Had restoration already occurred or was it still future?
Both. The community remembers real past restoration and asks for its incomplete benefits to be renewed and deepened.
PSALM 85 — STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS MEET
Had restoration already occurred or was it still future? Study Psalm 85 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Psalm 853 questions
Source linked
Commentary provenance
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · PSALM 85 — STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS MEET
The precise difficulties
- Had restoration already occurred or was it still future?
- Does verse 10 mean mercy cancels justice?
- Does the psalm promise agricultural prosperity after every revival?
Verse and question study
Does verse 10 mean mercy cancels justice?
No. Steadfast love and righteousness meet rather than displace one another. Peace is morally ordered reconciliation, not ignoring wrong.
Does the psalm promise agricultural prosperity after every revival?
Land fruitfulness expresses covenant and renewed-creation wholeness, but should not become an automatic formula for every faithful community. Its fullness belongs to God's final restoration.
Historical and literary context
This Korahite communal prayer likely reflects restoration after exile followed by continuing hardship, though no event is certain. Hebrew verbs in verses 1–3 can describe past acts, providing precedent for the new petitions of verses 4–7. The psalm then shifts from prayer to prophetic listening (vv. 8–13). English Psalm 85 is Psalm 84 in Greek/Latin numbering.
Apologetic note
The psalm's peace is ethically substantive. It cannot be declared while people return to folly, and it does not ask righteousness to disappear. This integrated vision answers both punitive accounts of justice without reconciliation and sentimental accounts of love without truth.
Chapter cross-references
- Leviticus 26:40–45 Confession and covenant remembrance follow judgment
- Psalm 72:1–7 Righteous rule produces abundant peace
- Psalm 126:1–6 Restored fortunes lead to renewed prayer and harvest
- Isaiah 32:15–17 Righteousness yields peace under the Spirit
- Isaiah 45:8 Righteousness rains and salvation springs from earth
- Isaiah 52:7–10 Good news announces peace and salvation
- John 1:14–17 Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ
- Romans 3:21–26 God is just and justifier through Christ
- Romans 5:1–2 Justification brings peace with God
- Ephesians 2:13–18 Christ is peace and reconciles divided peoples
- Colossians 1:19–20 Peace is made through the cross
- 2 Peter 3:13 Righteousness dwells in the new creation
- Revelation 21:1–5 God's final dwelling renews all things
Source and editorial status
Dr. Shallua’s Commentary
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.