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Psalm 85 is a community lament because God is withholding blessings, likely a good harvest, because the people have been unfaithful. The people ask for forgiveness for all of the people. They recall God’s steadfast love, his faithfulness to the covenant, and his righteousness.
1-3 – The psalm begins by recounting a past time when God showed his favor, forgave his people, and restored their fortunes.
4-7 – Now a plea to once again restore the people and to forgive them.
8-9 – The congregation waits in patience for God to answer their request for peace and restoration.
10-13 – God’s attributes of steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace are praised.
Creators and Guests
Host
Andrew
Andrew is a master storyteller. Having flown multiengine, bomber planes; practiced law; and earned a seminary degree, he draws upon a deep bank of experience and knowledge. Yeah, he is one of those guys who knows Greek. But coming out of a working-class home, he speaks plainly and clearly. His podcasts are thought-provoking and entertaining. His passion for God’s Word comes out in every episode.
What is Biblical Reflections?
Biblical Reflections is a Christ-centered Bible teaching podcast that journeys through Scripture with host Andrew — a storyteller at heart who happens to know his Greek.
Andrew came up in a working-class home, and it shows in the best way: he'll take you into the depth of the text, then explain it plainly and clearly, the way a good storyteller does. The result is teaching that's thought-provoking and genuinely engaging — his passion for God's Word comes through in every episode.
Each season takes on a new focus. Season 1 traced the gospel across Scripture — every place the good news of Jesus breaks through. The current season walks through the Psalms, one at a time, with Proverbs up next.
Wherever you're joining from — deep in study or just along for the journey — there's a place for you here. New episodes weekly.
A podcast from Cogworks Media, an independent, interdenominational media ministry amplifying faithful voices for the Great Commission. Find all our shows at cogworksmedia.org.
Greetings. Welcome to Biblical Reflections. This is your host, Andrew. We are in our second series and each week we're looking at one Psalm to help us on our prayer and praise time. As I mentioned last time, just a reminder, I hope that you are keeping up a prayer log.
Speaker 1:And if you're on a praise team, I hope you have two logs. One for your personal prayer time and one for what does your praise time look like when you're leading it. I think today will be insightful because I think it's going to talk about some stuff that we it's clearly in scripture, clearly in the Psalms, but you clearly don't ever see it in church, and maybe we should. So with that in mind, this superscript here, to the choirmaster, a Psalm of the sons of Korah. So once again, now we have a new Levite, this time a whole family, not just Asaph, which is what we have seen in previous Psalms.
Speaker 1:So we've seen David, we've seen one from Solomon, we've seen Asaph, and now the sons of Korah. Again, a different Levite family in charge of singing and music at the temple. Psalm 85 is again a community lament because God is withholding blessings and the blessings that are being withheld, it looks like a good harvest. So they're not getting a good harvest. God is withholding blessings.
Speaker 1:Why? Because the people have been unfaithful. So this is not only a community lament, it is a confession. Now we've seen some individual confessions that are written by David. Obviously, when he went into Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed, and we we see a Psalm where he he is confessing personal personal confession.
Speaker 1:This is different. Here we have a public confession of sin. So my rhetorical question is when was the last time in your church you had a public confession of sin? Well, it's a rhetorical question. We all know the answer.
Speaker 1:Never. Never. I doubt that you've probably even had a time of personal confession as part of your prayer life, as part of a public prayer life. And yet, here it is, and we'll see it again. In this Psalm, people ask forgiveness for, catch this, all of the people.
Speaker 1:You know, throughout I mean, Daniel is a good one. Daniel prays and he he confesses, hey, this is what our leaders have done. This is what all the people have done. Ezekiel, the same thing. We we need as a group of people to publicly confess.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to confess. You know, our government has done to the world is sickening. We need to confess that. What our local leaders are doing, but what the people are doing in our public schools, it needs to be confessed publicly. And we need to ask God to forgive not just ourselves but all of those who are involved in this.
Speaker 1:Now that is pretty hard to do and yet this is what is called for here. Alright. This Psalm 85 recalls God's steadfast love. His faithfulness to the covenants and his righteousness. Alright.
Speaker 1:With that, let us start and we're gonna read one through three. Yahweh, you were favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sins.
Speaker 1:You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your hot anger. So the Psalm begins by recounting a past time when God showed his favor and forgave his people. Now we don't know which one it is, but it's clearly recounting a past time where they confessed their sin and God restored them because he's a gracious God. Let's read four through seven.
Speaker 1:Restore us again, o Elohim, of our salvation. Put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?
Speaker 1:Show us your steadfast love, oh Yahweh. Grant us your salvation. So we go from recounting a past time where God showed favor and forgave his people when they repented, and now they say, okay, restore us again. They plea once again, restore the people, restore all of us. We we sinned and and please revive us.
Speaker 1:And we're praying this because of your steadfast love. We don't deserve any of this. It's in this case it's God's grace and mercy. Not giving them what they deserve, giving them what they don't deserve and it's kind of under this title of steadfast love. And that is what they appeal to.
Speaker 1:Friends, when we confess and repent and we ask to be restored, It's not because we deserve it or we earned it. It's because of God's steadfast love, his mercy, and his grace that we can appeal to. Alright. Let's now read eight and nine. Let me hear what Elohim the Yahweh will speak.
Speaker 1:For he will speak peace to his people, to his saints. But let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him. That glory may dwell in our land. In eight and nine, the congregation now waits in patience for God to answer their request.
Speaker 1:And again, their request is for peace with God and restoration to to the blessings, the covenant blessings, the good harvest. And notice that we're praying for all the people. Let them not turn back and folly. Now I'm gonna read 10 through 13, the final. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet.
Speaker 1:Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground. Righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes. The Yahweh will give what is good and our land will yield its increase.
Speaker 1:Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away. There's quite a emphasis here in this last part is they're confessing. They are focusing on the attribute on some of the attributes of God. And one the first one is steadfast love. And as I said earlier, the steadfast love here is idea of mercy and grace.
Speaker 1:And God is always steadfast. He doesn't change. He's not fickle. Faithfulness. God is faithful to what?
Speaker 1:He has promised. So in this case, these are covenant people and God is faithful to his covenant even though the people are not. Now, there were penalties for the people if they didn't follow the covenant, but if they returned to following the covenant, God kept his side and remained faithful and would bless them. Next, it says that God is righteous. Notice how we use this poetry, you know, steadfast love and faithfulness meet.
Speaker 1:Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky. It is all encompassing. It's it's not just in a little narrow place, it is everywhere and for all. What is righteousness?
Speaker 1:God is righteous, meaning that he is faithful to act, okay, according to his covenant promises and his holiness. So God will always act rightly according to his holiness and his covenant promise. And I know I've used this story before but bear with me. Many years ago when I was very young, I was flying, I was on a bomber crew, b 52. And we had a gunner and man of few words and he you got to know your your crew and your whole life was wrapped around it with your crew because even when you weren't flying, you end up socializing.
Speaker 1:So anyway, this guy didn't say too much and he's from down south and he would if somebody did something good, he'd have one word for it. He would just look at it and he'd go righteous. So maybe the aircraft commander, maybe the radar navigator did something that was good and so the gunner would say righteous. He acted righteously. God always acts righteously.
Speaker 1:Peace. God gives us peace. We can have peace with God. Now in the old testament, that peace came through the sacrificial system. Your sins were covered and you had peace from a holy holy righteous and living God who will not be mocked.
Speaker 1:We have peace with God since the death resurrection of Jesus. Our peace comes through the blood of Christ in which we put our faith. So if we have sinned, we have done something wrong, we can appeal to the peace we have with God through the finished work of Christ on the cross to shed his blood to pay the penalty of our sins. You could take just simply this portion of the Psalm and meditate on those four attributes. Steadfast love, which again are grace and mercy.
Speaker 1:Not getting what we deserve and getting what we don't deserve. Faithfulness. Faithfulness of God. He is always faithful to his promises and to his holiness. And that acts out in righteousness where he will always act rightly.
Speaker 1:And to that peace that we have with God through Christ, we can appeal to and ask for forgiveness. Friends, hope that you take a look at these attributes of God. I pray that you would consider your public prayer time. Do you have confession of sin? Do you have public confession of community sin?
Speaker 1:The sins of your leaders even. Something to consider. Gracious Father, we thank you that you are that you love us steadfast, doesn't change. You are faithful to all that you have promised. You act rightly according to your holiness and your promises.
Speaker 1:And we have peace with you through Christ. Father, thank you. Help us to be faithful people and help us to consider using a confession in our public prayer time. I thank you in Jesus name. Thank
Speaker 2:you for joining us on Biblical Reflections today. We're so grateful for listeners like you. Your encouragement helps us share God's truths worldwide. If inspired, support our mission with a donation at cobwebsmedia.org. You can also catch our other podcasts like the bible in three d anywhere that you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and God bless.