This psalm was almost certainly written after Israel’s return from Babylonian exile — genuine relief at forgiveness already received. But one line near its center reaches far beyond that single homecoming, into a reconciliation Scripture would not fully explain for another five centuries.
A study in Psalm 85 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
Thou Hast Brought Back The Captivity Of Jacob
“LORD, thou hast 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.”
Psalm 85:1-2
The psalm opens in confident past tense — forgiveness already given, captivity already reversed. This gratitude for a genuine homecoming is exactly what makes the anxious questions of the next few verses so striking by contrast.
Wilt Thou Not Revive Us Again?
“Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?”
Psalm 85:4-6
Even after the celebrated return described in verses 1-2, present reality still evidently falls short — the exile is officially over, and yet the people still need reviving, still ask whether this anger has genuinely ended.
He Will Speak Peace Unto His People
“I 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.”
Psalm 85:8
“I will hear” marks a shift from asking to listening — the psalmist has finished the questions and now waits specifically for God’s own answer, with one honest condition attached: peace offered, but not license for the same old failure to repeat itself.
Mercy And Truth Are Met Together
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
Psalm 85:10
This single line pairs four qualities that can seem, in ordinary human experience, to pull against each other — mercy toward the guilty and truth about their guilt, righteousness that demands justice and peace that offers reconciliation. The psalm insists all four can actually meet.
“God’s love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy. Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had been Satan’s purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to prove that the righteousness of God’s law is an enemy to peace. But Christ shows that in God’s plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist without the other. ‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 762
White places this exact verse at the cross itself — not a poetic image of reconciliation in general, but the precise moment Christ’s death proved these four qualities were never actually in conflict, refuting Satan’s specific claim that mercy and justice could not both stand.
Righteousness Shall Go Before Him
“Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.”
Psalm 85:11-12
Truth rising from the earth and righteousness looking down from heaven describes a genuine meeting point between the two, neither one remaining distant — the same convergence verse 10 has just described, now pictured as heaven and earth reaching toward each other.
“Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.”
Psalm 85:13
The psalm’s final line turns this reconciled righteousness into a path — not simply a truth to admire from a distance, but somewhere the writer expects to actually be led, step by step, in its wake.
