Christianity

Psalms 85Mercy and Truth Are Met Together

Summary

Psalm 85, attributed to the sons of Korah, opens by remembering that God once brought back the captivity of Jacob and forgave his people, then asks him to revive them again. The psalmist listens for what God will speak and hears a promise of peace to his saints. The closing vision pictures mercy and truth meeting, righteousness and peace kissing, truth springing from the earth and righteousness looking down from heaven. Many connect it with the hard years after the return from exile.

Key verse

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

Psalms 85:10

Themes

Restoration
Revival
Peace
Harmony of Virtues

Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.

I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.

Across traditions

Christianity
Isaiah 45: Let the Skies Pour Down Righteousness
Isaiah 45:8 asks the skies to pour down righteousness and the earth to open and bring forth salvation, the same meeting of heaven and earth that Psalm 85:11 describes.
Christianity
Luke 2: Peace on Earth
Psalm 85 is often read in Christian worship during Advent, and many readers hear the angels' announcement of peace on earth in Luke 2:14 as an answer to the psalm's hope that glory will dwell in the land.

Questions about Psalms 85

What does 'righteousness and peace have kissed each other' mean?

Psalm 85:10 personifies mercy, truth, righteousness and peace as meeting and embracing when God restores his people. Jewish and Christian interpreters read it as a picture of justice and peace no longer in tension, and medieval writers built on it the allegory of the Four Daughters of God.

Does Psalm 85 refer to the return from exile?

Verse 1 speaks of God bringing back the captivity of Jacob. Many scholars date the psalm to the period after the Babylonian exile, when restoration had begun but hardship continued, though the phrase can also mean restoring fortunes more generally.