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Illustration for Psalm 85: Revive Us Again

Psalm 85

Revive Us Again

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God restored His people before, and now they're asking Him to do it again! They pray for God's anger to turn away and His love to overflow. The psalm pictures love and faithfulness meeting together, and righteousness and peace kissing each other.

  1. 1You showed favor to Your land, O LORD; You restored the fortunes of Jacob.
  2. 2You forgave the iniquity of Your people and covered all their sins. Selah
  3. 3You set aside all Your wrath and turned from Your fierce anger.
  4. 4Restore us, O God our Savior, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
  5. 5Will You be angry with us forever? Will You extend Your wrath through all generations?
  6. 6Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
  7. 7Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation.
  8. 8I will listen to what God the LORD will say; He promises peace to His people, His saints— but let them not return to folly.
  9. 9Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.
  10. 10Loving devotion and faithfulness have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.
  11. 11Faithfulness springs up from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
  12. 12The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
  13. 13Righteousness will go before Him and prepare the way for His steps.

What it means

This psalm has one of the loveliest pictures in the Bible: love and faithfulness meeting each other, and goodness and peace sharing a kiss. That is what happens when God restores something. He does not just repair it — He makes it beautiful.

A little prayer

God, You have helped Your people before, so please do it again. Bring Your love and Your peace together in my life. Thank You that when You mend things, You make them beautiful. Amen.

Memory verse

“Loving devotion and faithfulness have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.”

Psalm 85:10 (BSB)

It puts four things people usually think are at odds into one embrace.

Talk about it

Questions with no single right answer — for a family table or a Sunday-school circle.

  1. The people ask God to do again what He did before. What would you ask Him to repeat?
  2. The psalm says love and faithfulness meet, and justice and peace kiss. What a picture — what does it mean?
  3. It asks for revival — new life in something that had gone flat. What has gone flat for you?
  4. What is one small thing that could be brought back to life?

Try this

Four words meet

Write LOVE, TRUTH, JUSTICE and PEACE on four cards and arrange them on the table. Argue about which two are hardest to have at once, then read verse 10.

You will need: Four cards and a pen.

Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB)