Psalms 85

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Of the date and occasion of this psalm there can be no doubt. It belongs to the captivity, after the decree of Cyrus. Ezra 1:2-4. The first effusion of joy upon the publication of the decree for the restoration of the Jews was expressed in Psalms 126:0, (which see;) here it appears chastened with the care and practical discouragements of the vast labour and delay of collecting together the scattered people from the various provinces of the empire, and resuscitating the nation. The sudden falling off from the introductory thanksgiving to the languishing complaint of Psalms 85:4-7 is fully accounted for by the discouragements which the first colonies met from the magnitude of the work of reconstruction and the hostility of the neighbouring tribes, as recorded in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah. Inattention to these considerations has caused much needless diversity of opinion as to the historic interpretation of the psalm. Several points of agreement between it and Habakkuk 3:0 are noticeable. As to the subject-matter, the wonderful favour of God in the liberation of the Jews by the decree of Cyrus is acknowledged in Psalms 85:1-3; the human discouragements still in the way of reviving the nation find vent in Psalms 85:4-7; but a hopeful confidence in the answer of prayer and the fulfilment of divine premise quickly dispels the cloud, and the prophet looks steadily toward the consummation of the national re-establishment, Psalms 85:8-13. The psalm is reckoned as the first of the Korahitic Jehovah psalms, and is marked by its lofty tone of prophetic consolation, and its deep vein of spiritual truth. On title, see notes on Psalms 84:1, and title.