Psalms 85:4

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. TURN US, O GOD OF OUR SALVATION, AND CAUSE THINE ANGER TOWARD US TO CEASE. This prayer, "Turn us ... cause thine anger ... to cease," after the suppliants have just said, "Thou hast taken away all thy wrath; thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger," may seem strange; but faith explains it. It is just because of faith's strong anticipation of the desired issue, as if it had already come to pass (so certain is it), that it is stirred up the more intensely to pray for that which the spirit of prophecy in the Psalmist reveals as an already accomplished fact....

4_Turn us, O God of our salvation! _The faithful now make a practical application to themselves, in their present circumstances, of what they had rehearsed before concerning God’s paternal tenderness towards his people whom he had redeemed. And they attribute to him, by whom they desire to be restored to their former state, the appellation, _O God of our salvation! _to encourage themselves, even in the most desperate circumstances, in the hope of being delivered by the power of God. Although to the eye of sense and reason there may be no apparent ground to hope favourably as to our condition, it becomes us to believe that our salvation rests secure in his hand, and that, whenever he pleases, he can easily and readily find the means of bringing salvation to us. _God’s anger _being the cause and origin of all calamities, the faithful beseech him to remove it. This order demands our special...

1-7 The sense of present afflictions should not do away the remembrance of former mercies. The favour of God is the fountain of happiness to nations, as well as to particular persons. When God forgives sin, he covers it; and when he covers the sin of his people, he covers it all. See what the pardon of sin is. In compassion to us, when Christ our Intercessor has stood before thee, thou hast turned away thine anger. When we are reconciled to God, then, and not till then, we may expect the comfort of his being reconciled to us. He shows mercy to those to whom he grants salvation; for salvation is of mere mercy. The Lord's people may expect sharp and tedious afflictions when they commit sin; but when they return to him with humble prayer, he will make them again to rejoice in him....

Verse Psalms 85:4. _TURN US, O GOD OF OUR SALVATION_] Thou hast turned our captivity; now convert our souls. And they find a _reason_ for their prayer in an attribute of their God; _the God of their salvation_. And as his work was to _save_, they beg that _his anger towards them_ _might cease_. The Israelites were not restored from their captivity _all at once_. A few returned with _Zerubbabel_; some more with _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_; but a great number still remained in _Babylonia,_ _Media, Assyria, Egypt_, and other _parts_. The request of the psalmist is, to have a complete restoration of all the Israelites from all places of their dispersion....

TURN US, O GOD OF OUR SALVATION - The God from whom salvation must come, and on whom we are dependent for it. The prayer here is, “turn us;” turn us from our sins; bring us to repentance; make us willing to forsake every evil way; and enable us to do it. This is the proper spirit always in prayer. The first thing is not that he would take away his wrath, but that he would dispose us to forsake our sins, and to turn to himself; that we may be led to abandon that which has brought his displeasure upon us, and then that he will cause his anger toward us to cease. We have no authority for asking God to turn away his judgments unless we are willing to forsake our sins; and in all cases we can hope for the divine interposition and mercy, when the judgments of God are upon us, only as we are willing to turn from our iniquities. AND CAUSE THINE ANGER TOWARD US TO CEASE - The word used here, and...

EXPOSITION THIS is a psalm written after a signal display of God's mercy towards Israel, but when there was still much wanting to make the condition of the people altogether satisfactory. It consists of a thanksgiving for the deliverance vouchsafed (Psalms 85:1); a prayer for further and more complete restoration to favour (Psalms 85:4); and a joyful anticipation of the granting of the prayer, and of the bestowal on Israel, ultimately, of all temporal and spiritual blessings (Psalms 85:8). There are no such distinct and definite allusions in the psalm as to tie it down to any particular date; but, on the whole, it would seem to suit best either the time of Zerubbabel ...

TURN US, O GOD OF OUR SALVATION,.... Who appointed it in his purposes, contrived it in council, secured it in covenant, and sent his Son to effect it; the prayer to him is for converting grace, either at first, for first conversion is his work, and his only; or after backslidings, for he it is that restores the souls of his people; and perhaps it is a prayer of the Jews, for their conversion in the latter day; when sensible of sin, and seeking after the Messiah they have rejected, when the Lord will turn them to himself, and turn away iniquity from them, and they shall be saved, Hosea 3:5, AND CAUSE THINE ANGER TOWARDS US TO CEASE: the manifest tokens of which are now upon them, being scattered up and down in the world, and made a proverb, a taunt, and a jeer; but will be removed, and cease, when they shall be converted....

Psalms 85:1. _LORD, thou host been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah._ Let us think of what God has done for his people. He has been very favorable to us in years past. He has lifted up the light of his countenance upon his chosen ones, and made them glad. «Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.» We were in captivity once, exiles far off from God and home; but he has led our captivity captive, and we are now in bondage no longer, blessed be his name! Note again what the psalmist says: «Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people.» What a joy that is! Forgiven sin is enough to make us sing to all eternity. If sin be pardoned, thou hast a mass of mercy in that fact too great for thee to estimate its value. «Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy peopl

Psalms 85 All Promised Blessings Realized _ 1. What grace has done (Psalms 85:1)_ 2. Prayer for the fulfilment (Psalms 85:4) 3. Righteousness and peace (Psalms 85:10) What will come to Israel when Christ returns to be their King is blessedly made known in the opening verses of this other Korah Psalm. Favour will rest upon the land; the captivity of Jacob is brought back, their iniquity is forgiven and their sin covered; His wrath is turned away. Hence they pray that all this may speedily be accomplished as it surely will in the days when heaven will send Him back. Then He will speak peace to His people and Hi

LXXXV. PRAYER FOR THE COMPLETION OF ISRAEL'S RESTORATION. The Ps. falls clearly into two halves. Psalms 85:1 is a prayer to God. It begins (Psalms 85:1) by commemorating God's mercy. He had restored His people (see on Psalms 14:7) and forgiven their sin, but the expectation of Jewish saints remained unfulfilled (Psalms 85:4). The reference may be to the hopes raised by the Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). Israel did return under Cyrus (pp. 77f.), but the hopes of coming glory were disappointed. The second half, on the contrary (Psalms 85:8), is not a prayer