A plaintive cry for forgiveness and restoration of God’s presence seeps like tears through Psalm 85. The psalmist begins by remembering and acknowledging God’s material and spiritual goodness in the past, especially the forgiveness and pardoning of the sins of the people. (It seems they need both again. How many similar pleas have been made since the Covenant began?) Then, in a burst of hopefulness and confidence in God’s mercy, the psalmist offers a vision of salvation—what life can be like when the relationship with God is healed and restored. The congruence of love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace will prevail.

Though composed long ago, Psalm 85 could easily be written today as the cry of the whole modern world, of a nation, a specific community, or an individual. Examining our personal and public lives we can all ask: How have we turned away from God and deliberately acted against God’s ways? How have I experienced misery because of decisions I’ve made that were not life-giving for me or proved destructive for others? How have we resisted asking for forgiveness from God or those we’ve hurt? How have we been complicit in excluding or marginalizing God’s children? How often have I turned back, repentant, to receive God’s grace-filled pardon?

Each time we return to God, we receive the gift of emotional and spiritual healing. Our relationship with God is restored, and we enable God’s glory to “dwell in our land.”