Tap any verse number for what that verse means.
1You showed favor to Your land, O LORD; You restored Jacob from captivity.
2You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin.
3You withheld all Your fury; You turned from Your burning anger.
4Restore us, O God of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
5Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
6Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
7Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation.
8I will listen to what God the LORD will say; for He will surely speak peace to His people and His saints; He will not let them return to folly.
9Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.
10Loving devotion and faithfulness have joined together; righteousness and peace have kissed.
11Faithfulness sprouts from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12The LORD will indeed provide what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13Righteousness will go before Him to prepare the way for His steps.
Understand This
Psalm 85, explained
What Psalm 85 is saying
A communal prayer for national restoration, Psalm 85 moves from grateful remembrance of past restoration through urgent plea for present revival to a prophetic vision of the future. The psalm's climactic verses—where mercy and truth meet, righteousness and peace kiss—present a vision of cosmic reconciliation. The agricultural conclusion envisions the LORD giving what is good and the land yielding its harvest.
The background behind it
The psalm's reference to past restoration likely points to the return from Babylonian exile, while the plea for present revival suggests that the returned community found conditions disappointing compared to prophetic expectations. This gap between promise and reality creates the psalm's tension.
Themes running underneath
The four personified virtues meeting and kissing—chesed (mercy), emet (truth), tzedek (righteousness), and shalom (peace)—represent perhaps the most elegant theological vision in the Psalter. These attributes of God's character, which can seem contradictory, are perfectly reconciled. Christian theology sees this reconciliation accomplished at the cross.
Why it still matters
Psalm 85 addresses the frustration of partial fulfillment—when God has begun restoring but the work seems incomplete. It models persistent prayer while holding a prophetic vision of full reconciliation that sustains hope through the 'not yet.'
Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.