BackgroundA communal Korahite prayer most likely from the early post-exilic period (~538-500 BC), when Judeans had returned from Babylon but the restoration was not delivering the glory the prophets had promised; some commentators argue for an earlier setting, but the language of "you have restored Jacob from captivity" fits the return best.
Psalm 85: Where Hesed and Truth Meet
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 85
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
- You showed favor to Your land, O LORD; You restored Jacob from captivity.
- You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah
- You withheld all Your fury; You turned from Your burning anger.
- Restore us, O God of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
- Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
- Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
- Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation.
- I will listen to what God the LORD will say; for He will surely speak peace to His people and His saints; He will not let them return to folly.
- Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.
- Loving devotion and faithfulness have joined together; righteousness and peace have kissed.
- Faithfulness sprouts from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
- The LORD will indeed provide what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
- Righteousness will go before Him to prepare the way for His steps.
Theme
Verse 1 looks backward and rejoices: "You showed favor to your land, LORD; you restored Jacob from captivity." The Korahite singer is standing in the hard early years of the return, when Cyrus has issued the decree (Ezra 1), the first wave of exiles has come home, and the second temple is either being built or freshly finished, and the joy is real but smaller than expected. Haggai and Zechariah preached into this same disappointment. So the psalm shifts in verse 4: "Restore us again, God our Savior." The community is asking God to do again what God has just done. They have come back from Babylon physically, but their hearts and their land still need a deeper coming-home. This is one of the most honest prayers in the Psalter for anyone whose answered prayer turned out to be only the first installment.
The hinge of the psalm is verse 7: "Show us your hesed, LORD." "Hesed" is the great untranslatable word of the Old Testament, often rendered loving-kindness, steadfast love, covenant loyalty, mercy. It is the love that holds when love would otherwise have ended. To ask God to show his "hesed" is to appeal to who God said he was at Sinai (Ex 34:6-7). The community is not bargaining; they are reminding God of his own self-description. Verse 8 then does something remarkable: the singer says "I will listen to what God the LORD says." After laying out the request, he stops talking. He becomes a listener. That posture, talking to God then waiting on God, is the deep grammar of biblical prayer.
Verse 10 is one of the most beautiful sentences in the Psalter: "hesed and emet have met together; righteousness and shalom have kissed each other." "Hesed" (covenant love) embraces "emet" (faithfulness, truth). "Tsedek" (righteousness) kisses "shalom" (wholeness, peace). In the ancient world, kings were often praised when they brought any one of these. The God of Israel brings all four, and the four meet without contradiction. Christians cannot read this verse without thinking of the cross, where mercy and judgment meet without one canceling the other, but the post-exilic community first heard it as a promise that the small returns of their day pointed to a coming day when the land itself would yield its harvest because the LORD had set righteousness and peace as walking companions.
Discussion questions
- What does it mean that this psalm thanks God for restoration in verse 1 and then asks for restoration in verse 4? What does that tell us about answered prayer?
- The post-exilic community came back to a smaller, harder Jerusalem than they had imagined. Where has an answered prayer in your life turned out to be only the first installment?
- Define "hesed" in your own words after sitting with this psalm. Why do English translators struggle with it?
- Why does the psalmist stop in verse 8 and say "I will listen to what God the LORD says"? What changes when prayer makes room for listening?
- Verse 10 puts "hesed" and "emet" (truth, faithfulness) together. Where in your life do you tend to feel love and truth as opposed rather than embracing?
- Read Exodus 34:6-7. How does that self-description of God shape the petitions of Psalm 85?
- Read Romans 3:25-26. How does Paul's account of the cross pick up the meeting of righteousness and peace from verse 10?
- The land yielding its harvest in verse 12 is shorthand for restored covenant relationship with God. How might communal prayer change the ground beneath a community?
- What would it look like for your church or town to pray verse 4 honestly: "Restore us again, God our Savior"?
- If "shalom" is wholeness and not merely the absence of conflict, what kind of peace does this psalm actually promise?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: