Psalms 85

Lord, you were good to your land. You brought Jacob's people back from captivity.

1Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Note"Jacob" is used here for the whole nation descended from him, Israel. The phrase behind "brought back from captivity" is a Hebrew idiom that can mean either bringing exiles home or, more generally, reversing someone's fortunes, and both senses are in play. Where "LORD" appears in capitals it stands in for God's personal name in Hebrew, four consonants that Jewish readers did not say aloud, substituting a word for "Lord" when reading.

2You forgave the wrong your people did. You covered over all their sin. Selah.

2Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

Note"Covered over" is the language of a stain or a debt being put out of sight; the same Hebrew root lies behind the word usually translated "atonement." "Selah" is a marking that appears throughout the Psalms, probably a direction for performance, a pause, an instrumental break, a lift in volume. Its exact sense was already uncertain by the time the Psalms were translated into Greek in the centuries before Christ.

3You held back all your fury. You turned away from your burning anger.

3Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

4Bring us back to yourself, God who saves us, and put an end to your anger toward us.

4Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Note"Bring us back" is the same Hebrew verb used in verse 3 for God turning away from his anger. The psalm asks God to turn the people the way he once turned himself.

5Will you stay angry with us forever? Will you stretch your anger out across every generation to come?

5Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

6Won't you give us life again, so that your people can be glad because of you?

6Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7Show us your faithful love, LORD, and give us your rescue.

7Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.

Note"Faithful love" translates hesed, one of the central words of the Hebrew Bible: the loyalty owed inside a binding relationship, the steady commitment of one party to another, rather than a warm feeling.

8I will listen to what God the LORD will say, because he speaks peace to his people, to those who are loyal to him. But may they not go back to foolish ways.

8I 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.

Note"Those who are loyal to him" renders hasidim, a word built from the hesed of verse 7, people who hold to God in the way he holds to them. The last line is genuinely unsettled in Hebrew: it can be read as a warning ("let them not go back to foolish ways"), as a wish, or as a promise that God will not let them go back. Translations divide, and the rendering here keeps it as a wish.

9Certainly his rescue is close to those who honor him with awe, so that his glory can live in our land.

9Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

Note"Glory" is the visible weight and splendor of God's presence, the thing said to fill the tent-sanctuary and later the temple. The verb for "live in" is the one used for God settling down among his people in that tent. "Honor him with awe" is the standard Hebrew phrase usually translated "fear him": reverence rather than fright.

10Faithful love and faithfulness have met each other. Right living and peace have greeted each other with a kiss.

10Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

NoteFaithful love and faithfulness (hesed and emet) were a fixed Hebrew word pair for dependable loyalty, and righteousness and peace pair in much the same way. "Peace" is shalom, which means wholeness and wellbeing, not merely the absence of fighting. The four qualities are pictured as people meeting on a road and exchanging the kiss that was the ordinary greeting between friends or kin.

11Faithfulness will sprout up out of the ground, and right living will look down from the sky.

11Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

NoteA farming image: faithfulness comes up out of the soil like a crop while right living comes down from the sky like rain, the two halves of what makes a harvest.

12Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will produce its harvest.

12Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Note"The land will produce its harvest" is stock Hebrew phrasing for a good agricultural year, grain, wine and oil coming in as they should.

13Right living will go ahead of him, and will turn his footsteps into a road to walk on.

13Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

NoteThe second half of this verse is obscure in Hebrew; read word by word it runs roughly "and will set his footsteps for a way." Translators divide between righteousness clearing a road ahead of God for him to walk on, and righteousness setting people on the path where God has walked.