The Morning Devotional: Psalm 85
Season 11 | Edition 57
June 22, 2026
SUMMARY: This devotional reflection on Psalm 85 presents a corporate plea for divine restoration, rooted in the unchanging faithfulness of God as covenant-maker and covenant-keeper. The psalmist invokes God’s past acts of favor, forgiveness, and withdrawal of wrath as a basis for urgent prayer, emphasizing that God’s steadfast love, righteousness, peace, and faithfulness are not fleeting but eternal. The sermon underscores the necessity of corporate repentance and spiritual revival in the face of national and ecclesiastical decline, calling believers to earnestly seek God’s face with urgency, trusting in His promise to renew His people. It affirms that true revival is marked not by external prosperity but by the presence of forgiveness, the turning away of divine anger, and a deep, joyful dependence on God’s covenant faithfulness. Ultimately, the message is one of hope: because God is unchanging, His people can confidently pray for renewal, knowing that He will fulfill His promises through Christ, the eternal embodiment of His covenant love.
Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.
(Psalm 85:1-13, ESV)