Psalm 85 – “Righteousness and Well-Being Kiss”

TEXT (Hebrew text at the end)

1. For the leader. Of the Korahites. A psalm.

2. O LORD, You have favored Your land, returned Jacob’s good fortune1;

3. You have forgiven2 Your people’s iniquity, covered all their sin.   Selah.

4. You have withdrawn all Your anger, returned from Your fury.

5. Return to us, O God, our salvation; and undo Your hot anger with us.

6. Will You be furious with us forever, prolong Your fury to all generations?

7. Surely You—You will return us to life, and Your people will rejoice in You.

8. Show us, O LORD, Your faithfulness; grant us Your salvation.

9. Let me hear what the Deity, the LORD, would speak when He speaks well-being to His people, His faithful ones—may they not return to folly.

10. Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.

11. Faithfulness and truth meet; righteousness and well-being kiss.

12. Truth will spring up from the land; and righteousness looks down from heavens.

13. Indeed, the LORD will grant bounty; and our land will grant its produce.

14. 3-Righteousness will go before Him-3 4-as He sets out His steps as the way. -4

Notes

1. “Good fortune” (shvut) echoes “returned” (shavta).

2. Literally, “lifted up.”

3. Among alternatives: “righteousness will go before it [the bounty]…”; “Righteousness must go before one…” All implications are similar.

4. Among alternatives: “…on [righteousness'] way;” “…and it [righteousness] sets out its steps [before Him] as the way;” “…as He sets its [righteousness'] steps as the way;” “…as it [righteousness] sets its steps as a way [for God].” All implications are similar.

COMMENTARY

Overview

In Psalm 85 there is a disconnect between request and response. The speaker, basing himself on events of the past (vv. 2–4), asks for a repeat of a previous salvation (vv. 5–8). The psalm, however, suggests that vision, not temporary beneficence, is the critical need of its audience (vv. 9–14). The crisis of the second section leads to doubt concerning God’s attitude toward the people. The psalm addresses the latter, implying that a grasp of ultimate promise can overcome any immediate challenge. (“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’” – Victor Frankl.)

The first two sections seem mutually self-contradictory, that is, that salvation has been achieved and then that it has not. (Efforts to read the verbs of the first three verses as future tense are unconvincing.) Many interpreters assume that the historical explanation is that the first three verses refer to a major, yet partial salvation, and the next four to subsequent difficult times, a poor minority returning from a defeat.

The third section, however, does not respond to the request for full salvation, but moves on to a concentration on new thinking and on total reversal. I suggest that Psalm 85 has much more to do with this final section than the two that come before it. All that preceded reflects cyclical motion, salvation and troubles coming again and again in waves. Indeed, the most repeated term in the psalm is “return,” but there is only one such use in the final section, which is “not return,” as the cycle ends. The speaker suggests that God’s ultimate intention is to overcome the cycle, to move to a new existence, which is most poetically and beautifully expressed.

The Poetry of Verses 2–8

As noted, the first two sections are built as a stark contrast. Through verse 4, one would assume the poem was written in very comfortable times! Though set in the past, the history reflected in the first section is almost palpable, with very physical verbs, “forgiven” (“lifted up,” see footnote), “covered,” “withdrawn,” and “returned.”

Through the two sections, terms for anger (also “fury” and “discontent”) dominate. The second section, the requests, is framed by “salvation,” while the appeal that God “return us to life” reveals deep desperation.

“Salvation” and “faithfulness” (v. 8) will find their resolution, however, only in the final section.

The Poetry of Verses 9–14

Psalm 85 waxes most poetic in the soaring vision of God’s intention for the future. The turns of phrase are intensive and impressive, and I comment verse by verse.

Verse 9 – It is particularly striking that the speaker no longer represents the group, adopting instead an almost prophetic role, communicating God’s intention as he understands it, even if it is articulated by way of paraphrase, not quotation. Again I note that “not return to folly” also marks the point of reversal. Verse 9 begins the section that foresees a new and permanent response to all that came before.

Verse 10 – The use of “salvation,” which frames the second section, possibly indicates that this is the more proper response. That God’s “glory” (presence) “dwells” in the land indicates the permanence of the solution.

Verse 11 – With conspicuous personification, the psalmist depicts an age of glory. According to the end of verse 10, this is a heaven on earth (“in our land”), a camaraderie and happiness concretized in meeting and kissing. Further, the fine line between divine and human qualities is totally blurred: “faithfulness” and “truth” are frequently used to describe God’s qualities, but here they are present on earth. In this verse, God’s promised “well-being” from verse 9 literally kisses “righteousness,” which appears again in the final verse. This kiss thus binds the third section together, with the two qualities describing both a new societal peace and also the basis on which it will be created.

Verse 12 – Choosing one term from each of the halves of the previous verse, the poet brings heaven and earth closer, moving “truth” up from the land and righteousness down from the heavens.

Verse 13 – This verse evolves from verse 12 (the convergence of heaven and earth and growth from the land). Here God is above and the land is below, as produce abounds. This verse changes the emphasis from quality to quantity, as material prosperity follows moral accomplishment.

Verse 14 – The psalm crescendos in the grand appearance of God, “Righteousness,” still personified and now repeated a third time, preceding Him as His escort. The verse is both beautifully multivalent and clear at the same time. (See the notes.) The striking imagery of the third section ends with the triumphant appearance of God in the land. (“Land” is the inclusio of the psalm, vv. 2 and 13.) Harmony is complete. Appropriately, the only terms repeated in all three sections of the poem are “LORD,” “land,” and “people.”

In sum, however legitimate the recollections of the first section and the requests of the second may be, Psalm 85 finds its resolution in the vision of the third section, God’s ultimate plan for the future.

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Additional Notes

Many historical frameworks (partial salvation followed by difficult times) befit Psalm 85. Many commentators date the psalm to the time of the earliest return from the first exile, when the few returnees faced very difficult times. (In one specific version of this interpretation, the difficulties are thought to be a drought, hinted at by the ultimate promise of produce in verse 13 and relying on the report of draught, Haggai 1:10.) However, no specific framework is necessary to explain the poem, its message or its appeal.

It is of some interest that numbers of Sephardic Jewish congregations designate this psalm for the day after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when theoretically forgiveness has been granted, yet the rainy season in Israel (which would bring the produce noted in verse 13) has yet to arrive.

The author of these essays is Rabbi Benjamin Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and author of The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2009). This material is copyright by the author, and may not be reproduced. If you are interested in using the texts for study groups, please be in direct contact with the author, at psalmblog@gmail.com.

HEBREW TEXT

(א) לַמְנַצֵּחַ לִבְנֵי קֹרַח מִזְמוֹר:

(ב) רָצִיתָ יְהֹוָה אַרְצֶךָ שַׁבְתָּ שבות {שְׁבִית} יַעֲקֹב:

(ג) נָשָׂאתָ עֲוֹן עַמֶּךָ כִּסִּיתָ כָל חַטָּאתָם סֶלָה:

(ד) אָסַפְתָּ כָל עֶבְרָתֶךָ הֱשִׁיבוֹתָ מֵחֲרוֹן אַפֶּךָ:

(ה) שׁוּבֵנוּ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעֵנוּ וְהָפֵר כַּעַסְךָ עִמָּנוּ:

(ו) הַלְעוֹלָם תֶּאֱנַף בָּנוּ תִּמְשֹׁךְ אַפְּךָ לְדֹר וָדֹר:

(ז) הַלֹא אַתָּה תָּשׁוּב תְּחַיֵּנוּ וְעַמְּךָ יִשְׂמְחוּ בָךְ:

(ח) הַרְאֵנוּ יְהֹוָה חַסְדֶּךָ וְיֶשְׁעֲךָ תִּתֶּן לָנוּ:

(ט) אֶשְׁמְעָה מַה יְדַבֵּר הָאֵל יְהֹוָה כִּי יְדַבֵּר שָׁלוֹם אֶל עַמּוֹ וְאֶל חֲסִידָיו וְאַל יָשׁוּבוּ לְכִסְלָה:

(י) אַךְ קָרוֹב לִירֵאָיו יִשְׁעוֹ לִשְׁכֹּן כָּבוֹד בְּאַרְצֵנוּ:

(יא) חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת נִפְגָּשׁוּ צֶדֶק וְשָׁלוֹם נָשָׁקוּ:

(יב) אֱמֶת מֵאֶרֶץ תִּצְמָח וְצֶדֶק מִשָּׁמַיִם נִשְׁקָף:

(יג) גַּם יְהֹוָה יִתֵּן הַטּוֹב וְאַרְצֵנוּ תִּתֵּן יְבוּלָהּ:

(יד) צֶדֶק לְפָנָיו יְהַלֵּךְ וְיָשֵׂם לְדֶרֶךְ פְּעָמָיו: