"To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
Lord, you were favourable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation towards us!
5 Will you be angry with us for ever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way."
Psalm 85
The historical circumstances unfolded in Nehemiah well illustrate the ambiguous and paradoxical nature of the Psalmist's teaching. On the one hand a great deliverance had been accomplished for God's people; on the other, their rosy dreams had turned out so differently in reality as they saw that it was to be a continuing battle and an uphill fight, and the tendency to discouragement was very real. The parallels for our day are not far to seek. When God re-establishes the gospel word in the land, it is a turning of the captivity of Zion. But much hard work awaits those who are committed to the work of rebuilding, and they must be prepared for battles and discouragements. Two things should be noted in relation to the prayer in 4-7. The first is that the Psalmist uses what God has done in 1-3 as a basis for his prayer: the beginning of a work is in itself an assurance that it will be continued and perfected. The second is that the incompleteness of the work can sometimes be caused by our own failures; and sometimes God has to wait for us to come to terms with His will, if we have flagged in zeal or lost the edge of our earlier consecration.
If we look at the other possibility of interpretation and take the Psalm to mean that the Psalmist is looking back, from his position of distress and calamity, at what God once did in the land, we should see that it is something, after all, for a people in affliction to be praying for reviving, for this in itself is a sign of grace; to cry like this to God brings one into a state of spiritual awareness, in which one is able to hear the voice of God. So often, we are not close enough to Him to hear what He is saying. This is often why the heavens seem to be as brass to us. But when, through prayer and burden we are exercised, our ears are opened to hear things we would not hear otherwise. What the Psalmist heard will be the theme of the next Note.