Ps. 85.4 (petitioned into the present)

Turn us / O God of our salvation;
Put an end / to your displeasure with us. 

This verse confirms our previous reflections as to the nature of memory, history and petition. Verses 1-3 recounted Yhwh’s dealings with his people (through a type of exodus event). This recounting, however, was but the first part of the petition. It both reminded God of his obligations to those that are his own (the land and the people) and prepared the way for petitioning God to act in a similar fashion in the present. However it is understood, the present is a type of exile, a time of lost fortune, lost glory and a time of wrath. Here, the psalmist turns from his recounting and gathers it together into a petition. He refers back to the ‘turning of the fortunes of Jacob’ and asks that God ‘turn us’. He looks back to the time when God “pulled back” and “turned away” his wrath, and asks God to “put an end to your displeasure”. The past actions are now being petitioned into the present. God has performed a redemptive exodus in the past; the psalmist wants him to again unleash that power on behalf of his people (and land). This verse serves another important function in the psalm. The verses following this petition are questions posed to God regarding whether God will in fact ever ‘turn’ toward them again (in blessing). As such, this verse stands between a recounting of the past and looking to the future, but the future in the form of a prolonging of the present state of disunity/exile. The petition, then, operates as an attempt to bring the past into the present in order to thwart the future of a continued exile. The present is still (unlike portions of Jeremiah) open to exodus.