Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 85:4
Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
4. Turn us ] I.e. Restore us. Cp. Psa 80:3. For R.V. marg. Turn to us, cp. Isa 63:17; but the rendering of the text is preferable.
cause thine anger &c.] Lit. break off thine indignation with us: cease to be provoked with us. The cognate verb is constantly used of Israel’s ‘provocation’ of Jehovah (e.g. Jer 7:18 ff.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 7. Yet in spite of forgiveness and restoration, much is still lacking. Oh that God would wholly withdraw His wrath, and gladden His people with a full salvation! Cp. the prayer of Psa 126:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Turn us, O God of our salvation – The God from whom salvation must come, and on whom we are dependent for it. The prayer here is, turn us; turn us from our sins; bring us to repentance; make us willing to forsake every evil way; and enable us to do it. This is the proper spirit always in prayer. The first thing is not that he would take away his wrath, but that he would dispose us to forsake our sins, and to turn to himself; that we may be led to abandon that which has brought his displeasure upon us, and then that he will cause his anger toward us to cease. We have no authority for asking God to turn away his judgments unless we are willing to forsake our sins; and in all cases we can hope for the divine interposition and mercy, when the judgments of God are upon us, only as we are willing to turn from our iniquities.
And cause thine anger toward us to cease – The word used here, and rendered cause to cease – parar – means properly to break; then, to violate; and then, to annul, or to bring to an end. The idea here is, that if they were turned from sin, the cause of his anger would be removed, and would cease of course. Compare Psa 80:3.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Turn us, O God of our salvation] Thou hast turned our captivity; now convert our souls. And they find a reason for their prayer in an attribute of their God; the God of their salvation. And as his work was to save, they beg that his anger towards them might cease. The Israelites were not restored from their captivity all at once. A few returned with Zerubbabel; some more with Ezra and Nehemiah; but a great number still remained in Babylonia, Media, Assyria, Egypt, and other parts. The request of the psalmist is, to have a complete restoration of all the Israelites from all places of their dispersion.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Turn us; either,
1. Convert us. As thou hast brought back our bodies to thy land, so bring back our hearts to thyself, from whom many of them to this day are alienated. Or rather,
2. Restore us to our former tranquillity, and free us from the troubles which we yet groan under from our malicious neighbours and enemies; for this best suits with the following clause of the verse, which commonly explains the former.
Cause thine anger toward us to cease; he prudently endeavours to take away the root and cause of their continued miseries, to wit, Gods anger procured by their sins.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4-7. having still occasion forthe anger which is deprecated.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Turn us, O God of our salvation,…. Who appointed it in his purposes, contrived it in council, secured it in covenant, and sent his Son to effect it; the prayer to him is for converting grace, either at first, for first conversion is his work, and his only; or after backslidings, for he it is that restores the souls of his people; and perhaps it is a prayer of the Jews, for their conversion in the latter day; when sensible of sin, and seeking after the Messiah they have rejected, when the Lord will turn them to himself, and turn away iniquity from them, and they shall be saved, Ho 3:5,
and cause thine anger towards us to cease: the manifest tokens of which are now upon them, being scattered up and down in the world, and made a proverb, a taunt, and a jeer; but will be removed, and cease, when they shall be converted.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The poet now prays God to manifest anew the loving-kindness He has shown formerly. In the sense of “restore us again,” does not form any bond of connection between this and the preceding strophe; but it does it, according to Ges. 121, 4, it is intended in the sense of ( ) , turn again to us. The poet prays that God would manifest Himself anew to His people as He has done in former days. Thus the transition from the retrospective perfects to the petition is, in the presence of the existing extremity, adequately brought about. Assuming the post-exilic origin of the Psalm, we see from this strophe that it was composed at a period in which the distance between the temporal and spiritual condition of Israel and the national restoration, promised together with the termination of the Exile, made itself distinctly felt. On (in relation to and bearing towards us) beside , cf. Job 10:17, and also on , Psa 89:34. In the question in Psa 89:6 reminding God of His love and of His promise, has the signification of constant endless continuing or pursuing, as in Psa 36:11. The expression in Psa 85:7 is like Psa 71:20, cf. Psa 80:19; is here the representative of rursus, Ges. 142. from , like in Psa 38:2, has e (cf. the inflexion of and ) instead of the in . Here at the close of the strophe the prayer turns back inferentially to this attribute of God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4 Turn us, O God of our salvation! The faithful now make a practical application to themselves, in their present circumstances, of what they had rehearsed before concerning God’s paternal tenderness towards his people whom he had redeemed. And they attribute to him, by whom they desire to be restored to their former state, the appellation, O God of our salvation! to encourage themselves, even in the most desperate circumstances, in the hope of being delivered by the power of God. Although to the eye of sense and reason there may be no apparent ground to hope favourably as to our condition, it becomes us to believe that our salvation rests secure in his hand, and that, whenever he pleases, he can easily and readily find the means of bringing salvation to us. God’s anger being the cause and origin of all calamities, the faithful beseech him to remove it. This order demands our special attention; for so effeminate and faint-hearted in bearing adversity are we, that no sooner does God begin to smite us with his little finger, than we entreat him, with groaning and lamentable cries, to spare us. But we forget to plead, what should chiefly engage our thoughts, that he would deliver us from guilt and condemnation; and we forget this because we are reluctant to descend into our own hearts and to examine ourselves.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Turn us.Here equivalent to restore us once more. If, the poet felt, the captivity had taught its lesson, why, on the restoration, did not complete freedom from misfortune ensue? It is this which supplies the motive of his song.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Turn us Lead us back. The spiritual sense of convert is implied, of which the literal restoration was a symbol. Having confessed the favour of God to his land, the psalmist also confesses (Psa 85:4-7) the utter inability of the nation to re-collect itself, and revive its polity, without the specific leadership of God. The natural shrinking of the human heart from great trials discovers itself in these plaintive outcries, like “Lord, save us: we perish,” (Mat 8:25😉 but faith resumes her sway, (Psa 85:8,) and serenely conducts us to the close.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 85:4. Turn us, O God of our salvation The meaning is, “Restore us entirely to our former happy state, by completing the deliverance which thou hast begun; and by averting these new troubles which have befallen us.” See Ezr 4:4-5; Ezr 4:21; Ezr 4:23. It is not improbable, that this psalm was ordered to be sung presently after the Jews had laid the foundation of the new temple, when they were hindered from proceeding with the work by the opposition of their enemies.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
How sweet and suitable is this prayer for converting grace, after experiencing pardoning mercy! When Jesus hath purchased our pardon, his next gracious act is to renew our hearts to a proper enjoyment of it. And what a blessed thought is it that Jesus not only undertook for our debt, but engaged for our duty: not only to bring us to the favor of our God, but to restore in us the image of our God. Oh, thou lovely Lord! when shall we have learned the whole of thy mercies!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 85:4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
Ver. 4. Turn us, O God of our salvation ] Turn us, and we shall be turned; do as thou ever hast done, for thou art Jehovah, thou changest not, but art yesterday, today, and the same for ever.
And cause thine anger, &c. NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 85:4-7
4Restore us, O God of our salvation,
And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
5Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
6Will You not Yourself revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
7Show us Your lovingkindness, O Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.
Psa 85:4-7 This strophe starts out with two prayer requests (restore – BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal imperative; put away – BDB 830, KB 974, Hiphil imperative) and ends with a prayer request (show – BDB 906, KB 1157, Hiphil imperative).
It then follows with a series of questions related to that call for restoration.
1. Will You be angry with us forever? cf. Psa 74:1; Psa 79:5; Psa 80:4
2. Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
3. Will You not Yourself revive us again? cf. Psa 71:20; Psa 80:18
Israel could not understand how YHWH allowed them to be invaded and exiled (cf. Habakkuk 1)! They were His people and His witness in this world. The problem was covenant disobedience. The wrong message was being communicated to the nations (cf. Eze 36:22-36).
Psa 85:7 lovingkindness See note at Contextual Insights, B.
Your salvation In Psa 85:4 the psalmist calls YHWH O God (Eloah) of our salvation (BDB 447). See SPECIAL TOPIC: SALVATION (OLD TESTAMENT TERM) (OT).
Turn us. Compare “Thou hast turned” (verses: Psa 85:2, Psa 85:3).
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Psa 85:4-7
Psa 85:4-7
A PLEA FOR SALVATION
“Turn us, O God of our salvation,
And cause thine indignation toward us to cease.
Wilt thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Show us thy loving kindness, O Jehovah,
And grant us thy salvation.”
The tone of these verses is radically different from that in the first three; and they can be explained only by understanding them to refer to a period subsequent to the glorious return of the Chosen People from Babylon. Such an explanation is easily provided by the prophets Haggai and Malachi. What had gone wrong?
(1) First, the vast majority of Israel, having accommodated to their situation in Babylon, many of them amassing wealth, simply refused to return to Jerusalem.
(2) Those who did return had no enthusiasm whatever for rebuilding the temple, their chief concern being the building of their own houses.
(3) They grossly neglected the requirements of God’s worship.
(4) Even after the second temple had finally been constructed, Malachi flatly declared that the people were “robbing God”! Things in Israel had gone from bad to worse during that first generation of returnees. As the situation deteriorated, there is no wonder that the psalmist included this earnest, even urgent, plea for God to save them.
“Turn us, O God of our salvation” (Psa 85:4). This means, “Turn us from our sins.” God could not bless Israel as long as they preferred iniquity to the righteousness God required of them. “This is always the proper spirit in prayer. The first thing is not that God should take away his wrath, but that he would dispose us to forsake our sins.
This paragraph (Psa 85:4-7) carries three petitions. The first of these is “Turn us” (Psa 85:4).
“Wilt thou be angry forever? … unto all generations” (Psa 85:5). “Such plaintive questions frequently accompany supplications for forgiveness and restoration. They do not reveal impatience or mistrust but speak, rather, of the earnestness of the petitioner.
“Wilt thou not quicken us again?” (Psa 85:6). This is the second of the three petitions, It means, “rejuvenate us”; “give us a new spirit”; “make us alive again.” There is an overtone here of the ultimate achievement of such a thing in the New Birth revealed in the New Testament.
“Show us thy lovingkindness … grant us thy salvation” (Psa 85:7). This is the third of the petitions. “It is a request that Israel might experience fulfilment of the covenant-promises of God’s steadfast love and their own salvation.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 85:4. Turn us means to reverse the condition of distress that the enemies had brought upon the nation. God’s anger was manifested by using the enemy as an agent for the correction of His people.
Psa 85:5. David once more was pleading for mercy. He did not deny their being deserving of chastisement, but pleaded for relief from it.
Psa 85:6. Revive us again means to enliven them by the encouragement of divine forgiveness; this would result in the rejoicing of the people of Israel.
Psa 85:7. The prayer for salvation did not mean that David and his people were in an unsaved condition in regard to their soul. It had reference to being saved or rescued from their national enemies; the people who wished them harm.
turn us: The Israelites were not restored from their captivity all at once: afew returned with Zerubbabel, some more with Ezra and Nehemiah; but a great number still remained in Babylonia, Media, Assyria, etc.; and therefore the Psalmist prays for a complete restoration. Psa 80:3, Psa 80:7, Psa 80:19, Jer 31:18, Lam 5:21, Mal 4:6
O God: Psa 25:2, Psa 27:1, Mic 7:7, Mic 7:18-20, Joh 4:22
cause: Psa 78:38, Isa 10:25, Dan 9:16
Reciprocal: Num 25:4 – that the fierce Psa 7:12 – If Psa 23:3 – restoreth Psa 60:1 – O turn Psa 126:4 – Turn again Isa 17:10 – the God Dan 9:13 – that we Amo 7:5 – cease
Psa 85:4. Turn us, O God of our salvation That is, either, 1st, Convert us. As thou hast brought back our bodies to thy land, so bring back our hearts to thyself, from whom many of them are to this day alienated. Or rather, restore us to our former tranquillity, and free us from the troubles which we yet groan under from our malicious neighbours and enemies. And cause thine anger toward us to cease He prudently endeavours to get the root and cause of their continued miseries removed, namely, Gods anger procured by their sins.
Even though Israel was free, she still needed spiritual restoration and revival. Because of this condition the psalmist petitioned God to put away all of His anger against His sinning people (cf. Isa 28:21; Eze 18:32). They needed his loyal love (Heb. hesed) and His deliverance. They would rejoice when He provided these benefits fully.
"The psalms often reflect on anger. This preoccupation may seem abnormal to us, but anger is a theological concern. The psalmists invite us to deal with anger rather than skirt negative human emotions. Hence the psalms invite us to pray through anger and thus to be cleansed of evil emotions and to be filled with hope in the full inauguration of God’s kingdom." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 551. This writer provided an extended discussion of anger in the psalms on pages 551-56.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)