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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 85:8 - 85:8
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The prayer is followed by attention to the divine answer, and by the answer itself. The poet stirs himself up to give ear to the words of God, like Habakkuk, Hab 2:1. Beside אשׁמְעה we find the reading אשׁמֳעה, vid., on Psa 39:13. The construction of הָאֵל ה is appositional, like הַמֶּלֶךְ דָּוִד, Ges. §113. כִּי neither introduces the divine answer in express words, nor states the ground on which he hearkens, but rather supports the fact that God speaks from that which He has to speak. Peace is the substance of that which He speaks to His people, and that (the particularizing Waw) to His saints; but with the addition of an admonition. אַל is dehortative. It is not to be assumed in connection with this ethical notion that the ah of לְכִסְלָה is the locative ah as in לִשְׁאֹולָה, Psa 9:18. כִּסְלָה is related to כֶּסֶל like foolery to folly. The present misfortune, as is indicated here, is the merited consequence of foolish behaviour (playing the fool). In Psa 85:10. the poet unfolds the promise of peace which he has heard, just as he has heard it. What is meant by יִשְׁעֹו is particularized first by the infinitive, and then in perfects of actual fact. The possessions that make a people truly happy and prosperous are mentioned under a charming allegory exactly after Isaiah's manner, Isa 32:16., Isa 45:8; Isa 59:14. The glory that has been far removed again takes up its abode in the land. Mercy or loving-kindness walks along the streets of Jerusalem, and there meets fidelity, like one guardian angel meeting the other. Righteousness and peace or prosperity, these two inseparable brothers, kiss each other there, and fall lovingly into each other's arms.
(Note: Concerning St. Bernard's beautiful parable of the reconciliation of the inviolability of divine threatening and of justice with mercy and peace in the work of redemption, which has grown out of this passage of the Psalms, Misericordia et veritas obviaverunt sibi, justitia et pax osculatae sunt, and has been transferred to the painting, poetry, and drama of the middle ages, vid., Piper's Evangelischer Kalender, 1859, S. 24-34, and the beautiful miniature representing the ἀσπασμός of δικαιοσύνη and εἰρήνη of a Greek Psalter, 1867, S. 63.)