with men to repent and believe the gospel. There is scope enough for all our powers. We shall have to acquaint ourselves deeply with human nature; we shall have to read the heart until we know its devices, imaginations, and cunning deceits; we shall have to study the power of sin in the soul; we shall have to suffer with Jesus Christ; we shall have to inquire diligently into God’s righteousness, mercy, and love; night and day we shall have to study the mystery of Redemption, and in doing all these things our every power will be absorbed and exhausted. If now and again, specially for the benefit of young men, we may have occasion to refer to controversies, let the reference be made with the lofty earnestness of men who are intent upon the salvation of those who hear us. We must not throw off the old words Repentance, Faith, Salvation; and the things that they signify must be the very life-blood of our ministry. In any genuine revival of interest in Christianity there must be a revived interest in a preached gospel. The sanctuary will be thronged, and the thronging listeners will be justly impatient of everything that does not bear immediately and intensely upon the salvation of men. We sometimes talk of adapting our preaching to the age in which we live, of keeping it abreast with contemporary culture, and addressing ourselves to the habits of men of taste. In all this there may be truth enough barely to save it from the charge of insanity. My deepening impression is that, however we may modify our manner, the doctrine which is adapted to all ages, to all tastes, to all circumstances, is that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Then must we be made to feel that the doctrines of the gospel are humbling doctrines; that they smite down our natural pride and self-trustfulness, that they kill before they make alive; that out of our utter impoverishment and nothingness they bring all that is distinctive and enduring in Christian manhood. Black will be the day, disastrous the hour, in which the gospel is pared down to meet the notions of any men. The gospel is less than nothing, if it be not the grandest revelation of the heart of God to the heart of man; and being a revelation, it must of necessity be clothed with an authority peculiarly emphatic and decisive. We believe the gospel to be God’s answer to human sin and human sorrow; and if any man ask where is its authority, we answer, “The blind do see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the dead are raised to life.” Christian living is the best explanation of Christian believing; Christianity is the best explanation of Christianity; and more preaching is the best answer to all opposition.
Whilst there should be full and bold proclamation of evangelical doctrine in the pulpit, there should also be a system of teaching proceeding more privately. We believe thoroughly in sound, critical, extensive teaching. Some men have a peculiar gift in Biblical teaching; and those men should be encouraged to pursue their laborious but most necessary vocation. The preacher and teacher should be fellow-labourers. The preacher should collect men into great companies, arrest their attention by earnest and convincing statements of Christian truth, and then pass them on, so to speak, to the critical and patient teacher. Thus the man of God will become throughly furnished; having received deep instruction, he will be able to give a reason for the faith and hope that are in him, and he will be strong to resist the importunities of those who are driven about by every wind of doctrine. We have had unjust and unreasonable expectations respecting the ministry. We have looked for all sorts of work from ministers; they have been expected to be eloquent preachers, popular lecturers, learned writers, acceptable visitors, skilled controversialists, untiring evangelists, and many other important and influential characters. This is the covetousness that tends to poverty. Let a man be one thing, and let him excel in it I wish the Christian pulpit to be my world; in it I would work as a willing servant, and in it I would die like a soldier sword in hand. Another brother is a teacher, learned, critical, and patient with slow scholars; another is blessed with a high pastoral gift, by which he can make himself as an angel of God in the family; another is a ready writer, who can fascinate the eye of taste, or convince the stubborn-minded: be it so; it is right, it is best. When Christian truth and Christian feeling revive amongst us, we shall be as the heart of one man, each magnifying God in the other. We shall all be wanted; the trumpet, the flute, the organ, the stringed instrument the soldier, the physician, the teacher the orator, the scholar, the poet the strong man, the gentle woman, the tender child all will be wanted; and the only strife amongst us will be who can do most and do it best for the Lamb that was slain!
We have heard of a great musical composer who was conducting a rehearsal by four thousand performers; all manner of instruments were being played, all parts of music were being sung. In one of the grand choruses which sounded through the vast building like a wind from heaven, the keen-eared conductor suddenly threw up his baton and exclaimed, “Flageolet!” In an instant the performance ceased. One of the flageolet players had stopped; something was wanting to the completeness of the performance, and the conductor would not go on. It shall be so in the Church. Jesus Christ is conducting his own music. There is indeed a vast volume of resounding harmony rolling upwards towards the anthems which fill the heavens; yet if one voice is missing he knows it; if the voice of a little child has ceased he notes the omission; he cannot be satisfied with the mightiest billow which breaks in thunder around his throne, so long as the tiniest wavelet falls elsewhere. Flageolet, where is thy tribute? Pealing trumpet, he awaits thy blast; sweet cymbals, he desires to hear your silvery chime; mighty organ, unite thy many voices in deepening the thunder of the Saviour’s praise! And if there be one poor sinner who thinks his coarse tones would be out of harmony with such music, let him know that Jesus Christ refines every tribute that is offered in love, and harmonises the discords of our broken life in the music of his own perfection.
There is one feature in our public Christian life which we should like more fully brought out, and that is the bearing of individual testimony on behalf of Jesus Christ. By no means let us seek to supplant what is known as the regular ministry, but rather supplement it; and at: all costs destroy the impression that nobody has a good word to say for Christianity except its paid teachers. Such an impression is, of course, at all times utterly and most cruelly false; yet there is a possibility of so enlarging and strengthening our testimony as to secure the happiest results. Why should not the banker, the great merchant, and the eminent lawyer say publicly what God has done for their souls? If the Prime Minister of England, if the Lord Chancellor, if the judge upon the bench, if the well-known senators would openly testify on behalf of Jesus Christ, they might produce the deepest possible impression for good. Such testimony would destroy the slanderous and blasphemous notion that Christianity is not adapted to the strength, the culture, and the advancement of the present day. It would arrest the attention of genius; it would infuse a new tone into the conversation of the highest circles; it would supply novel material for newspaper comment. We shall be told that this would be “sensationalism;” but let us beware lest the devil find in that alarming word one of his easiest victories over Christian duty and Christian courage. Is it not high time that there should be sensationalism? Have we not been troubled with indifference long enough? Has not Jesus Christ become a merely historical name in many quarters? Terrified by the impotent bugbear of sensationalism; hushed into criminal silence by the possible charge of sensationalism; frightened into holes and corners lest anybody should cry “Sensationalism;” living tamely, dastardly, shamefacedly, because there is such a word as sensationalism! Is this manly on our part, or true, or just, or grateful? If this be sensationalism, how comes it to be so? Is it not by contrast with long-continued indifference, with cruel silence, with unholy self-indulgence? Could we not soon put an end to the charge of sensationalism by the strength, the constancy, the ardour of our consecration? Sensationalism is a momentary cry we may silence it by lifelong continuance in well-doing.
Let those who have social, political, literary, and commercial influence throw it boldly and earnestly into the cause of Jesus Christ; it is but common justice; having received much they owe much; and as the time of payment is brief alas, how brief! a shadow, a hurrying wind let them be prompt if they would be just. Will you who are full of sin and sorrow throw yourselves at the Saviour’s Cross and cry mightily, “God be merciful to me a sinner”? Wait there until you receive the forgiveness of your sins. Do not yield to any suggestions to go elsewhere. You will know that you have received the answer when your hearts are filled with a deep, joyful, unspeakable peace. Will you who have long borne the Saviour’s name carry the banner of your profession more loftily, more steadily, and more humbly? Will you who preach the gospel give your nights and days to deeper, tenderer communion with Jesus Christ, desiring of him the all-including gift of the Holy Ghost? Will you who are in business live in the spirit of the golden rule? Will you who are heads of houses walk before your families in the fear and love of God? Are you forming the holy vow? In your heart of hearts are you renewing your covenant with the Saviour? May the word of the Lord prosper; may we know that Christ is gathering many spoils; and realise that the Cross of the Saviour is still able to draw men’s hearts, and to hold them for ever by the omnipotence of love.
Prayer
Almighty God, as we began the year in thy name and in thy strength, so would we close it to thy praise Thou hast done great things for us whereof we are glad; thou hast led us by a way that we knew not and by paths we had not known. Thou hast been eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; thou hast cared for us with all the tender care of love. Thou hast not forsaken us even for a small moment; with everlasting mercies hast thou surrounded us, and by their gentle ministry thou hast made us strong. When we feared as we entered into the cloud we heard a voice in the cloud speaking of Christ; when we wondered what would occur thou didst send thine angel to strengthen us and give us peace. We are now enabled to trust the Lord with our whole heart; we will take no more care of our own life that we may save it: he that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life in the love of Christ shall find it We desire to have the gift of faith, so that we may believe all this holy testimony, and conduct our life along these sacred lines. We would be quiet, resigned, perfectly tranquil; we would rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him, and as for our heart’s desire we know it shall be granted unto us. Thou hast led us by ways that startled us, and thou hast brought us nigh unto precipices by which we were affrighted, yet thou hast by thy good hand upon us set us in thy house given us the new song, and caused our faces to be turned towards the gentle heaven. In our houses we have seen the Lord, in the winter’s fire and in the summer sunshine, both coming from one great fount of heat and light. Thou hast laid bread upon our table, common when we touched it, but sacramental when thou didst break it and give it unto us; we have not eaten unblessed bread, we have not slept the sleep of those who fear or care not, ours has been the child’s rest of perfect trust in God. If there have been nights succeeding days they have brought with them all their troop of stars; when the days have come they have opened like pages in a new book, written all over with the finger of God. Now the year is dying, the year is all but dead, it will vanish into the shadows, and we shall write its name no more. God be merciful unto us sinners: wherein we have done wrong let the time past suffice. Give us consciousness of thy love, such consciousness as will not throw us into despair, but will lead us to the Cross where all sin may be forgiven. If we have done anything in thy strength and in the interests of thy kingdom, God be praised for the opportunity and the power; if we have been unkind one to the other let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamour cease now. The Lord help us to love our enemies that we may forgive them; the Lord give us confidence in himself, increase our love towards the Cross, and rule us more completely by the ministry of his Holy Spirit. Grant unto all men wisdom, direction, comfort in sorrow; and show them where the fountain of life is, and withdraw many of us that we may be refreshed by rest and by communion with God. Be round about our life a dwindling quantity upon the earth, but growing towards immortality in the heavens. Help us to live the rest of our time here in pureness and gentleness and usefulness, and may men take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus and have learned of him. Be round about our houses and make them habitations of the just: go with us into the marketplace that we may keep a wise and understanding heart amid all the temptations and distractions of this world; and in the time of sorrow may we show Christian submission, and in the hour of loss may we be enabled to fall back upon the riches that are treasured in Christ Jesus. The Lord hear his servants in these things, seeing that these supplications and praises are poured out at the foot of the Cross; and mercifully send the suppliants answers of peace. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 85:1
Ver. 1. Lord, thou hast been favourable, &c. ] God’s free grace and favour is fitly premised, as the fountain and mother of all the following mercies. This is that other book, Rev 20:12 , that hath our names in it, and our pardon.
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This too is “To the chief musician, for the sons of Korah, a psalm.” The psalm looks rather at the blessing of the land and people than at the religious centre of Jehovah’s name or the way thither. Deliverance from external foes attests the people’s forgiveness, and leads them to seek all favour in that place of blessing, above all in hearing what the God Jehovah may speak. For He will speak peace to His people and to His saints, publicly and individually, though they need to watch against folly, as becomes those who by grace now understand. It is instructive to note how truly the psalm speaks of Israel as contrasted with church or christian blessedness. “Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land;” not that they may “ever be with the Lord” in risen heavenly glory, as we rightly hope. But for them, as for us, it is the righteousness of God that gives stability, not their own (though they will be righteous then) but His, or more strictly have Jehovah their righteousness. Thus only are mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace embrace, as we now know in Christ yet more gloriously.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 85:1-3
1O Lord, You showed favor to Your land;
You restored the captivity of Jacob.
2You forgave the iniquity of Your people;
You covered all their sin. Selah.
3You withdrew all Your fury;
You turned away from Your burning anger.
Psa 85:1-3 Notice the powerful parallelism which denotes the character and redemptive actions of YHWH.
1. You showed favor – BDB 953, KB 1280, Qal perfect
2. You restored the fortunes – BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal perfect, cf. Psa 14:7
a. forgiveness
b. restoration to Canaan
3. You forgave the iniquity – BDB 669, KB 724, Qal perfect
4. You covered all their sin – BDB 491, KB 487, Piel perfect
5. You withdrew all Your fury – BDB 62, KB 74, Qal perfect
6. You turned away Your burning anger – BDB 996, KB 1427, Hiphil perfect; notice
a. this same verb in #2
b. the imperative form in Psa 85:4
c. the Qal imperfect used in a jussive sense in Psa 85:8
YHWH has kept His covenant promises even when His covenant people did not deserve it. Sin has consequences (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-30), but grace also has lasting effects because of the character of God (cf. Exo 34:6; Num 14:18; Deu 4:31; Neh 9:27; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 145:8)!
Psa 85:1 Your land Notice the different ways to refer to God’s people.
1. Your land, Psa 85:1 a
2. Jacob, Psa 85:1 b
3. Your people, Psa 85:2 a
Psa 85:2 Selah See note at Psa 3:2.
Psa 85:3-4 all The use of all (BDB 481) is significant. All their sin is covered and all God’s fury is withdrawn. What inclusive good news!
Psa 85:3 Your fury Notice the different words that refer to YHWH’s reaction to human disobedience (cf. Psa 78:49).
1. fury, Psa 85:3 a – BDB 720
2. burning anger, Psa 85:3 b – BDB 354 construct BDB 60 I
3. indignation, Psa 85:4 b – BDB 495
4. angry, Psa 85:5 a – BDB 60, verb
5. anger, Psa 85:5 b – BDB 60, noun
How different these expression of God’s character are with
1. Psa 85:1-2
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. A Psalm. Hebrew mizmor. App-65.
for the sons of Korah. The eighth of eleven so ascribed. See note on Psalm 42, Title, and App-4.
LORD.Hebrew Jehovah.App-4. Thy land. Compare connection with “People” (Psa 85:2), as in Deu 32:43. Note “our” in Psa 85:12.
brought back the captivity = restored the fortunes, as in Psa 126:1. Job 42:10. No reference to the Babylonian captivity, but to the restoration of David’s fortunes after Absalom’s revolt.
Jacob. Refers to the natural seed, and to the earthly and material standpoint. See notes on Gen 32:28; Gen 43:6; Gen 45:26, Gen 45:28.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 85:1-13 :
LORD, you have been favourable unto the land: you have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people; you have covered all of their sins ( Psa 85:1-2 ).
So the declaration of God. The favor of God to the land and to the people, bringing them back from captivity. And then the goodness of God and the forgiveness of their sins.
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: you have turned yourself from the fierceness of your anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause your anger toward us to cease ( Psa 85:3-4 ).
And now he’s speaking unto God.
Will you always be angry with us for ever? will you draw out your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again: that your people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is near them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us up in the way of his steps ( Psa 85:5-13 ).
So the psalm begins with the declaration that God has brought us back. But yet, there hasn’t been a full spiritual restoration. It would seem that God isn’t really moving yet among His people. So the prayer, “Lord, are You going to be angry forever throughout all generations? Won’t You return, you know, revive us again? And that we might have again the rejoicing of the Lord within our hearts. Let us experience, Lord, Your mercies.” And then he makes in the end of the psalm the affirmation of his faith in the faithfulness of God. “Surely God’s salvation is near. And mercy and truth have met. And righteousness and peace have kissed. For God will give that which is good and the land will yield her increase.” “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 85:1-2. LORD, thou host been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
Let us think of what God has done for his people. He has been very favorable to us in years past. He has lifted up the light of his countenance upon his chosen ones, and made them glad. Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. We were in captivity once, exiles far off from God and home; but he has led our captivity captive, and we are now in bondage no longer, blessed be his name! Note again what the psalmist says: Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. What a joy that is! Forgiven sin is enough to make us sing to all eternity. If sin be pardoned, thou hast a mass of mercy in that fact too great for thee to estimate its value. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. See how the inspired writer puts it again: Thou hast covered all their sin,-hidden it, put it out of sight with that divine covering of the atonement, which has hid for ever, even from the eyes of God, the sin of his people. There is a happy memory for us,-to see what God has done for us. Let us bless his name for it. Now comes another happy memory.
Psa 85:3. Thou host taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
Thou didst stay thy bow even after it was bent. Even when thy right arm was bared for war, thou didst make peace for us. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. When it burned like fire, yet didst thou stay it through the great atonement of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now comes in a prayer;
Psa 85:4. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
Thou hast done all this for thy people; now do this for us who fear lest we are not thy people,-comfort us. Turn us, and then take thine anger from our conscience, and let us be at peace with thee. How I wish that many in this Tabernacle would pray even now, Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease! It is the prayer of a church that is under a cloud; it is the prayer of a nation that is suffering for its sin; it is the prayer of a sinner who sees what God has done for his people, and who entreats the Lord to do the same for him.
Psa 85:5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
Surely we have not got into eternity yet. Lord, do not have eternal anger toward us. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou not hear our prayers? Wilt thou not have mercy upon us?
Psa 85:5. Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
Shall our children also suffer? Wilt thou not have pity upon them?
Psa 85:6-7. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
We are such poor blind creatures that we cannot see; yet, O Lord, show us thy mercy, make us see it, reveal it to us; and grant us thy salvation? It must be a free grant, a grant of grace, a grant of love, therefore, grant us thy salvation. Listen to this eighth verse.
Psa 85:8. I will hear what God the LORD will speak:
I will be silent. I have spoken to him; now I will hear what his answer is. I will hold my ear attentive to listen to his voice. O my dear hearers, when you are willing to hear God, there are good times coming to you!
Psa 85:8. For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints:
There is peace, peace, nothing else but peace for them.
Psa 85:8. But let them not turn again to folly.
For if they do, the Lord will speak to them by rods and chastisements. They that get Gods peace must mind that they keep it. They must walk carefully, or else they will break the peace, and they may themselves get broken in pieces. Let them not turn again to folly.
Psa 85:9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;
When you honour him, reverence him, worship him, his salvation cannot be far away from you.
Psa 85:9-10. That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together;
At the cross is their meeting-place. There, you shall see Gods mercy and Gods truth embracing each other over the great sacrifice of Christ. Mercy and truth seem set at variance in the sinners case till they are reconciled by the blood of Jesus.
Psa 85:10. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
It seemed impossible that God should be righteous and yet be at peace with sinners; but Christ has taken both parties by the hand, and at Calvary they kiss each other. God is as righteous as if he were not gracious, and as gracious as if he were not just. Yea, his justice and his peace are each of them all the brighter because of the other.
Psa 85:11. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Carpeted with truth, and canopied with righteousness; what a wonderful scene is before us! Truth is coming out of the ground, as though it had been a dead thing, which begins to live, and leaves its tomb; and righteousness is throwing up the windows of heaven, and leaning out to look down upon the sons of men. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. What a wonderful meeting this is of truth and righteousness,-truth lifting up her hand to heaven, and righteousness putting down its hand to earth!
Psa 85:12. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.
It is all well when it is well with us in our relation to God. When we are reconciled to him, then all things are reconciled by that fact.
Psa 85:13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in. the way of his steps.
Lord, hear the prayer of this Psalm, and answer it to us, for Jesus sake!
Amen.
This exposition consisted of readings from Isa 43:22-28; Isa 44:1-8; and Psalms 85
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 85:1-3
A CRY FOR SALVATION
This psalm was evidently written shortly after the miraculous ending of the Babylonian captivity, as affirmed by a number of able scholars.
“It evidently belongs to the time soon after the return from the Babylonian exile – either the days of discouragement before the building of the second temple (Ezr 4:5-24; Haggai 1; Zec 1:12-21) or the period of Nehemiah (Neh 1:3). – The situation into which the psalm could fit with more than average propriety is the time shortly after the return from the Babylonian captivity. – The condition of the exiles returned from Babylon best corresponds to the conflicting emotions; the book of Nehemiah supplies precisely such a background as fits this psalm. – There are not allusions in the psalm to tie it down to a particular date; but it would seem to fit best into the times of Zerubbabel (Ezr 3:4), or that of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 9:10; Nehemiah 2-6).
McCullough did not fully agree with such comments on the date, citing the fact that, “The psalmist’s words are rather vague, and that unlike many laments, there is no allusion to the machinations of outside enemies.
Psa 85:1-3
GOD’S PAST BENEFICENCE TO ISRAEL
“Jehovah, thou hast been favorable to thy land;
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people;
Thou hast covered all their sin. (Selah)
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath;
Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thy anger.”
“Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob” (Psa 85:1). It is true, of course, that these words can mean merely that “God has restored the prosperity of Israel”; but that possibility cannot take away the plain meaning of the passage, namely, that God has returned Israel from their literal captivity. There is just one situation which that fits, the ending of the captivity in Babylon.
“Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people” (Psa 85:2). When Cyrus not only permitted the return of Israel to Palestine, but also financed the return and ordered the rebuilding of the temple on a scale even larger than that of the temple of Solomon, such unheard-of developments, such a unique example of a defeated and deported nation being repatriated in their own land, fully justified the psalmist’s conclusion that God indeed had forgiven the iniquity of the Chosen People which had led to their captivity.
Forgiveness in the ultimate sense, of course, was contingent upon the atonement provided by the Christ on Calvary, but a practical “passing over” of Israel’s wickedness on God’s part was surely evidenced by the return of the remnant to Palestine.
“Thou hast taken away all thy wrath” (Psa 85:3). The feeling of security that came to the returnees was the result of the backing and encouragement of Cyrus, head of the most powerful nation on earth; and this might account for the fact that the enemies of Israel received no attention in this psalm. With the cessation of God’s wrath, enemies made no difference at all.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 85:1. Captivity does not always mean a literal imprisonment, but also applies to any state of distress. David was an inspired writer and could deal with the national captivity which was then hundreds of years in the future. But his remarks were equally true of past conditions of the country in which God redeemed the land from the oppression of the enemies, such as the experiences recorded in the book of Judges.
Psa 85:2-3. We may rightly think of this paragraph in a general way, because God is always ready to pardon his servants when they comply with his terms of pardon. It we make specific application to the national captivity and return therefrom it will call for the same conclusion. The particular iniquity of which the nation of Israel was guilty was idolatry. After they had spent 70 years in the land of their captors they were completely cured of idolatry, and of course the Lord then had forgiven the iniquity. This interesting subject will be given thorough attention in the study of the prophecies, some of which will appear in the present volume of the Commentary.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
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.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Prayer for the Nation
Psa 85:1-13
This psalm is the counterpart of Psa 80:1-19. There we see petitions ascending; here thanksgivings are returned. Evidently there had been granted some great national deliverance, which filled the land with thanksgiving. The restoration of the captives from Babylon was such an event; but the words well befit glad days of revival. They might have been sung on the first Easter day, when mercy and truth met at the Cross, and there was a bridal of the earth and sky. Reversed captivity, forgiven and buried sin, the dark clouds of estrangement dispelled, the speaking of peace-these are great themes and all have their counterparts in Christian experience.
There is exquisite beauty in Psa 85:10-11. What a meeting of the divine attributes! The Cross is their trysting-place. It resembles the family-gathering of brothers and sisters in the old homestead. Notice that heaven must combine with earth in the production of Christian grace. Truth can spring up in the soil of our heart only when righteousness looks down with benignant love from heaven. But she does even more-she shows us how to walk in the way of Gods steps.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 85:6
I. As individual Christians and as Churches of Jesus Christ, we need to be very clear in our doctrinal foundations. Beginning with the doctrine of sin, let us strive after God’s view of it. Out of a true knowledge of sin will come a true appreciation of Jesus Christ as the Saviour. If we lay firmly hold of these two points-the sinfulness of sin and the work of Jesus Christ-we shall come to know what is meant by the glow of piety.
II. We must have a public ministry which is faithful to the spirit and demands of Jesus Christ. All Christian ministers are called to be faithful to Jesus Christ in seeking the salvation of men. We have a great positive work to do. We have affirmative truths to teach. We have to cast out devils, not by controversy, but by Divinely revealed and authoritative truths.
III. There is one feature in our public Christianlife that should be more fully brought out: the bearing of individual testimony on behalf of Jesus Christ.
Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 25.
Reference: Psa 85:6.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 357.
Psa 85:8
I. The death of sin is mostly a gradual process, a thing going on for a long time, and not beginning or ending in one sharp, single struggle. Yet neither is it true that it goes on quite evenly. On the contrary, it has its sharper seasons and its gentler ones. It has times when it destroys much of the principle of sin within us; it has times also when it does little more than hold its ground, and the struggle seems suspended.
II. The process of the death of sin has in it nothing horrible, nothing exciting; the imagination may not be struck by it: and yet it is of an interest really far deeper than the death of the body, and an interest which we may all presently realise. It works quietly and invisibly to the eyes of others, but most perceptibly and most truly to him who is undergoing it.
III. Many struggle successfully against one marked fault, but fly back from the prospect of having to overcome a whole sinful nature and having to become made anew after God’s image. So it is but too often, but so it is not always. Let us suppose that we bear the sight of our general sinfulness not with a cowardly despair, but with a Christian resolution; then indeed begins the struggle which may be truly called the death of sin. Then our old nature begins to die sensibly, in no part without pain.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 139.
It is not too much to say that whoever will resolve to listen as David listened will hear what David heard. Only determine, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak,” and “He will speak peace.” God never disappoints a really attentive hearer.
I. God has always something to say to us. We only miss it either because we do not believe that He is going to speak, or because we are not quiet enough. This is frequently the reason of a sickness or a deep sorrow. God has something to say to us. He makes a calm, He settles the rush of life, that He may speak. The Shepherd draws the hurdles closer that His sheep, being nearer to Him, may the better hear the Shepherd’s voice.
II. There are few of us who do not know what these times are when God has come very near. They are very critical times; great issues hang upon them: they will weigh heavily in the balances of “the great account of life.” From these high-wrought feelings there will be a reaction. The moment you become earnest for good, Satan will become earnest to stop you. He who had read life better than almost any man who ever lived saw the need of the caution, “He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints: but let them not turn again to folly.”
III. The expression, “turn again to folly,” may mean one of three things. Either all sin is folly, or you may understand by it the particular sin of those who return to the vanities of the world, or you may take it to imply that a relapse into what is wrong has such a distorting influence on the mind, and so perverts the judgment and darkens the intellect, that both by natural consequence and judicial retribution the condition of a person who goes on in sin after the strivings of the Holy Ghost and after the manifestations of God’s peace becomes emphatically “folly.”
IV. Peace, the peace of Christ, is a delicate plant. Do not expose it. Do not trifle with it, but lay it up in your heart’s closest affections. Watch it. Deal tenderly with it. It is your life.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 210.
Reference: Psa 85:8.-R. Lee, Sermons, p. 57.
Psa 85:10
Strict regard for rule is of the essence of righteousness. It is by the revelation of law that God awakens in us the sentiment of righteousness; by His undeviating adherence to law that sentiment is stimulated and confirmed. The essence of tenderness is regard for persons. Love contemplates the wants of living beings, and seeks to supply them. God is righteous; He is moved and controlled by regard for what is right. God is love; He is moved and swayed by regard for all His creatures. It is God’s object to bring us to the joyful discovery, wherein we rest for time and for eternity, that His regard for right and His regard for us are at one; that tenderness and righteousness are in harmony; that all the opposition is in our ignorance, our perverted feeling; that the strictest rule is the truest tenderness. Consider some of the ways in which God reveals this to us.
I. Parental rule is one of these ways. The government of every pious household is in measure a revelation of the government of God. We have all a child’s hold on God’s affections, all a child’s need of discipline and correction, all a child’s power to grieve Him; and He has all a father’s kind determination to train us in right.
II. The tenderness of God’s strict rule is revealed to us again in the experience of life. We find that the dearest love may mislead and ruin; unregulated affection is a shameful and destructive thing. Regard for right is the truest personal regard. God would shield men from woes unnumbered, and therefore has He made His laws so severe and certain, and therefore does He subdue us to His laws.
III. This revelation, again, is granted in prayer. One of the great ends of prayer is to reveal to us the tenderness of God. The order of human life, with its partings and its pains, the law by which we suffer, appears to us in a new aspect. God’s mercy is seen not in interfering for our sakes with the order of His providence; that order is itself most merciful. God’s tenderness is revealed not in saving us from tribulation, but in saving us by tribulation.
IV. The tenderness of God’s strict law is revealed to us in the Gospel of Christ. It is personal regard for man which we see pre-eminently in Jesus, yet who so much as He makes us feel the constraining bond of righteousness? He delivers men from the penalties of law; but it is to awaken in them a reverence for it, deeper and more solemn than any experience of penalty can be. He frees them from its pains by transforming its painfulness into an entire devotion to it. There dawns upon us the overwhelming conception that surrounding law is surrounding love; that law is the highest expression of love.
V. The closing verses of the Psalm declare the blessed effects of this discovery in a true and. fruitful, in a trusting, an intelligent and obedient life, in a life hallowed by God’s smile and crowned with His constant benediction.
A. Mackennal, Christ’s Healing Touch, p. 57.
Reference: Psa 85:10, Psa 85:11.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 143.
Psa 85:10-13
These four verses are a fourfold picture of how heaven and earth ought to blend and harmonise.
I. Take the first verse: “Mercy and truth are met together,” etc. We have here the heavenly twin sisters, and the earthly pair that corresponds. Mercy and Truth, two radiant angels, like virgins in some solemn choric dance, linked hand in hand, issue from the sanctuary and move amongst the dim haunts of men, making “a sunshine in a shady place;” and to them there come forth, linked in a sweet embrace, another pair, whose lives depend on the lives of their elder and heavenly sisters: Righteousness and Peace. (1) In man’s experience righteousness and peace cannot be rent apart. (2) Righteousness and her twin sister Peace only come in the measure in which the mercy and the truth of God are received into thankful hearts.
II. In the eleventh verse-“Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven”-we have God responding to man’s truth. (1) Man’s truth shall begin to grow and blossom in answer, as it were, to God’s truth that came down upon it. (2) Righteousness shall look down from heaven, not in its judicial aspect merely, but as the perfect moral purity that belongs to the Divine nature, which shall bend down a loving eye upon the men beneath and mark the springings of any imperfect good and thankfulness in our hearts.
III. Then there is the third aspect of the ideal relation between earth and heaven set forth in the next verse: “Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase;” that is to say, man responding to God’s gift. The great truth is here developed that earthly fruitfulness is possible only by the reception of heavenly gifts.
IV. The last phase of the fourfold representation of the ideal relation between earth and heaven is, “Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps;” that is to say, God teaching man to walk in His footsteps. Man may walk in God’s ways, not only in the ways that please Him, but in the ways that are like Him. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 1st series, p. 15.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 85
All Promised Blessings Realized
1. What grace has done (Psa 85:1-3)
2. Prayer for the fulfilment (Psa 85:4-9)
3. Righteousness and peace (Psa 85:10-13)
What will come to Israel when Christ returns to be their King is blessedly made known in the opening verses of this other Korah Psalm. Favour will rest upon the land; the captivity of Jacob is brought back, their iniquity is forgiven and their sin covered; His wrath is turned away. Hence they pray that all this may speedily be accomplished as it surely will in the days when heaven will send Him back. Then He will speak peace to His people and His saints and glory will dwell in the land, even their land (Psa 85:8-9). Then righteousness and peace will kiss each other and truth shall spring out of the earth.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Lord: Lev 26:42, Joe 2:18, Zec 1:16
favourable unto: or, well pleased with, Psa 77:7
thou hast: Psa 14:7, Psa 126:1, Psa 126:2, Ezr 1:11, Ezr 2:1, Jer 30:18, Jer 31:23, Eze 39:25, Joe 3:1
Reciprocal: Exo 6:24 – Korah Lev 25:23 – for ever Num 16:32 – all the Deu 32:43 – will be 1Ch 6:37 – Korah Psa 42:1 – the sons Psa 53:6 – bringeth Isa 12:1 – though Jer 33:7 – will cause Eze 16:53 – bring Zep 2:7 – turn
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
“Things that accompany salvation.”
To the chief musician: a psalm of the sons of Korah.
We now find in the other psalm of this couplet the attributes of God united in the salvation of His people. Personally, Christ is not seen in it, but we know well that it is only through the work of Christ that this can be. It is, as we see everywhere, by putting the psalms together that the full character of each becomes apparent. The heading of the psalm may well be, in the words of the epistle to the Hebrews, “things which accompany salvation.” The glory of God displayed in it is indeed the great, the unspeakable blessing which it brings, and which is its practical power in the reconciliation of the soul to God.
1. The connection of the first section with that which follows it has been a difficulty to many. How can the psalmist say, “Thou hast taken away all Thy wrath,” and then almost immediately cry out, “cause Thy wrath toward us to cease”? One might escape this by saying in the first case “hadst,” instead of “hast.” But I apprehend that this is not the real way of understanding it. Nor is it to be explained by what is not uncommon in the psalms, -the first three verses giving the full blessing, from which the psalmist returns to the sorrow which preceded it. I believe the true explanation is that he is pleading rather that the blessing which has in fact come, may be abiding, -in view of the former seasons of refreshment and deliverance which had again and again passed away in returning gloom and distress, -returning displeasure for repeated departure from God. Now, he asks, let this go on no more: let the anger vanish forever, and the goodness shown remain at last. And this is a prayer which is answered, for the blessed time of which the angel spake to Daniel is now at hand, “to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan 9:24). It is for Israel, as in this prophecy, that these blessings are now to be accomplished.
Jehovah is praised, then; for showing favor to the land, and bringing back the captivity of Jacob. The name used (Jacob) may indeed remind us of the grace of God, but it may speak no less of the untrustworthiness of the people. But now their iniquity is put all away, their sin all covered. The blessing is in the changed relation of Jehovah Himself, whose anger is passed away; a blessing indeed, for in His favor is life -eternal life.
2. Upon this the psalmist appeals to Him whom he owns as the God of their salvation, and beseeches that they may be truly returned to Him, so that His wrath may cease and rise no more. Shall there be, he asks, the perpetual recurrence (so I read it), generation after generation; of the judgment that sleeps but to come forth with renewed energy again? Wilt Thou not turn and revive us, so that Thy people shall by their joy in Thee be kept from straying -from the sin that provokes Thine anger thus?
3. Then he encourages himself with the assurance of mercy and blessing that ate indeed come to abide. He prays that the loving-kindness of the Unchangeable One may be shown them; and immediately comforts himself with the conviction that it is indeed salvation that He will grant to them. He waits for what the God of power, the Eternal, shall speak, anticipating that it shall be peace to His people, -to those brought to respond to His grace, -and which will prevent them from turning to folly any more. He realizes that salvation is nigh, with that which it means when fully wrought for Israel, the glory of God returned to its ancient home, and now to abide there. This is essentially also what redemption means for all the subjects of it -God no longer at a distance, but come nigh. Nought but sin could put practical distance from Him who “is not far from every one of us.”
4. The fourth section; as such, marks what follows as the experience which makes good -or is to make good -all that heart can desire or think in the way of blessing. Here we find, therefore, first of all, that concord of the divine attributes displayed, which is the assurance of stability for that with which it is connected. Loving-kindness is first and ruling, one may say, and yet without setting aside, -rather, maintaining with full emphasis the demands of truth. Righteousness is absolute, and yet in full and loving consent with peace towards man: they kiss each other. There was that, evidently, which had hindered, and kept them apart; but it is removed, and that which was ever in God’s heart toward men is free to show itself. We cannot but realize in this the work of the cross, though divine government has acted also in the judgment of the rebellious and impenitent. Phinehas has again, as it were, done his zealous work, and in this way made atonement to offended holiness (Num 25:11-13,
notes). Here then is the foundation laid of permanent blessing. Truth is seen in the fulfilment of glorious promise, as well as in the execution of necessary judgment. Righteousness is not only consistent with, but insures the blessing of those who as sinners take refuge in the sacrifice for sin.
Thus salvation is actually found by them: for heaven and earth, God and man; are now in real and stable relationship and correspondence. Truth springs out of the earth, -man owning God, and owning, too, his own need and sin; while righteousness -for him still otherwise impossible -looks down from heaven: for Christ is the only righteousness for man at any time. Thus Israel is truly converted and saved. She is with God according to the indefectible terms of the new covenant; and all is indeed divinely secure.
Fruitfulness follows as to the land. The curse is removed from it: “Jehovah giveth that which is good; and our land shall give its increase.” And ways of righteousness are found among His people, respondent to the perfect rule of Him who now reigns over them in righteousness.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 85:1-3. Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land That is, unto thy people, in removing the sad effects of thy displeasure. Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob The captives, as that word is used Psa 14:7; Psa 68:18, and elsewhere. Thou hast covered all their sin So as not to impute it to them, or to continue the punishment which thou didst inflict upon them for it. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath Those calamities which were the effects of thy just wrath conceived against us.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 85:1. Brought back the captivity of Jacob. Part of this psalm at least appears to have been composed after the return from captivity, or it may have been adapted to that happy occasion, when the Lord revived the broken heart of his people.
Psa 85:2. Thou hast forgiven, or borne away the iniquity of thy people, as the ancient scapegoat carried away iniquity to the desert. Lev 16:20.
Psa 85:11. Truth shall spring out of the earth. We have a very remarkable comment here by the learned rabbi Jotten. Truth shall not be born, but shall spring out of the earth, because the generation of the Messiah is not as with other creatures. He shall not be begotten with carnal coition: therefore no one has named his Father, who must be concealed till he himself shall declare him. The same rabbi adds, You have said we are orphans; such a one, saith the Lord, shall your Redeemer be, whom I will give you.See Dr. Lightfoot, vol. 2. fol. p. 385. Morney de Verit. Christ. Rel. cap. 28. This very remarkable comment claims the particular attention of christians as well as jews.
REFLECTIONS.
This psalm contains a pious and grateful review of Gods instructive providence towards his people. It celebrates his peculiar goodness in forgiving, and in covering all their sins: and personal and national pardons are among the first of Gods blessings.
It prays the Lord to perfect the renovation of the people, that his anger might for ever cease, and that mercy from heaven, and obedience of heart might distinguish all their future years. Then the rising prosperity of David, and the glory of Solomon would be the heritage of their children.
We have the confidence and the waiting which followed prayer. I will hear what God the Lord will say. The prophet, feeling that his prayer found access, was confident that the Lord would speak peace to his people, according to the blessings of his covenant, and to his saints; or as the Septuagint reads, to them that turn to him with their heart. But he cautions them against relapse, for never was folly greater than when Israel forsook his God. While praying for the good of Israel, he kept his eye on the Messiah: surely his salvation is nigh to them that fear him, that glory may dwell in the land. Daniel had viewed this salvation in the vision of seventy weeks, and that time was wasting fast away. Hence when praying for ourselves and the church, let us always keep our eye and heart on the glorious things which are spoken of his coming and kingdom.
Both in Israels restoration, and mans redemption, the perfections of God are harmonized. The sin of Israel made a schism in Gods economy; but he showed mercy. His truth was glorified in bringing upon them all the evils which Moses had foretold. Deuteronomy 28. Now also the righteous arm of God dropped its rod, and shook hands with peace. But the true and full application of this glorious text, as is obvious from the connection, is appropriate to our redemption by Jesus Christ. Sin, if we may so speak, set the attributes of God at variance, and produced discord in his kingdom. Justice frowned on man; truth required his punishment; but mercy, goodness, and love, pleaded in his behalf. Mercy here seemed to say, justice requires indeed a satisfaction, and truth has said that man shall surely die. Yet says mercy, there is a difference between fallen man and fallen angels: they fell by their own pride, but man was ruined by their malice. Here all was silence; all counsel failed. Then said the Son, I will go down and clothe myself with flesh, and sustain the punishment, magnify the law, and give man a better paradise than Adam lost. Here all the sister graces seem to have sprung into each others arms and embraced. Jesus Christ hath reconciled all things to himself on the cross. His oblation has made it honourable and safe for God to pardon the penitent. And if God spared not his own Son, what creature will dare to sin? And what creature can sin against so much love?
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LXXXV. Prayer for the Completion of Israels Restoration.The Ps. falls clearly into two halves. Psa 85:1-7 is a prayer to God. It begins (Psa 85:1-3) by commemorating Gods mercy. He had restored His people (see on Psa 14:7) and forgiven their sin, but the expectation of Jewish saints remained unfulfilled (Psa 85:4-7). The reference may be to the hopes raised by the Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). Israel did return under Cyrus (pp. 77f.), but the hopes of coming glory were disappointed.
The second half, on the contrary (Psa 85:8-13), is not a prayer to God but a revelation from God, uttered perhaps by a prophet. The long-looked-for glory will surely come.
Psa 85:8 b. unto: read, concerning.saints: see Psa 4:3*.
Psa 85:8 c. Read, and concerning those who turn to Him with their heart (LXX).
Psa 85:9. his salvation: i.e. the Messianic age.glory: the light in which God lives (set Isa 24:23). It was present in Solomons Temple and in the Tabernacle but not in the second Temple, but it was to return. Observe that the religious blessing, the glory of God, comes first; then the moral virtues, mercy, truth, righteousness, peace; lastly the material blessing of abundant harvests.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 85
An anticipation of the deliverance of Israel from captivity, and their restoration through the mercy of God acting in righteousness.
(vv. 1-3) In the opening verses the restoration of Israel is anticipated by the godly. The nation is viewed as brought back from captivity into the favour of Jehovah, their sins forgiven, and God’s wrath taken away. These verses present the final blessing of the nation; the remainder of the psalm, how that blessing is reached.
(vv. 4-7) The restoration of Israel awaits the moment when they will own that God has been dealing with them in governmental anger because of their long history of failure, and that their recovery wholly depends upon God, and not upon their own efforts. Therefore they say, Bring us back (JND). Of old Naomi had to say, after her wanderings in Moab, I went out…and the Lord hath brought me home again (Rth 1:21). We, alas! can wander; it is only the Lord who can bring us back again. In like spirit the nation of Israel will be brought to own that all their own efforts, or the efforts of others, to bring them back to the land of their blessing, will be in vain. They will at last confess the Lord alone can bring us back. Thus they plead with the Lord to cause His people to rejoice, to shew them mercy, and grant them salvation from all their enemies.
(vv. 8-13) The closing verses give the answer to this appeal to Jehovah. Very blessedly the godly man says, I will hear what God, Jehovah, will speak (JND). He finds that Jehovah gives an answer of peace. They had asked for salvation to be granted (v. 7); they hear that salvation is nigh them that fear Him. They had asked for mercy (v. 7); they hear that mercy and truth are met together – that God will show mercy while maintaining truth, and that righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Peace is brought to Israel, but not at the expense of righteousness. They had asked to be revived (v. 6); they hear that truth shall spring out of the earth, once marked by corruption; and righteousness will rule from heaven bringing forth goodness and plenty, where there had been only evil and want.
Righteousness will be the basis of the restored kingdom, and shall set his footsteps on the way that leads to the kingdom (JND).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
85:1 [To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.] LORD, thou hast been {a} favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
(a) They confess that God’s free mercy was the cause of their deliverance because he loved the land which he had chosen.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 85
An anonymous psalmist thanked God for forgiving and restoring His sinning people. He prayed that God would remove His wrath from them and expressed confidence in the nation’s future. Perhaps the genre is a national lament.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Thanksgiving and petition 85:1-7
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The writer began by thanking God for delivering His people. The reference to restoration from captivity (Psa 85:1) suggests that this psalm may date to the return from Babylonian exile. However, the psalmist may have been referring to a more modest captivity, perhaps at the hand of a neighbor nation. In any case, he viewed Israel’s former enslavement to be the result of her sin and thanked God for pardoning that.
"In Psa 85:3 a sin is conceived as a burden of the conscience; in Psa 85:3 b as a blood-stain." [Note: Delitzsch, 3:10.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 85:1-13
THE outstanding peculiarity of this psalm is its sudden transitions of feeling. Beginning with exuberant thanksgiving for restoration of the nation (Psa 85:1-3), it passes, without intermediate gradations, to complaints of Gods continued wrath and entreaties for restoration (Psa 85:4-7). and then as suddenly rises to joyous assurance of inward and outward blessings. The condition of the exiles returned from Babylon best corresponds to such conflicting emotions. The book of Nehemiah supplies precisely such a background as fits the psalm. A part of the nation had returned indeed, but to a ruined city, a fallen Temple, and a mourning land, where they were surrounded by jealous and powerful enemies. Discouragement had laid hold on the feeble company; enthusiasm had ebbed away; the harsh realities of their enterprise had stripped off its imaginative charm; and the mass of the returned settlers had lost heart as well as devout faith. The psalm accurately reflects such a state of circumstances and feelings, and may, with some certitude, be assigned, as it is by most commentators, to the period of return from exile.
It falls into three parts, of increasing length, -the first, of three verses (Psa 85:1-3), recounts Gods acts of mercy already received; the second, of four verses (Psa 85:4-7), is a plaintive prayer in view of still remaining national afflictions; and the third, of six verses (Psa 85:8-13), a glad report by the psalmist of the Divine promises which his waiting ear had heard, and which might well quicken the most faint hearted into triumphant hope.
In the first strophe one great fact is presented in a threefold aspect, and traced wholly to Jehovah. “Thou hast turned back the captivity of Jacob.” That expression is sometimes used in a figurative sense for any restoration of prosperity, but is here to be taken literally. Now, as at first, the restored Israel, like their ancestors under Joshua, had not won the land by their own arm, but “because God had a favour unto them,” and had given them favour in the eyes of those who carried them captive. The restoration of the Jews, seen from the conquerors point of view, was a piece of state policy, but from that of the devout Israelite was the result of Gods working upon the heart of the new ruler of Babylon. The fact is stated in Psa 85:1; a yet more blessed fact, of which it is most blessed as being a token, is declared in Psa 85:2.
The psalmist knows that captivity had been chastisement, the issue of national sin. Therefore he is sure that restoration is the sign of forgiveness. His thoughts are running in the same line as in Isa 40:2 where the proclamation, to Jerusalem that her iniquity is pardoned is connected with the assurance that her hard service is accomplished. He uses two significant words for pardon, both of which occur in Psa 32:1-11. In Psa 85:2 a sin is regarded as a weight pressing down the nation, which Gods mercy lifts off and takes away; in Psa 85:2 b it is conceived of as a hideous stain or foulness, which His mercy hides, so that it is no longer an offence to heaven. Psa 85:3 ventures still deeper into the sacred recesses of the Divine nature, and traces the forgiveness, which in act had produced so happy a change in Israels position, to its source in a change in Gods disposition. “Thou hast drawn in all Thy wrath,” as a man does his breath, or, if the comparison may be ventured, as some creature armed with a sting retracts it into its sheath. “Thou hast turned Thyself from the glow of Thine anger” gives the same idea under another metaphor. The word “turn” has a singular fascination for this psalmist. He uses it five times (Psa 85:1, Psa 85:3, Psa 85:4, Psa 85:6 -lit., wilt Thou not turn, quicken us?-and Psa 85:8). Gods turning from His anger is the reason for Israels returning from captivity.
The abruptness of the transition from joyous thanksgiving to the sad minor of lamentation and supplication is striking, but most natural, if the psalmist was one of the band of returning exiles, surrounded by the ruins of a happier past, and appalled by the magnitude of the work before them, the slenderness of their resources, and the fierce hostility of their neighbours. The prayer of Psa 85:4, “Turn us,” is best taken as using the word in the same sense as in Psa 85:1, where God is said to have “turned” the captivity of Jacob. What was there regarded as accomplished is here conceived of as still to be done. That is, the restoration was incomplete, as we know that it was, both in regard to the bulk of the nation, who still remained in exile, and in regard to the depressed condition of the small part of it which had gone back to Palestine. In like manner the petitions of Psa 85:5 look back to Psa 85:3, and pray that the anger which there had been spoken of as passed may indeed utterly cease. The partial restoration of the people implied, in the psalmists view, a diminution rather than a cessation of Gods punitive wrath, and he beseeches Him to complete that which He had begun.
The relation of the first to the second strophe is not only that of contrast, but the prayers of the latter are founded upon the facts of the former, which constitute both grounds for the suppliants hope of answer and pleas with God. He cannot mean to deliver by halves. The mercies received are incomplete; and His work must be perfect. He cannot be partially reconciled, nor have meant to bring His people back to the land, and then leave them to misery. So the contrast between the bright dawning of the return and its clouded day is not wholly depressing; for the remembrance of what has been heartens for the assurance that what is shall not always be, but will be followed by a future more correspondent to Gods purpose as shown in that past. When we are tempted to gloomy thoughts by the palpable incongruities between Gods ideals and mans realisation of them, we may take a hint from this psalmist, and, instead of concluding that the ideal was a phantasm, argue with ourselves that the incomplete actual will one day give way to the perfect embodiment. God leaves no work unfinished. He never leaves off till He has done. His beginnings guarantee congruous endings. He does not half withdraw His anger; and, if He seems to do so, it is only because men have but half turned from their sins. This psalm is rich in teaching as to the right way of regarding the incompleteness of great movements, which, in their incipient stages, were evidently of God. It instructs us to keep the Divine intervention which started them clearly in view; to make the shortcomings, which mar them, a subject of lowly prayer; and to be sure that all which He begins He will finish, and that the end will fully correspond to the promise of the beginning. A “day of the Lord” which rose in brightness may cloud over as its hours roll, but “at eventide it shall be light,” and none of the morning promise will be unfulfilled.
The third strophe (Psa 85:8-13) brings solid hopes, based upon Divine promises, to bear on present discouragements. In Psa 85:8 the psalmist, like Habakkuk, {Hab 2:1} encourages himself to listen to what God will speak. The word “I will hear” expresses resolve or desire, and might be rendered Let me hear, or I would hear. Faithful prayer will always be followed by patient and faithful waiting for response from God. God will not be silent, when His servant appeals to Him with recognition of His past mercies, joined with longing that these may be perfected. No voice will break the silence of the heavens; but, in the depths of the waiting soul, there will spring a sweet assurance which comes from God, and is really His answer to prayer, telling the suppliant that “He will speak peace to His people,” and warning them not to turn away from Him to other helps, which is folly. “His favoured ones” seems here to be meant as coextensive with “His people.” Israel is regarded as having entered into covenant relations with God; and the designation is the pledge that what God speaks will be “peace.” That word is to be taken in its widest sense, as meaning, first and chiefly, peace with Him, who has “turned Himself from His anger”; and then, generally, well-being of all kinds, outward and inward, as a consequence of that rectified relation with God.
The warning of Psa 85:8 c is thought by some to be out of place, and an emendation has been suggested, which requires little change in the Hebrew-namely, “to those who have turned their hearts towards Him.” This reading is supported by the LXX; but the warning is perfectly appropriate, and carries a large truth-that the condition of Gods speaking of peace is our firm adherence to Him. Once more the psalmist uses his favourite word “turn.” God had turned the captivity; He had turned Himself from His anger; the psalmist had prayed Him to turn or restore the people, and to turn and revive them, and now He warns against turning them again to folly. There is always danger of relapse in those who have experienced Gods delivering mercy. There is a blessed turning, when they are brought from the far-off land to dwell near God. But there is a possible fatal turning away from the Voice that speaks peace, and the Arm that brings salvation, to the old distance and bondage. Strange that any ears, which have heard the sweetness of His still small Voice whispering Peace should wish to stray where it cannot be heard! Strange that. the warning should ever be required, and tragic that it should so often be despised!
After the introductory Psa 85:8, the substance of what Jehovah spoke to the psalmist is proclaimed in the singers own words. The first assurance which the psalmist drew from the Divine word was that Gods salvation, the whole fulness of His delivering grace both in regard to external and in inward evils, is ever near to them that fear Him. “Salvation” here is to be taken in its widest sense. It means, negatively, deliverance from all possible evils, outward and inward; and, positively, endowment with all possible good, both for body and spirit. With such fulness of complete blessings, they, and they only, who keep near to God, and refuse to turn aside to foolish confidences, shall be enriched. That is the inmost meaning of what God said to the psalmist; and it is said to all. And that salvation being thus possessed, it would be possible for “glory”-i.e., the manifest presence of God, as in the Shechinah-to tabernacle in the land. The condition of Gods dwelling with men is their acceptance of His salvation. That purifies hearts to be temples.
The lovely personifications in Psa 85:10-13 have passed into Christian poetry and art, but are not clearly apprehended when they are taken to describe the harmonious meeting and cooperation, in Christs great work, of apparently opposing attributes of the Divine nature. No such thoughts are in the psalmists mind. Lovingkindness and Faithfulness or Troth are constantly associated in Scripture as Divine attributes. Righteousness and Peace are as constantly united, as belonging to the perfection of human character. Psa 85:10 seems to refer to the manifestation of Gods Lovingkindness and Faithfulness in its first clause, and to the exhibition of His peoples virtues and consequent happiness in its second. In all Gods dealings for His people, His Lovingkindness blends with Faithfulness. In all His peoples experience Righteousness and Peace are inseparable.
The point of the assurance in Psa 85:10 is that heaven and earth are blended in permanent amity, These four radiant angels “dwell in the land.” Then, in Psa 85:11, there comes a beautiful inversion of the two pairs of personifications, of each of which one member only reappears. Troth or Faithfulness, which in Psa 85:10 came into view principally as a Divine attribute, in Psa 85:11 is conceived of as a human virtue. It “springs out of the earth”-that is produced among men. All human virtue is an echo of the Divine, and they who have received into their hearts the blessed results of Gods Faithfulness will bring forth in their lives fruits like it in kind. Similarly, Righteousness, which in Psa 85:10 was mainly viewed as a human excellence, here appears as dwelling in and looking down from heaven, like a gracious angel smiling on the abundance of Faithfulness which springs from earth. Thus “the bridal of the earth and sky” is set forth in these verses.
The same idea is further presented in Psa 85:12, in its most general, form. God gives that which is good, both outward and inward blessings, and, thus fructified by bestowments from above, earth yields her increase. His gifts precede mens returns. Without sunshine and rain there are no harvests. More widely still, God gives first before He asks. He does not gather where He has not strawed, nor reap what He has not sown. Nor does He only sow, but He “blesses the springing thereof”; and to Him should the harvest be rendered. He gives before we can give. Isa 45:8 is closely parallel, representing in like manner the cooperation of heaven and earth, in the new world of Messianic times.
In Psa 85:13 the thought of the blending of heaven and earth, or of Divine attributes as being the foundation and parents of their human analogues, is still more vividly expressed. Righteousness, which in Psa 85:10 was regarded as exercised by men, and in Psa 85:11 as looking down from heaven, is now represented both as a herald preceding Gods royal progress, and as following in His footsteps. The last clause is rendered in different ways, which all have the same general sense. Probably the rendering above is best: “Righteousness shall make His footsteps a way”-that is, for men to “walk in. All Gods workings among men, which are poetically conceived as His way, have stamped on them Righteousness. That strong angel goes before Him to clear a path for Him, and trace the course which He shall take. That is the imaginative expression of the truth-that absolute. inflexible Righteousness guides all the Divine acts. But the same Righteousness, which precedes, also follows Him, and points His footsteps as the way for us. The incongruity of this double position of Gods herald makes the force of the thought greater. It is the poetical embodiment of the truth, that the perfection of mans character and conduct lies in his being an “imitator of God,” and that, however different in degree, our righteousness must be based on His. What a wonderful thought that is, that the union between heaven and earth is so close that Gods path is our way! How deep into the foundation of ethics the psalmists glowing vision pierces! How blessed the assurance that Gods Righteousness is revealed from heaven to make men righteous!
Our psalm needs the completion, which tells of that gospel in which “the Righteousness of God from faith is revealed for faith.” In Jesus the “glory” has tabernacled among men. He has brought heaven and earth together. In Him Gods Lovingkindness and Faithfulness have become denizens of earth, as never before. In Him heaven has emptied its choicest good on earth. Through Him our barrenness and weeds are changed into harvests of love, praise, and service. In Him the Righteousness of God is brought near; and, trusting in Him, each of us may tread in His footsteps, and have His Righteousness fulfilled in us “who walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit.”