Ps. 85.1-3 (The land, the people and wrath)

O Yhwh / you favored your land
you turned / the fortunes of Jacob
you lifted off / the guilt of your people
you covered all their sin
you pulled back / all your wrath;
you turned away / from your hot anger. 

These lines can be divided into three actions: restoration and favor toward the land (vs. 1); removal of guilt and sin of the people (vs. 2); and cessation of wrath (vs. 3). The Land—the People—the Wrath. Importantly, we see that all of these are described as exclusive possessions of Yhwh and actions of Yhwh. It is “your land”, “your people” and “your wrath”; and “you favored”, “you turned”, “you lifted off”, “you covered”, “you pulled back”, “you turned away”. The question is why. The psalmist will later describe “the land” as “ours” (vs. 9 and 12).  The ‘actions’ that occur that bring life the land will be also set at some remove from Yhwh himself (‘righteousness’, ‘faithfulness’ and ‘loyal-love’). There must be a reason, then, why the psalmist is so intent on centralizing everything on Yhwh in these opening lines. The first thing we can say is that these opening lines are a recounting—they are about what Yhwh has done in the past (either in Egypt or in the return from exile). It is when the psalm shifts into petition that the central focus on Yhwh’s possession and action becomes loser. Second, this historical recounting is a very common feature in petition psalms. The point, as we have seen, is rather clear: the past becomes a type of ‘prodding’ to God to act in the same way in the present/future. In a sense, the recounting is itself a type of petition, which is why the action is so central on Yhwh—the psalmist is petitioning him to act again. Third, which ties into the second observation, this centralizing of everything on Yhwh’s possessions creates a sense of obligation or duty on Yhwh’s part towards the things that are ‘his’. In other words, the psalmist is saying that the land and his people have a type of claim on Yhwh’s goodness because they are his and, as such, he should treat them appropriately. Yhwh has covenanted with these possessions and bears responsibility for them. Were he to continue indefinitely in his present stance he would be acting negligently and unjustly. As such, these lines become a type of accusation or ‘evidence’ offered to God in order to awaken his sense of propriety (his covenant obligations…) towards the things that are his. This is why, I think, the later ‘actions’ of Yhwh become covenant actions (righteousness, faithfulness, loyal-love). 

Favoring the Land. The Land bookends the psalm, opening and closing it. It may be that the Land is mentioned first in the same way that a ‘stage’ is what the actors need in order to perform a play. It is foundational, and without it nothing else can occur. What we see here is how intimately tied ‘the land’ is to ‘the people’. Favor to the land finds expression in the restoration of Jacob’s fortunes and in the removal of the people’s guilt. We should not isolate any of these from the others. God’s people are made for the land, and their fortune is found within it and from it. It is not a neutral ‘space’; it is more like the soil to the plant of Israel. It is what nourishes the people. The land and the people are in a type of relationship with each other such that the removal of the people’s sin becomes a form of the favor Yhwh bestows on the Land. This becomes clearer later in the psalm when the powerful modes of the covenant are enacted and come together—the land explodes in fertility and blessing (vs. 12-13). 

Lifting and covering. There is a fascinating interplay between the actions of God as to how he deals with the people’s guilt and sin. They seem to counter each other. He ‘lifts off’ their guilt but ‘covers’ their sin. The one seems to be a type of unveiling while the other is a veiling. The ‘guilt’ appears to have the feeling of a great weight, a burden, something that is too heavy for his people to remove themselves and something they labor beneath. It probably should be seen in contrast to the ‘fortunes of Jacob’. Their guilt is perhaps more closely associated with a public humiliation and shame, which is something that can only be rectified ‘historically’ through a changed circumstances (not interiorly) such that they ‘display’ the favor God bestows on them. As to their sin, Yhwh responds to it the same way he does to Adam: he covers it. Again, its publicity is now not ‘removed’ or ‘lifted’ but hidden. 

Wrath. It is interesting to note that Yhwh’s actions toward his people, in the act of redemption, involves not only action toward the Land and the People, but also an action within himself. In the same way that he moves toward the Land in favoring it, and towards the People in ‘lifting and covering’, he also moves toward himself in ‘pulling back and turning away’. It may be, then, that we need to see verse 2 in a different light—that the ‘removal’ and the ‘covering’ pertained to God’s own response to his people. In other words, that God removes and covers that which evokes wrath in himself. By removing their guilt, and covering their sin he provides the condition necessary to ‘pull back and turn away’ his wrath. As such, they now become an object of delight (to the surrounding people but, more importantly) to himself. They now, cleansed and covered, stand before his joyful gaze.