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Psalm 85

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Restore us, O Elohim of our salvation

1 Yahweh, You were favorable 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 fury; You turned from Your burning anger.

4 Restore us, O Elohim of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us. 5 Will You be angry with us forever? 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 lovingkindness, Yahweh, and grant us Your salvation.

Lovingkindness and truth have met

8 I will hear what El, Yahweh, will speak; for He will speak peace to His people and to His godly ones; 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 Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. 11 Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 Yes, Yahweh will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce. 13 Righteousness will go before Him and make His footsteps a way.

Notes

  • 85:1 Title: on "the sons of Korah" see the note at 42:1, and on "For the choir director" the note at 4:1. In Hebrew Bibles the title is verse 1, so the verse numbers there run one higher than in English Bibles. "Restored the fortunes" is shuv shevut (see the note at 14:7); the written Hebrew text has shevut and the reading in the margin (qere) shevit, with the same sense. The verb shuv, "turn, return," runs through the psalm: You "restored" (verse 1), You "turned from" Your anger (verse 3), "Restore us" (verse 4), "again" (verse 6, literally "turn and revive us"), and "let them not turn back" (verse 8). Past mercy (verses 1-3) becomes the ground of a present plea (verses 4-7). Many think of the people after the return from Babylon, but the psalm names no event.
  • 85:8 After the plea, the psalmist waits like a prophet for Yahweh's answer (compare Habakkuk 2:1), and the answer is shalom, "peace," wholeness and well-being for His people. "His godly ones" are the chasidim (see 4:3; 30:4). The last line warns that the restored people must not "turn back" (shuv again) to kislah, "folly." The ancient Greek translation reads differently here: "and to those who turn their heart toward Him."
  • 85:10 Four gifts of Yahweh are pictured as persons: chesed "lovingkindness," emet "truth" (or "faithfulness"), tsedek "righteousness," and shalom "peace." They meet and kiss like friends long apart; and truth springs up from the earth while righteousness looks down from heaven (verse 11), so that earth and heaven answer each other. Here emet is rendered "truth," because it is the word that "springs up from the earth" in verse 11. The psalm speaks of "our land" again and again (verses 1, 9, 12): the "glory" that dwells there (verse 9) and the produce it yields (verse 12, as in Leviticus 26:4, "the land shall yield its produce") belong together. Later Jewish tradition (Genesis Rabbah 8:5) pictured these four disputing at the creation of man, and cited "truth springs up from the earth" in that story.
  • 85:13 Righteousness goes before Yahweh like a herald before a king, and His footsteps become a road for His people to follow. The Hebrew of the second line is brief ("and will set for a way His steps"), and some read it "and will set us on the way of His steps"; the sense is that Yahweh's coming makes a path.

Psalm 84 · Psalm 86

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