Psalm 85:7

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

85:1-7 The sense of present afflictions should not do away the remembrance of former mercies. The favour of God is the fountain of happiness to nations, as well as to particular persons. When God forgives sin, he covers it; and when he covers the sin of his people, he covers it all. See what the pardon of sin is. In compassion to us, when Christ our Intercessor has stood before thee, thou hast turned away thine anger. When we are reconciled to God, then, and not till then, we may expect the comfort of his being reconciled to us. He shows mercy to those to whom he grants salvation; for salvation is of mere mercy. The Lord's people may expect sharp and tedious afflictions when they commit sin; but when they return to him with humble prayer, he will make them again to rejoice in him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shew us thy mercy, O Lord - That is, Manifest thy mercy in returning to us; in forgiving our sins; in taking from us the tokens of thy displeasure.

And grant us thy salvation - Salvation or deliverance from our present trouble and calamities.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. draw out—or, "prolong" (Ps 36:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Show us thy mercy, i.e. grant it to us, as the next words explain it, and as showing signifies, Psalm 4:6; so also Psalm 60:3 71:20. Or, manifest thy secret purpose of mercy to us by thy providential dispensations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Show us thy mercy, O Lord,.... Or, "thy grace" (o) and goodness, the riches of which are shown forth in Christ; the mercy promised to Abraham and others, long expected, wished, and prayed for; his pardoning mercy, justification, salvation, and eternal life, by his free grace:

and grant us thy salvation; Jesus, the Saviour, and salvation by him, an interest in it, and the joys of it; which is all a free gift, a grant of divine favour, and not according to the merits and works of men.

(o) "bonitatem tuam", Tigurine version, Musculus; "benignitatem tuam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "gratiam tuam", Cocceius, Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy {e} salvation.

(e) He confesses that our salvation comes only from God's mercy.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Shew us &c.] Cause us to see thy lovingkindness, upon which we have a claim as Thy beloved ones (Psalm 85:8).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Compare the devout petitions of the Church morning and evening, "O Lord, show thy mercy upon us. And grant us thy salvation" (Order for Morning and Evening Prayer). Psalm 85:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet now prays God to manifest anew the loving-kindness He has shown formerly. In the sense of "restore us again," שׁוּבנוּ does not form any bond of connection between this and the preceding strophe; but it does it, according to Ges. 121, 4, it is intended in the sense of (אלינוּ) שׁוּב לנוּ, turn again to us. The poet prays that God would manifest Himself anew to His people as He has done in former days. Thus the transition from the retrospective perfects to the petition is, in the presence of the existing extremity, adequately brought about. Assuming the post-exilic origin of the Psalm, we see from this strophe that it was composed at a period in which the distance between the temporal and spiritual condition of Israel and the national restoration, promised together with the termination of the Exile, made itself distinctly felt. On עמּנוּ (in relation to and bearing towards us) beside כּעסך, cf. Job 10:17, and also on הפר, Psalm 89:34. In the question in Psalm 89:6 reminding God of His love and of His promise, משׁך has the signification of constant endless continuing or pursuing, as in Psalm 36:11. The expression in Psalm 85:7 is like Psalm 71:20, cf. Psalm 80:19; שׁוּב is here the representative of rursus, Ges. 142. ישׁעך from ישׁע, like קצפּך in Psalm 38:2, has ĕ (cf. the inflexion of פּרי and חק) instead of the ı̆ in אלהי ישׁענוּ. Here at the close of the strophe the prayer turns back inferentially to this attribute of God.