Biblion Bible Commentary
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Mercy and Truth Meet Together
Psalms 85:1-13
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. · WEB
Four qualities that ought to be in conflict are described meeting in a field, and one of them kisses another.
Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin Psalms 85:1–2.
The psalm opens in the past tense with a restoration already granted, and then, disconcertingly, asks for one.
Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Psalms 85:4–5.
The situation is a common one and the psalm is honest about it: something real happened, and it did not last. A return from exile that has not produced the promised age, a forgiveness that has not felt like one. The prayer is made on the basis of the earlier mercy rather than in spite of it.
Won't you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Psalms 85:6.
The purpose given for the revival is joy — not usefulness, not vindication.
I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly Psalms 85:8.
The psalm stops and listens. And what is expected is peace, with a warning attached in the same breath — the answer will be good, and there is a way to waste it.
Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalms 85:10.
The most quoted verse in the psalm, and its force depends on seeing that these four do not naturally get along. Mercy lets someone off; truth says exactly what happened. Righteousness demands that wrong be dealt with; peace wants the fighting to stop. In most human arrangements one is bought at the other's expense, which is why courts are not merciful and why reconciliation usually requires somebody to lie.
The psalm says they meet. Not that a compromise is struck between them — they embrace, which is a stronger claim, and the collection offers no mechanism for it here.
What makes it possible is worked out elsewhere. Paul's argument that God can be just, and the justifier of him who has faith Romans 3:26 is this verse turned into doctrine, and the mercy seat is its furniture: blood on the lid, the broken law underneath, and God speaking from the space between.
Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven Psalms 85:11.
The directions are worth noticing. Truth comes up out of the ground like a crop; righteousness leans over from above. The meeting in verse ten happens because one of them came down.
Righteousness goes before him, and prepares the way for his steps Psalms 85:13. The psalm ends with righteousness as a road-maker, walking ahead.
settled What this mark means