A few comments on a most appropriate psalm for the people of God today.
Psalm 85 is one of the four chapters of God’s Word allocated in McCheyne’s Bible Reading calendar for reading and study on Saturday 31st May.
As I read it, I found it so appropriate and relevant to the circumstances prevailing in many places amongst the people of God, not least here in Northern Ireland.
I jotted down some observations as I read the Psalm and then felt that I should share them with our ‘Burning Bush’ readers.
So here they are, (a little enlarged) for whatever they are worth, and I trust the Psalm will bless you as it has blessed me — aye and much more!
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.
‘It is the prayer of a patriot for his afflicted country, in which he pleads the Lord’s former mercies, and by faith foresees brighter days,’ C H Spurgeon.
As it was with Jacob, the nation of Israel, so it has ever been with the New Testament Church! How frequently the Lord has had to ‘bring us back’ from captivity! His bringing us back from captivity is a wonderful evidence of ‘favour’! The word means ’to take pleasure in’. What a favour is that!
2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
What a ‘bringing back’ it has ever been! There is ‘forgiveness’ for our many sins which CAUSED our captivity. In our folly we abandoned the Lord and became slaves of that which oppressed us.
3. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
How we need to ever remember what backsliding and departure from ‘the Old Paths’ bring upon us! ‘Wrath and fierce anger’!
Sadly, God’s people repeatedly forget this truth and only learn it afresh when they begin to reap that sad harvest! “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting,” Galatians 6:7-8.
4. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
Backsliding amongst the saints of God is FOLLOWED by the Lord’s anger and as we begin to recognise our offences that have brought His anger, we also realise that we are HELPLESS and cannot turn ourselves back again to the paths of obedience and righteousness! We must pray and ask the Lord to TURN US! That surely is the humble prayer that should be on every believer’s lip and heard in all of our prayer meetings!
5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
That is the possibility we face. There have been times when God’s people sinned and rebelled against His mercy and kindness just ONCE too often and there was no recovery.
That happened in Jeremiah’s day. The prophet was commanded: “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee,” Jeremiah 7:16.
May that day not have dawned on us here in Ulster, for surely we have sinned against great privileges and mercies and, in truth, deserve to be forsaken.
6. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
But even though the Psalmist faced up to the truth of their underserving state, and saw the possibility of the dire consequences of their sinful folly, yet faith in the Lord’s mercy prompts him to pray for REVIVAL. I have also been heartened by that word in Psalm 103. “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust,” verse 14.
7. Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
God’s mercy is a ‘visible’ matter! We remember what was observed of the apostles by their enemies. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus,” Acts 4:13.
In like manner, Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch and saw the impact of the Gospel upon the converts to faith in Christ. “Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord,” Acts 11:23. Gospel grace immediately marks the convert but there is a future day when that ‘mark’ will reach its fulness. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is,” 1 John 3:2.
8. I 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.
Praying for mercy and restoration is accompanied by a ‘listening ear’ to what the Lord has to say. We MUST ever submit` to God’s Word. In doing so we will discover that He speaks ‘peace unto his people’ and also the warning that we must ‘not turn again to folly.’
9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
As our school motto declares, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” Proverbs 9:10. When there is a true ‘fear’, a reverencing of the Lord, a dutiful looking in awe upon His Person, His Word and His will, there will be ‘glory’ dwelling in the land.
As we look around Ulster we see the evidence of an absence of a true fearing of God amongst His people.
10. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
This is a marriage of that which appears incompatible! How can there be mercy when, in truth, we are so wicked and underserving? How can there be a union, a meeting between righteousness and peace when the righteous judgment of God calls for our damnation? Calvary’s cross is where there was a wonderful reconciliation between these humanly irreconcilable entities. At the cross the Lord Jesus bore our guilt and sin and reconciled us to God
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” Romans 5:6.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,”
2 Corinthians 5:21. Oh the wonder of it all!
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
The Bible is as a field wherein lies innumerable seeds of gloriously beautiful promises which have yet to spring forth and be revealed. The following verse comes to mind: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
The day fast approaches when there will be that springing forth before the eyes of the redeemed and Heaven shall look down, pleased to see the glories appearing amongst the nations!
12. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.
This is specifically spoken of Israel, for it is a Hebrew Psalmist who is writing, but it is not limited to just the land of Israel. Heed the words of Habakkuk. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea,” Habakkuk 2:14.
While today’s evolutionists and environmentalists look to their efforts to save the earth, here is what the Lord purposes and promises to do!
13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
In the glories that are to be revealed in the future, there is a PERSON central to it all. That person is the ‘HE’ referred to in this final verse. It is the Lord Jesus of course.
Where He goes, RIGHTEOUSNESS goes before Him. The word means ‘justice, truth’. That which is utterly absent from the regimes and governments of men, and ever has been, will be manifested when Christ returns to rule and reign upon this earth.
C H Spurgeon comments succinctly on this verse. ‘God’s march of right will leave a track wherein his people will joyfully follow. He who smote in justice will also bless in justice, and in both will make his righteousness manifest, so as to affect the hearts and lives of all his people. Such are the blessings of our Lord’s first advent, and such shall be yet more conspicuously the result of his second coming. Even so, come Lord Jesus.’
This is a good note to end our look at this wonderful Psalm.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
1st June 2026