You, Lord, showed favor to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people
and covered all their sins.
You set aside all your wrath
and turned from your fierce anger.
Restore us again, God our Savior,
and put away your displeasure toward us.
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love, Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
— Psalm 85
The English sonnet is a rigorous poetic form. Every English sonnet contains three four-line stanzas called “quatrains” and a two-line stanza called a “couplet” for 14 lines. Every line contains 10 syllables. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is “ABAB”, and the rhyme scheme of the couplet is, of course, “CC”.
Because it’s such a rigorous form, the language can become a bit stilted. The sonnet becomes even more stilted if it aims too much to a commercial intent. All this considered, I still wrote a sonnet for our church:
If you are looking for love and respect
Where people welcome you just as you are,
Then join in our prayer to God to protect
This gentle oasis, this crowning star
In the Kingdom of Christ attracting all
Who are weak and weary, lonely and blue.
If you think God’s not there or does not care,
Guyton Christian Church wants to welcome you.
If you want to live with Jesus as Lord,
If you cry for the Holy Spirit’s power,
Join brothers and sisters of one accord
And visit us once, just for an hour.
The table of Christ is where we would share
God’s love. Please join us. We welcome you there.
Some day I’ll write a better one for Guyton Christian Church. But my point here is just to explain my particular affection for the Psalms. They’re all hymns, and many are prayers. Just as rhyme and rhythm are poetic devices in English, ancient Hebrew has other poetic devices that don’t translate into English. However, most modern translations evolved from the King James Version, which was written in Shakespeare’s lifetime and heavily influenced by his poetry. The result is something new and beautiful, and something that shows the fingerprint of God.
Today’s psalm, #85, is a prayer an a hymn. As with many such psalms, it acknowledges God’s favor to God’s people Israel, the people’s sin and God’s resulting anger, and a celebration of a love so strong that it lets God forgive us and turn from wrath. Before the resettling of Israel, the Christian church put itself in Israel’s place in all of scripture. Today, Israel is again a land and a people, so we’ve lost that personal sense of scripture. But we lose nothing of what the psalm says about the loving, merciful nature of God. We are right to call ourselves children of God, just as Israel did. And, importantly, we are right to admit that we are just as fickle and sinful as were the children of Israel, and indeed all nations throughout history.
Psalm 85 comes up on the lectionary for this week, and it is particularly significant to me. It teaches us about God. It tells us something about prayer. And the ideas expressed are in and of themselves very creative and poetic.
The first four verses are a stanza. They refer to a time when God brought Israel out of exile and restored the land. “You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins,” verse two says. The original Hebrew then includes the word “selah”. We don’t know what that means, but it’s probably something like “amen”. I can imagine the thought of God forgiving and hiding the sins of the people would make them want to shout, “Amen!”
The next four verses seem to be another stanza. In them, the people are asking God to repeat that act of forgiveness. “Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.” Verse 6 says, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
This is common throughout the Hebrew Bible, and especially in the psalms. It goes something like, “O God, we cannot rejoice in our affliction. If you restore us, if you forgive us, we will survive to sing your praises.” It’s a plea that God seems to answer again and again.
Verse 8 makes a deal with God. “I will listen to what God the LORD says; He promises peace to his people, his faithful servants – but let them not turn to folly.” In other words, I’ll read God’s promises and instructions. I’ll take the peace that God promises, but I understand that obedience is part of the deal. Peace comes to doers of the word, and not to hearers only.
Verse 9 describes what I like to call “proximity blessings.” “Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.” In other words, if his salvation is near those who fear him, then it is also near to everyone else in the land.
Paul taught that a Christian spouse should stay with a non-Christian spouse if possible so that the spouse and the children could also be sanctified –in other words, so that they would receive that proximity blessing. People who come into the church without believing are still receiving the blessing of God, because God’s hand of blessing is on the whole church. That’s a good thing, because when one of us falls, the rest of us are there to pick them up.
The last four verses are so poetic! “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteous and peace kiss each other.” What a beautiful picture! It is also meaningful. The next verse explains: “Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.”
That’s a very Christian view of our relationship with God. Think about it. What comes from us? What springs from the earth? Faithfulness! Belief in God, or, more likely, loyalty to God. And what comes from God, or down from heaven? Righteousness! Think about the Genesis verse that Paul quotes in Romans: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham was not righteous, and neither are we, so righteousness has to come from God. He credits us as if we were righteous, and he teaches us to be righteous. Our part can only be faith.
People think the message changed from “old” to “new” testament. It did not. The entire Bible makes clear that we are not righteous. The entire Bible makes clear that only God can make us righteous. And the entire Bible makes clear that God will credit us with righteousness if we provide faithfulness.
Psalm 85 is a prayer for revival! “Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.” “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
I think you know what our part is here: Faithfulness. Believe in God, and be loyal to God. I often pray for revival at Guyton Christian Church, and that this community will receive a proximity blessing.
I have to confess something. I personally have found revival at Guyton Christian Church. In so many ways, you have restored my faith. I have received a proximity blessing, and because you are faithful, I am blessed to be a part of this church.
But we want more, don’t we? Don’t we want God to forgive our sins and give us reasons to rejoice? Don’t we want the entire land, all of Guyton and Effingham County, to see the glory of God?
My fervent prayer is that God will revive us again, individually and as a church. I pray that we will receive God’s righteousness through our faithfulness, and that the entire community will see the glory of God.
I hope that you will all join me in a prayer for revival at Guyton Christian Church. Please, let us pray:
“Restore us again, God our Savior. Revive us again, so your people may rejoice in you. Show us your unfailing love, and grand us your salvation. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.”
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