Bring us back, O God of our salvation, and cause thine indignation toward us to cease.
Psalm 85 asks for more after mercy has already come: the land favoured, the captivity brought back, the people's sin covered. Verse 4 opens the second half of the psalm. Here a forgiven people ask for something they still do not have. They ask God to bring them back to Himself, and to put His displeasure away.
One writer separates two things: pardon for everything we have done, and the settled enjoyment of nearness to God. The second does not arrive with the first, and its absence feels like anger.
We are brought back, and the sacrifice of Christ has put away for ever everything our old nature produced. So we have full forgiveness. As to that, wrath is gone. All our sin is covered; but the distance from God and from the enjoyment of communion with Him is still there... Though we are forgiven, this distance — this lack of enjoying God in the new and divine nature — feels in its very nature like anger. It is not being brought to God. And we cannot rest without enjoying His favour.
The first three verses record a public act of God — the nation restored. Verse 4 asks for something the outward change had not supplied.
So the first three verses lay this ground: God has been favourable to His land, and has brought back the captivity of Jacob. This was the great public truth. But in verse 4 the restored people need another blessing, in the reality of their own relationship with God: "Restore us again, O God of our salvation." The Lord was the God of their salvation, but they needed His blessing within the land... How often this is true of a soul that knows forgiveness!
The prayer is a confession as much as a request. Asking God to bring them back admits that their own efforts cannot do it. One writer points to Naomi, who came home from Moab and gave the Lord the credit.
Israel's restoration waits until they admit two things. God has been dealing with them in anger, in His government of them, because of their long history of failure. And their recovery depends wholly on God, not on their own efforts. Therefore they say, "Bring us back" (JND). Long ago Naomi had to say, after her wanderings in Moab, "I went away … and the LORD has brought me back" (Ruth 1:21). Sadly, we can wander. Only the Lord can bring us back again.
If sin is already covered, why ask for anger to stop? One writer answers that Israel no longer trusts herself.
Verse 4 may sound as though the forgiveness was not complete, and as though there might still be cause for God's anger. But does it not rather show that Israel can no longer trust herself? She is pleading that God will keep on protecting her from the folly of her past years... But we can understand Israel speaking this way. Their long history has been one of disobedience, and they do not want to slip back into the same worthless state.
The prayer asks for more than a pause in God's anger. One writer hears in it a plea that the cycle end — judgment falling asleep, then waking in the next generation. Joy in God is the guard against it.
So the psalmist appeals to the One he owns as the God of their salvation. He begs God to turn them back to Himself, so that His wrath may cease and rise no more. Must the judgment keep coming back, he asks, generation after generation — sleeping for a while, then waking with fresh force? Will You not turn us and revive us, so that joy in You will keep Your people from straying — from the sin that stirs Your anger?
The prayer went up long before the nation's guilt was full. One writer says the answer is still certain.
The spirit of Christ sent up this cry long ages before they filled up the measure of their sin (Ps. 85:4). God will answer it in His time. They shall be turned. Forgiveness stands on record for that nation, in the dying prayer of the One they killed in ignorance. Their hearts will turn to Jesus, when that day comes which the Lord has made.
- Turned, not just released. Verses 1–3 record what God did in public. Verse 4 asks for the inward relationship that the outward rescue did not supply.
- Turned by Him. Asking God to bring them back is a confession: recovery depends wholly on God, not on their own efforts. We can wander; only the Lord brings us home.
- Turned from distance. Full forgiveness takes wrath away. Yet the missing enjoyment of communion still feels like anger, and the soul cannot rest without His favour.
- Turned for good. The plea is that His displeasure stop and never rise again. Joy in Him keeps the people from the straying that stirs it.
- Turned in His time. The cry was raised long before the nation's guilt was full. It will still be answered in His time: they shall be turned.
Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger from generation to generation?
Psalm 85 opens with a nation thanking God for forgiveness already given. Three verses later the same voice asks if His anger will run on for generations. How can wrath be taken away and still feared? Can a forgiven person honestly pray this way?
One commentator names the problem plainly, then answers it. The singer is not doubting the pardon. He asks that this blessing last, where earlier ones faded.
The connection of the first section with what follows has been a difficulty to many. How can the psalmist say, "You have taken away all Your wrath," and then almost at once cry out, "cause Your wrath toward us to cease"? ... I believe the true explanation is this: he is pleading that the blessing which has in fact come may last. Earlier seasons of refreshment and deliverance had again and again passed away into 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.
The same writer hears in the question a judgment that only sleeps and then wakes again.
Will the judgment keep coming back, he asks, generation after generation? It sleeps only to break out again with fresh energy. Will You not turn and revive us, so that joy in You may keep Your people from straying — from the sin that provokes Your anger like this?
One writer places this prayer with the faithful within Israel, in a day still ahead.
The faithful among them will be painfully conscious of the troubles they share as part of the people who crucified the Lord their Messiah. So we read in Psalm 85 of the desires that follow, for they can enjoy no lasting peace unless the Lord Jesus is sent to them again... How earnest is the united prayer of the godly remnant here shown to us in prophecy (85:4-7)!
One writer reads the question as self-distrust, not doubt about God. They know what they are, and dread repeating it.
Verse 4 may sound as though the forgiveness has not been complete, and that there might still be occasion for God's anger. But does it not rather show that Israel can no longer trust herself? She is pleading that God will keep on preserving her from the folly of her past years. ... We may be sure of this: God wants us to be so certain of His salvation that we would have no reason to use language like that of verses 4-6. But we can understand Israel speaking this way. Their long history has been one of disobedience, and they do not want to slip back into the same unprofitable condition.
The order matters. Pardon comes first; everything asked afterwards rests on it.
This seems to be a prayer for the positive blessings that result from God's pardon being theirs... Turning to blessing follows pardon and forgiveness — always so, never the reverse.
One writer answers this exact question bluntly: the believer's position rules it out.
First, the word of God plainly declares the believer in Christ free from condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1)... Besides, Scripture contrasts the believer's state here with the unbeliever's. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36). What separates the two groups? The wrath of God remains on the unbeliever, but it has passed away from the believer. Since that is the difference, how clear it is that no believer can knowingly pray, "Be not angry with us for ever."
That does not mean sin in a believer costs nothing. It means the cost is of a different kind.
Standing in these new relations to God, the believer can of course still fail in the service and obedience they call for... he may need his Father's forgiveness... But how wide the contrast! The Father's chastening flows from love, and He sends it so "that we may share his holiness" (Heb. 12:10). The "wrath" or "anger" that rests on unbelievers is another thing, and He delivers us from it once and finally, when the eye rests in faith on Christ and on His precious blood!
- Pardon first. The psalm opens with forgiveness already given. Every prayer that follows, verse 5 included, rests on that ground — never the other way round.
- Then the fear. The question dreads anger that only sleeps and wakes again in the next generation — mercy that keeps expiring.
- Then the reason. The people can no longer trust themselves. They ask God to keep them from the folly that filled their past.
- Then the answer. The prayer is for lasting blessing: let the anger vanish for good and the goodness shown remain at last.
- Then the contrast. For the believer, wrath has passed away for good. What remains is a Father's discipline, given in love so we may share His holiness.
Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?
The middle of Psalm 85 is a prayer, not a promise. Two questions run through it: who can bring a drifting people back to life, and why is joy the reason they give for asking?
The plea belongs to people who have found they cannot bring themselves back. One writer sets it inside the confession of verses 4-7:
Israel's restoration waits until they own two things. First, that God has been dealing with them in governmental anger because of their long history of failure. Second, that their recovery depends wholly on God, and not on their own efforts. Therefore they say, "Bring us back." ... We, alas! can wander; it is only the Lord who can bring us back again.
One writer points to the Hebrew word behind it:
There is a response awakened in many hearts by that deep-toned chord of Psalm 85:6, "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" The word "revive" could be read "recover" (khaw-yaw, the same as in Isaiah 38:9).
Another writer turns that word on the people who pray it:
The word "revive" in that prayer is really "recover." It describes our need and reveals our drift; nothing will avail but recovery. Let us stop talking about the truth being recovered for us. That only fosters spiritual pride. Let us instead desire and pray that God may recover us to the truth. It is we who have drifted away from it, and not it from us.
The prayer goes to God because no one else can answer it.
Recovery is His own work. We are shut up to Him for this. We may desire it, and pray for it, but He Himself is the great Recoverer. "None can recover (khaw-yaw) his own soul" (Ps. 22:29). We are therefore to turn to Him, and to none other. Happy, however, is the man who sings, "He restores my soul."
(That line from Psalm 22:29 follows an older translation. The ESV reads "even the one who could not keep himself alive.")
The word "again" might suggest a return to a previous level. The same writer says God gives more than that:
It is not God's way to recover us only to the former state. His way is to bring us to something higher and more blessed than before.
The verse states its own purpose — joy in God. One writer separates two things here: being forgiven, and enjoying God.
Even though we are forgiven, this distance, this lack of enjoyment of God in the new and divine nature, still feels like anger in its very nature. It is not the same as being brought to God. Nor can we rest without the enjoyment of His favour.
He then names what meets that need:
We may have desired it — that is, the sense of favour. But we cannot get it by progress or victory. We must get it by forgiveness and deliverance, for we are sinners. And once we have found redemption and pardon, more is at work than the need of conscience that first brings us in. The new man has spiritual desires too. "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" The soul is revived by the presence of the Spirit of God, and rejoices in God Himself.
Another writer reads that joy as a safeguard:
Will You not turn and revive us, so that joy in You will keep Your people from straying — from the sin that provokes Your anger in this way?
The closing verses answer the requests of verses 4-7 one by one:
They had asked for mercy (v. 7). They hear that mercy and truth have met together: God will show mercy while holding to truth, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. God brings peace to Israel, but not at the expense of righteousness. They had asked to be "revived" (v. 6). They hear that truth will spring out of the earth, which was once marked by corruption. And righteousness will rule from heaven, bringing goodness and plenty where there had been only evil and want.
- Drift. The prayer admits a fall. "Revive" reads as "recover" — it is we who moved away, not the truth.
- Dependence. Recovery is God's own work; no one can bring his own soul back to life, so the prayer goes to Him and to no one else.
- Gift. God does not just restore the old level. His way is to lift us to something higher than before.
- Goal. The aim is joy. The Spirit of God revives the soul, and it rejoices in God Himself — far past the relief of being forgiven.
- Guard. That joy also guards. A people glad in God do not stray back into the sin that brought the anger.
Shew us thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, and grant us thy salvation.
The psalm first recalls what God has already done for His land and people. Then it asks Him to do it again. Verse 7 is the heart of that plea — mercy shown, salvation given — and the rest of the psalm answers it.
This prayer comes from people who have given up on saving themselves. They first admit why God's anger came, and only then ask.
Israel's restoration waits for the moment when they admit two things. God has been dealing with them in anger, as the One who governs them, because of their long history of failure. And their recovery depends wholly upon God, not upon their own efforts. Therefore they say, "Bring us back." Of old Naomi had to say, after her wanderings in Moab, "I went out … and the Lord has brought me home again" (Ruth 1:21). Sadly, we can wander; only the Lord can bring us back again. In the same spirit Israel will come to admit that no effort of theirs, and no effort of anyone else, can bring them back to the land of their blessing. At last they will confess that the Lord alone can "bring us back." So they plead with the Lord to make His people rejoice, to show them mercy, and to grant them salvation from all their enemies.
One writer reads the psalm as the prayer of a future generation in Israel. They are back in their land, but they have no settled peace.
Some earthly power brings the Jews back to their land (Isa. 18), but God does not own them. The faithful among them will feel keenly the troubles they share as part of the people who crucified the Lord their Messiah. So Psalm 85 tells us what they long for. They can enjoy no lasting peace unless the Lord Jesus is sent to them again. As Peter told their fathers (Acts 3:21), He must remain in heaven until the times of restoration of all things. How earnest is the pleading of this godly remnant!
This prayer reaches further than pardon. Older translations read "mercy" here where the ESV has "steadfast love." One writer separates having sins forgiven from knowing God in favour, and he hears the second here.
"Show us Your mercy" — but this is mercy from God known in relationship with His own. For us, that is the Father known in Christ. Then, "and grant us Your salvation." The soul has learnt grace, and it listens for the answer because it looks for grace. This is not legal agony. It is a desire to know God in favour. "He will speak peace." "His salvation is near to those who fear Him."
What follows is not a general reassurance. Each half of verse 7 gets its own reply.
The closing verses give the answer to this appeal to Jehovah. What a blessed thing that the godly man says, "I will hear what God, Jehovah, will speak." He finds that Jehovah gives an answer of peace. They had asked God to grant salvation (v. 7); they hear that salvation is near to those who fear Him. They had asked for mercy (v. 7); they hear that mercy and truth have met together. God will show mercy while holding to truth, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Peace comes to Israel, but not at the expense of righteousness.
Asking God for mercy raises a problem: truth and righteousness seem to stand in the way. One writer points to the cross, where they meet without conflict.
For "truth," which required death (Gen. 2:17), and "mercy," which can think of nothing but life and blessing, are here together. Death is endured according to truth, and mercy gives the guilty one life and liberty. "Righteousness" also kisses "peace," and "peace" kisses "righteousness." Instead of being offended at each other's presence, they welcome each other. Righteousness is more than honoured by what He who makes peace offers to it on the cross. And peace is fully satisfied when it sees that it can announce itself to sinners on so sure a ground: righteousness honoured and accomplished. All is harmony where all was strife before.
Verse 7 also marks a change of tone. The questions are giving way to confidence.
Verse 7 might be better rendered as a prayer that God would show them His mercy and grant them His salvation. So the soul seems to be coming out of any shadow of doubt that is left. It will take time for Israel to come out into the light of settled peace with God. By nature we all have slow, stubborn hearts in learning the wonders of the grace of God.
- Asked in helplessness. The prayer starts where self-effort ends: only the Lord can bring His people back.
- Asked for favour. "Mercy" here reaches past pardon to the enjoyment of God's favour — not legal agony, but a desire to know God in grace.
- Answered point for point. They ask for salvation and hear that salvation is near; they ask for mercy and hear that mercy has met truth.
- Answered righteously. At the cross, truth's demand of death and mercy's gift of life stand together, so peace rests on righteousness honoured.
- Received by listening. The one who prays then listens for God's answer, and slow, stubborn hearts come into settled peace.