Psalm LXXXV
To the chief Musician. A Psalm for the sons of Korah
1 Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land:
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their
sin. Selah.
3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath:
Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. .5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to
all generations? 6 Wilt thou not revive us again! that thy pcoiile may rejoice in thee?
7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.
8 1 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.
9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in
our land.
10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed
each other.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven.
12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her
increase.
13 llighteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps.
When Israel ceased to be pilgrims to the city of God, the Lord ‘“‘le title. made them in another sense pilgrims and strangers, “tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast.” The captivity of Babylon was only a foretaste of centuries of exile and oppression. But, on the other hand, the restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah is, after all, but a foretaste of the final restoration of that people, still beloved for their fathers’ sakes. “The sons of Korah” sang this song, perhaps first by Babel’s streams, and then at Jerusalem when the few thousands returned.
They pray for full deliverance, from verse 1 to 7. The The contents. burden of it is; “Lord, thou hast in other times been gracious, thou didst in former days turn back Jacob’s captivity; thou didst forgive his sins” — pausing in the midst of the review,” Selah’^ — and then returning to their plea.
“Wilt thou not quicken ns again? (give us life again.) And thy people (no more scattered) shall rejoice in thee.” (Ver. 6.)
And that “life” to them as a nation (Olnjn) is what Paul refers to as “life from the dead to the world,” (Rom. ix. 1 5).
They get an answer, verse 8. The people as one body (Hengst.) suddenly hear a voice from the Holy One. “Let me hear what God the Lord speaketh!” It may be their pried, as representative of the nation, that says, n^D^St “Let me hear,” in which case we might see Christ, their long-rejected Priest, becoming their Intercessor, and bringing them the Lord’s message from the true Holy of Holies. The nation is waiting,
254 PSALM LXXXV. — BRINGING BACK OF ISRAEL ’s CAPTIVITY
and their representative says, “Let ine hear” — for it is worth hearing, it is glorious news,
“For he speaks peace to Ms people /” words like those of Jeremiah — “Thoughts of peace and not of evil!” But, besides, he seems to tell of their being instrumental, as “life from the dead,” in blessing the nations; for while he speaks peace, it is to Israel, but not to them only,
it is to
“His people, and to Ms saints.
And they shall turn no more to folly /”
The time of millennial blessedness has come. The time for displaying grace to the full has come. Jew and Gentile shall meet, like David and Araunah, at the altar on Moriah.
“Surely, (‘^’^ as Psa. lxxiii. 1) his salvation is near them that fear him, So that glory tabernacles in our Landy
The salvation of Israel has come out of Zion. The Saviour has come, the Redeemer, “the glory” in its fullest sense, antitype of the cloud of glory. And what a full display of divine perfections now in the salvation of Jerusalem-sinners, Mannasseh-sinners, unbelieving souls! * The Redeemer is there, and hence “grace and truth” have met, for “mercy and truth” here, are the “grace and truth” of John i. 17, of which Messiah is the full vessel, the living fountain. “Righteousness and peace” also — for here is the true Melchizedec, who is “first king of righteousness, and then king of peace.” The harmonised perfections of the Holy One shine bright over Israel restored; these, guiltiest once of all unbelieving ones, illustrate in their conversion every attribute which the cross has magnified. They are received on principles of righteousness and truth, as well as love and mercy, because received through Christ’s atoning sacrifice; and then they reflect these attributes (as the sea does the sky above it) in their life.” What were joined as attributes in Christ, ought not as virtues to be separated in a Christian who may learn to resemble his blessed Lord and Master by
* It is said in Romans xi. 31 — “At present they have not believed your mercy {n’Trsidrjffav tw u/Asrsgw sXm) in order that they may be objects of mercy” — monuments of what that very mercy can do.
observing that short but complete rule of life, Shew mercy and speak truth; do righteousness and follow ‘peace.” (Home.) Restored and converted Israel walk in a singular land! for their heaven over them is righteousness, and the soil under their feet yields truth. God’s uabroken word is illustrated by them in manifold ways, so that it is as if “Truth sprang up like the flowers of their land” when the rains are over and gone; and then, all is done in righteousness, their sins being forgiven through atoning blood; so that, “righteousness” is their canopy, “looking down from heaven.”* “A carpet of truth! a canopy of righteousness!”
“Truly Jehovah giveth what is good; (Exod. xxxiii. 19) And our land yieldeth its increase.’^’
In verse 13 our attention is turned again to the magnifying of his “righteousness;” for now more than ever his character is manifested as “rigJiteous” since it is the work of a law-fulfilling Redeemer no longer rejected by Israel, but heartily embraced, that has brought about these glorious changes on the nation.
“Righteousness goeth before Him,
And sets His steps on the way.” (Ver. 13.)
His steps are not straitened as he walks through Israel’s land; righteousness itself, as a “royal harbinger,” makes a way for his footsteps. Such is
The bringing back of Israel’s captivity expected by the righteous.
* This “looking down,” 5^pT£^^ rendered generally by TagaxuTrw in the
Greek, implies such a look as in 1 Pet. i. 12 angels give into the things of salvation, and such a look as the disciples gave into the sepulchre. It is really the Righteous One who is resting over them in complacent love, not as in Psa. xiv. 2, and liii. 3, but fulfiUine: Psa. cii. 20.
256 PSA. Lxxxr. — jehovah’s character, the resting-place