Looking Backward, Upward, Inward, and Forward | Psalm 85
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a Hellenistic Greek king who ruled over the land of Judea in the second century B.C. He was notoriously known in history for his harsh persecution of the people of God during the intertestamental period. As a ruler, he was so conceited and crazy that he called himself “Zeus Epiphanes” but the people that he ruled gave him the more fitting nickname of “Madman.”
Before Antiochus’s reign over the land of Judea, Jewish culture and customs were tolerated, protected, and mildly respected in the larger Greek empire. But after he ascended the throne, Antiochus became unfavorable and hostile to the people of God. The Jewish people were violently tyrannized, they were marginalized, and some of their religious practices were even forbidden. It was a bleak situation.
We don’t find ourselves in exactly similar circumstances as the Jews did under the tyranny of Antiochus, but as Christians today in our nation, we do find ourselves living under pressure. And we do live in a place and a time in history that really doesn’t make any coherent sense apart from the sovereignty and the judgment of God.
We certainly are not being fed to the lions, but I think it would be incorrect to say that Christians have it better off today than they did a few decades ago.
Without being idealistic or fanciful about the past, maybe you can recall a broad and favorable place and a time long before Drag Queen Story Hour inhabited our libraries, and Critical Race Theory poisoned our classrooms, and Obergefell and Bostock defiled our land.
Maybe you can recall days of God’s blessings when you didn’t need to navigate through insane HR courses to hold a job in corporate America or when you didn’t hear of Crisis Pregnancy Centers being referred to as places of “torture.” But those days seem long ago…
And I think it’s safe to say that Christians in our day, on the whole, are living under noticeable pressure. You could say that we are living under a “soft tyranny.” And it makes you wonder…
What are we supposed to do in times like these? What is God up to right now? What is he teaching us? And how should God’s people respond under God’s affliction?
Psalm 85 provides us with answers to these questions.
So without further ado, would please open your Bibles to Psalm 85 if you have not done so already. And out of reverence for God’s precious, and holy, and authoritative word, would you please stand as we receive it together this morning:
Psalm 85
Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah.
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.
Let’s pray.
Well, you may be seated. Our text this morning reminds us that remembrance of former mercies and future promises strengthens our faith in the midst of present adversity.
That’s the main point of Psalm 85. And it’s my aim this morning to encourage you to trust the Lord in times of adversity and pressure, and to help you to orient yourself so that you are seeing clearly and responding rightly. But before we get there, I want to provide some context for Psalm 85.
Most commentators situate this psalm in the post-exilic period after the Jews had returned from their captivity in Babylon.
If you are unfamiliar with this Old Testament time period, the Jewish nation was exiled in Babylon from about 604 B.C. until about 537 B.C. Then under the reign of King Cyrus the Great, they were allowed to return to Jerusalem where they began to rebuild the temple and the city walls that had been left in ruins.
And so, many commentators believe Psalm 85 was likely written after the Jews had left Babylon to return to their homeland and before the middle of the fifth century B.C., which is when the last book of the Old Testament—Malachi—was thought to be written.
This psalm is also viewed as being written at a time when God’s people, though now freed from exile, were still experiencing God’s displeasure and judgment because of their sin and unfaithfulness to him. There is a slight sadness and a noticeable nostalgia that sort of hangs over this text.
Matthew Henry writes of the context:
The church was here in a deluge; above were clouds, below were waves; everything was dark and dismal.
We aren’t quite sure of the exact occasion or catastrophe that loomed over the people of God when Psalm 85 was originally written, but we do know that John Calvin thought that one occasion where this psalm was perfectly fitting for the people of God to sing was under the cruel tyranny of Antiochus, which was a couple of centuries later.
It was external pressures that caused the original psalmist to pen these words to God in his desperation. And external pressures, viewed as coming from the hand of God, have motivated and compelled the people of God to sing this song—Psalm 85—down through all the ages.
And we might be tempted to think, “God, we know that you’ve delivered your people in times past. We know you love to deliver your people. Church history has shown us that much. But we just aren’t sure what you are planning to do with us now.” And that’s why we need Psalm 85 today.
And in times of trouble and uncertainty and pressure, this psalm calls the people of God to do four things. It calls you to look backward in remembrance, to look upward in request, and to look inward in repentance. And to look forward to restoration and revival! So first, look back!
Look Backward
Look with me at verses 1 through 3:
Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah.
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
Notice, the verbs here are all past tense: you were favorable | you restored | you forgave | you covered | you withdrew | you turned.
This shows us that the psalmist is focused on what the past has taught him. But looking back here is not just a day-dreaming nostalgia about bygone days of bliss. Though backward, this glance is more importantly Godward!
The psalmist is staking his claim on the fact that God is as he always has been. He knows that the way that God has acted in the past is how God will continue to act now and into the future. There is a self-consistency in God—God is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (cf. Hebrews 13:4).
God is who he is, and when we conform our thinking to his self-revelation, we find firm footing to stand on. This remembrance of former mercies strengthens his faith in present trouble!
So church, in unfavorable times, before you do anything else, recall to your mind the great and glorious God of heaven and earth. Ponder who he is! He is the God who alone sits in the heavens and does all that he pleases (cf. Psalm 115:3)!
And, as Exodus 34:6-7 reminds us, he is:
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.
The psalmist opens Psalm 85 with the word, or more specifically the name, “LORD,” the very same name we see here in Exodus 34. In the ESV and many other modern Bible translations, whenever you see the word “Lord” printed in small capital letters, it is referring to God’s special and personal name, YHWH. The name that reveals that he is the One who “will be what he will be.”
Herman Bavinck says that the name YHWH reveals that:
He will be what he was for the patriarchs, what he is now and will remain; he will be everything to and for his people. It is not a new and strange God who comes to them by Moses, but the God of the fathers, the Unchangeable One, the Faithful One, the eternal Self-consistent One, who never leaves or forsakes his people but always again seeks out and saves his own.
By using this personal name for God as the very first word in the very first verse of this psalm, the psalmist reminds us that the God he addresses here is this very same God. He is YAHWEH. The self-existent, self-revealing, transcendent LORD!
And his attributes don’t even stop there! He has also shown himself to be merciful. According to Psalm 85, what does this God do?
Verses 1-3 remind us that in God’s past dealings with his people, he 1) acted favorably toward them; 2) he forgave them and covered—not just part—but all of their sin; he buried it in the ground; and 3) withdrew his wrath and turned from his anger. HE IS MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Who is a God like this?
Let me ask you… Have you forgotten your God? Have you let current circumstances overwhelm and cloud out your understanding of who he is? Do you know of his greatness and goodness and mercy? Or have you fashioned him after your own doubts and uncertainties and worries? Have you made him small and trivial?
If so, this psalm calls you to recall his nature and remember his mercy! And trust that he will not remain angry forever—that’s not who he is towards his people.
After we look backward in remembrance, Psalm 85 calls us to look upward in request! So, second, look upward!
Look Upward
Turn your attention with me to the earnest requests made in verses 4 through 7:
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Here the text moves from the past to the present. We can even notice a perceived agitation of spirit that is present in these verses. There are three rapid-fire questions here in verses 5 and 6 bracketed by two courageous pleas in verses 4 and 7. The psalmist cries out boldly to God, because the psalmist knows that God is sovereign over his present distress. And he knows that God’s just wrath and anger are the cause of the prolonged pain the people are experiencing.
Notice, also, the rhetorical nature of all the questions. The psalmist seems to ask the questions in desperation, but his asking actually demonstrates his faith! How is that so? Because the answers to all of the questions are assumed before they are even asked!
He turns upward to God because he knows that God will answer his questions and respond to his pleas. He knows that it is the people of God who have turned from him and only God can restore them!
We see here, the psalmist doesn’t turn immediately to politics or possessions or pragmatics for the ultimate solution to his problems, he turns to God in prayer! Now, I’m not saying that prayer takes the place of action or that God doesn’t use means to accomplish his purposes. But I am asking: what comes first for you?
What is your default response under pressure? I know it’s easy for me to find a bunch of agitated personalities on Twitter to get me riled up about The Latest Thing. And I know that sometimes I can let that distract me from going to God in prayer. What is it for you?
Psalm 85 shows us that the proper response under pressure and under God’s apparent displeasure is to look upward. We should pray that God would relent from his anger and that he would pour out blessing on his people.
2 Chronicles 7:14 reiterates this response of prayer when it says:
If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
God’s people ought to look to God and to beseech his kindness and his covenant-keeping steadfast love. Our plea ought to be what is prayed in verse 7:
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
Give us relief and show us your favor!
So…when you have requests, do you make them known to God? When you have anxieties, do you cast them on the Lord? Do you know that he cares for you (c.f. 1 Peter 5:7)?
This psalm teaches us to look upward in request to God—to seek God in prayer. And then it compels us to look inward in repentance. So, third, look inward!
Look Inward
Calvin says that,
So…faint-hearted in bearing adversity are we, that no sooner does God begin to smite us with his little finger, that we entreat him, with groaning and lamentable cries, to spare us. But we forget to plead, what should chiefly engage our thoughts, that he would deliver us from guilt and condemnation; and we forget this because we are reluctant to descend into our own hearts and to examine ourselves.
Now, I want to be clear: This does not mean that I believe Christians to be complicit in or guilty of all our society's woes and troubles that I mentioned earlier in the introduction. And we are not conflating our secular American civil religion and society with the people and the land that this psalm is referring to.
However, having established that, it is right and fitting for God’s people to consider how God is using the current pressures we face to purify his people and his church.
Look at verses 8 and 9:
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
This is the sober-minded response of a humble saint. It is a pause for reflection and repentance.
One pastors comments on these verses and says that, “the petitions have been submitted, and now it’s time for the petitioner to submit himself”. How exactly does he do that?
First of all, verse 8 says he hears. Hearing is active, not passive. It’s expectant and hopeful, not pessimistic and grim. The repentant hearer sits silent before the Lord and waits for an answer from his gracious word.
Secondly, he submits by fearing God. Verse 9 says that salvation is near to the one who fears him.
Is your countenance like that? Do you listen when the Lord speaks? Do you fear God? Or do you play by your own rules and dabble with sin because you think it's not that serious? If that’s you this morning, this psalm calls you to examine yourself and then to submit by faith to God and to his word!
And notice how much God cares for his people. The end of verse 8 shows that he cares for his saints so much that he expressly warns them not to turn back to folly.
Calvin again is helpful when he says,
God, perceiving that we are not completely recovered from our vices to spiritual health in one day, prolongs his chastisements: without which we would be in danger of a speedy relapse…God purposely continues his corrections for a longer period than [we] would wish, that [we] may be brought in good earnest to repent, and excited to be more on [our] guard in future.
When God puts pressure on his people, whether because of the sins of the society around them or because of their own, he does it on purpose. But he will not forsake his saints—his righteous ones.
Listen, God desires a steadfast people, fully devoted to him, and he will go to whatever lengths necessary to accomplish that purpose, up to and including letting them live in unfavorable circumstances so that they would turn to him in repentance and faith. And what does he promise for his genuine saints? He promises that he will speak peace to them.
And as Derek Kidner says, “what God speaks he also creates.” But how is that possible? How is it possible for the righteous and transcendent God of heaven to dwell with the unrighteous and lowly people of earth? How is it possible for him to speak peace to his rebellious people?
Here, at last, in searching for an answer, the psalmist looks forward to God’s promised restoration revealed in verses 10-13 of Psalm 85. So lastly, we look forward!
Look Forward
And what incredible promises are found when we look at these verses:
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.
The psalmist has gone from the past in verses 1 to 3, to the present in verses 4 through 9, and now he looks to his future here in these verses. These promises lift his distressed eyes from the present moment and set them on the wide and lush plain of the fertile future full of God’s kingdom blessings.
But what do these verses mean? How is this peace and restoration obtained?
Verse 10 speaks of four separate attributes of God here. His steadfast love, his faithfulness, his righteousness, and his peace. The NASB translates those first two attributes instead as “graciousness” and “truth.” The KJV uses “mercy” and “truth”.
It may seem to us like some of these attributes fit neatly together like love and mercy and peace on the one hand, those seem to go together. Or righteousness and truth on the other, those seem to go together. But how do we get all of those attributes on the same side? How do mercy and truth meet? They are certainly companions—not opponents—but they don’t yet appear to be fully congruent. So where do they find their true harmony?
It is here that the psalmist looks at and hopes in something that he does not yet fully understand. Here, he prophetically looks forward to the cross of Jesus Christ. The place where God reveals that his mercy and his justice are not opposed to one another. He looks forward to the focal point of all of history—to the cross—to the place where all God’s attributes kiss.
And what flows from this place of peace and reconciliation with God?
Verse 11 says that, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.” The very same attributes that God shows to his people in the atonement, now spring up in the kingdom of Christ. These are the fruits that grow in the garden of God.
And notice how these attributes aren’t reserved for one small corner of the earth. This promise infers that they will rise up from the ground and rain down from the sky. This is a pervasive promise. Heaven and earth will be filled with this righteousness and truth. Their glory will come together to dwell among God’s people like the Shekinah glory that came down to dwell on the tabernacle (cf. v.9).
And the psalmist here is trusting that this restoration and revival will not just be true of a land in general, but of his land in particular—the land in which the people of God dwell.
And in verse 12, we see the subtle agitation of verses 4-7 turn to calm confidence:
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,and our land will yield its increase.
God’s care for his people includes both spiritual and outward material blessings. These aren’t mutually exclusive things. God’s spiritual kingdom isn’t violated when your temporal needs are met. The psalmist knew this.
Do we share the confidence of the psalmist when it comes to our land today? Do we pray that God would pour out his blessing on us too, because we are his? There’s no problem in wanting to live in a Christian nation that experiences the blessings of God. So may we pray that God would bring revival to us!
In the midst of external pressure and affliction, the psalmist sets his hope on the fact that God will give what is good and he will bring restoration and revival! His faith was strengthened as he recalled God’s former mercies and as he clung to God’s future promises.
But guess what? The psalmist only dimly saw these realities from far off. He was looking through a blurry lens. Our vantage point is better than the psalmist's vantage point. And as we close this morning, I want to show you why we ought to have greater hope than the psalmist did.
When the psalmist looked backward, he saw God’s deliverance in the exodus and in other examples throughout Old Testament history.
But when WE look backward, we see God’s ultimate deliverance at Calvary, where God once-and-for-all delivered and saved his people, satisfied his righteous wrath, and defeated sin, and Satan, and death.
When the psalmist looked upward, he prayed under the ministry of the Old Covenant and did not yet know that there would be a mediator of a better covenant to come.
But when WE look upward, we see Christ as our advocate, sitting at the right hand of the Father, always living, and eager to make intercession for his saints. And as a permanent priest, he pleads our case forever and seals it with is own name (cf. Hebrews 7:24-25; Hebrews 8:6; 1 John 2:1).
And when the psalmist looked inward, he knew that his repentance and his hearing and fearing of God wasn’t perfect. He knew that his crippling sin would require a savior.
And yet, when WE look inward and see our sin, we know of the Great Savior, who completely and perfectly obeyed the Father. And in Christ, not only is our sin forgiven, but we are enabled now to walk in obedience through Him.
And finally, when the psalmist looked forward, he may have expected blessings and revival and restoration to flow on the people and the land of Israel in his day.
But when WE look forward, we know that the kingdom of God that was inaugurated in the victorious resurrection of Christ will continue to grow throughout history until its consummation at the end of history. We know that one day the Great Commission will actually be fulfilled, and that God will pour out is blessings not just on one nation and one land, but on every nation around the globe until the promise is true that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
And so, if the psalmist had reason for optimistic faith in the troubling times that he faced, how much more should our faith be strengthened as we live under the current pressures of our time?
In this “negative world” that we live in, may the victory of Christ and the peace that he has spoken to his people give them hope to press on in quiet endurance.
And as verse 6 says, may God revive us again so that we might rejoice in Him!
Let’s Pray.