Prayer for God’s Mercy upon the Nation.
For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
85 O Lord, You showed favor to Your land;
You [a]restored the captivity of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of Your people;
You covered all their sin. [b]Selah.
3 You withdrew all Your fury;
You turned away from Your burning anger.4 Restore us, O God of our salvation,
And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
5 Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger to [c]all generations?
6 Will You not Yourself [d]revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
7 Show us Your lovingkindness, O Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.8 [e]I will hear what God the Lord will say;
For He will speak peace to His people, [f]to His godly ones;
But let them not turn back to [g]folly.
9 Surely His salvation is near to those who [h]fear Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.
10 Lovingkindness and [i]truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 [j]Truth springs from the earth,
And righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 Indeed, the Lord will give what is good,
And our land will yield its produce.
13 Righteousness will go before Him
And will make His footsteps into a way.
In light of vv. 4-7, the first few verses seem to be looking back at a previous captivity. And certainly we don’t have to look too hard to find other times when Israel was oppressed or in captivity. At any rate, the psalmist asks some important questions in vs. 5. Will God be angry forever? Will it continue through all generations?
Earlier this morning, I was mad at our cats. Well mostly one of them, that was determined to wake us up at 3 in the morning. She knows we get up when the alarm goes off, but she couldn’t wait, and she kept meowing outside our door, then going away for a bit, and just when we dozed off, she was back. Yet even I, a mere mortal, could not stay mad at our foolish cat.
God is forever though, so maybe His anger is too? Yet that is not what we are told in His word. We see that “His mercies are new every morning” and “His mercies endure forever.” The psalmist tells us, “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him…” God is not sitting up on His throne, with arms crossed, ignoring our prayers due to our past misdeeds.
No, God “looks down from heaven” and is always attentive to our prayers. He is ready always when we come to our senses, turn from our sin, and seek Him. God will “speak peace” to our hearts once again, and we will be restored. Wherever you are, whatever your past, know that His mercy is waiting for you. What are you waiting for?