Psalm 85

This song is one of the Psalms with which people sometimes have difficulties. The difficulties lie not so much in understanding the meaning of the song, or its intended interpretation, but in the "so what" category. What is the "so what" category? It's my shortened form of "So what does this mean for me?" In other words, some people have told me that they don't enjoy reading the Psalms because they find them difficult to apply to their own lives.

Psalm 85 is a case in point. The song was written by the sons of Korah as a prayer to God. The prayer centers on seeking God's favor for the nation of Israel. How does one apply this prayer for God's chosen people to modern believers who constitute the body of Christ? In the next four posts I will seek to answer this question, and hopefully show that every Psalm can, in some way, be applied to modern believers.

Much of the problem in my estimation stems from biases that people have in place when coming to the text. For example, some may say even before beginning to read, "I'm not going to get anything out of this." In order to stem that rising tide we must begin with verse 8 of Psalm 85:

"Let me hear what God the LORD will speak...."

Before entering into our study, let's take some time to make sure that we are prepared to hear!