The Grammar of National Revival
Introduction: The Politics of Forgiveness
We live in a deeply political age, which is another way of saying we live in a deeply theological age that refuses to admit it. Every political debate is a theological debate with the labels scratched off. Every campaign promise, every piece of legislation, every protest, and every angry cable news segment is driven by a particular view of sin, righteousness, and salvation. Our secular age wants a kingdom without a king, a law without a lawgiver, and national blessing without national repentance. They want to fix the country with a new program, a new budget, a new president. They are trying to heal a mortal wound with a child’s bandage.
The fundamental problem of our nation, and of any nation, is not economic, educational, or environmental. The fundamental problem is a controversy with God. When a people collectively sin, they invite collective judgment. When the land is filled with idolatry, bloodshed, and sexual chaos, God does not simply shrug. He is a covenant-keeping God, and the terms of His covenant have curses for disobedience just as they have blessings for obedience. Our problem is that we want to short-circuit this reality. We want the blessings without the obedience. We want to restore our fortunes without having our iniquities forgiven. But God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, and a nation reaps what it sows.
Psalm 85 is a prayer for national revival. But it is a prayer that is grounded in sound theology, not in wishful thinking. The psalmist, writing on behalf of a nation that has known both the sting of God’s judgment and the sweetness of His restoration, shows us the only path forward. It is not a path of political maneuvering or grassroots activism, though in their proper place those things have a role. The path to national restoration begins with a good memory. It is a path that understands the absolute necessity of forgiveness as the foundation for any lasting favor. It is a prayer that remembers that God's hot anger is a real thing, and that the turning of that anger is the greatest blessing a people can know.
This psalm teaches us the grammar of revival. If we want God to once again show favor to our land, we must learn to speak His language. And His language always begins with His own gracious actions in the past, actions centered on atonement. Before we can pray, "Turn us back," we must first be able to say with confidence, "You turned back."
The Text
O Yahweh, You showed favor to Your land;
You returned the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of Your people;
You covered all their sin. Selah.
You withdrew all Your fury;
You turned back from Your burning anger.
(Psalm 85:1-3 LSB)
The Foundation of Hope: A Good Memory (v. 1)
The prayer begins not with a request, but with a remembrance. This is crucial.
"O Yahweh, You showed favor to Your land; You returned the fortunes of Jacob." (Psalm 85:1)
All true prayer stands on the firm ground of God's past faithfulness. The psalmist is likely looking back to the return from the Babylonian exile, a time when God sovereignly intervened to bring His people back from the dead, so to speak. Notice the object of God's favor: "Your land." God is not a Gnostic deity, interested only in disembodied souls. He is the Creator, and He is interested in creation. He cares about geography, borders, soil, and cities. This is a direct affront to the kind of pietism that wants to keep God locked up in the church building or in the private recesses of the individual heart. The Bible knows nothing of such a God. The God of Scripture makes covenants with peoples and shows favor to lands.
The word for "showed favor" means to be pleased with, to accept. This is not a grudging favor. This is God taking delight in His people and His place. And the result of this favor is that He "returned the fortunes of Jacob." This phrase means far more than just economic recovery. It is a restoration of life, of worship, of national identity, of everything that had been lost in the judgment of the exile. It was a divine reversal of their calamity.
But the most important thing to see here is the agency. "You showed... You returned." The people did not engineer their own comeback. They did not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Their restoration was a unilateral, gracious act of God. All true revival, whether personal or national, begins with God. He is the initiator. Our hope for the future of our nation does not rest in our ability to persuade our neighbors or win an election. Our hope rests entirely in the character of a God who has a history of showing favor to lands and restoring the fortunes of His people.
The Engine of Restoration: Atonement Applied (v. 2)
Verse two explains the basis for the favor of verse one. Why did God do this? How was this restoration possible? The answer gets to the very heart of the gospel.
"You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah." (Psalm 85:2)
Here is the engine of revival. National blessing is downstream from atonement. The reason they were in exile in the first place was their iniquity, their sin. Therefore, the only way back was for that sin to be dealt with. God did not restore them by pretending their sin did not happen. He did not grade on a curve. He restored them because He forgave them.
The word "forgave" here is the Hebrew word nasa, which means to lift up and carry away. It is the picture of the scapegoat carrying the sins of the people out into the wilderness. The sin is not just overlooked; it is removed. The second phrase reinforces the first: "You covered all their sin." This is the language of atonement. The sin is put out of God's sight, covered by a sacrifice. God does not ignore the sin; He provides the means by which it can be justly covered.
This is the logic that our modern world cannot stand. We want restoration without repentance. We want peace without propitiation. We want God's favor without dealing with our sin. But God's universe does not work that way. The foundation of all true blessing, all restored fortunes, is the forgiveness of sins. Any political platform or social movement that does not begin here is building on sand. It is doomed to fail because it misdiagnoses the fundamental problem.
And then the psalmist adds that potent little word: "Selah." Pause. Stop. Think about this. Let the weight of this truth settle into your bones. Do not rush past the doctrine of forgiveness on your way to the blessings. The blessings are rooted here, or they are not rooted at all. The entire hope of your family, your church, and your nation hinges on this one reality: God forgives and covers sin.
The Glorious Result: Averted Wrath (v. 3)
This verse describes the necessary consequence of forgiveness. When sin is atoned for, the wrath that sin deserves is removed.
"You withdrew all Your fury; You turned back from Your burning anger." (Psalm 85:3)
Let us not be mealy-mouthed about this. The Bible speaks plainly of God's fury and His burning anger. This is not the petty irritation of a pagan deity. This is the settled, righteous, judicial wrath of a holy God against rebellion. Sin is cosmic treason, and God is not neutral about it. His anger is the necessary expression of His holiness. A god who is not angry at child sacrifice, treachery, and arrogance is not a good god; he is a moral monster.
The good news of the gospel is not that God's anger is not real, but that it can be turned away. The psalmist says God "withdrew" His fury and "turned back" from His anger. This is the definition of salvation: the aversion of the righteous wrath of God. And how did God do this? He did it by absorbing it Himself. The burning anger that was due to Israel for her centuries of covenant-breaking, and the burning anger that is due to us for our own treason, was poured out in full measure upon Jesus Christ at the cross. He drank the cup of God's fury down to the dregs.
This is propitiation. At the cross, God satisfied His own righteous justice so that He could be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When God "turned back" from His anger toward His people, He turned it toward His Son. This is the great exchange. This is the foundation of everything.
Conclusion: Praying with an Argument
These first three verses are not the prayer itself, but rather the foundation for the prayer that follows. The psalmist is loading his rhetorical cannons. He is preparing to come before God with a powerful argument. His argument is not based on Israel's worthiness, but on God's character and His past actions.
The logic is this: "Lord, You have done this before. You have shown favor to this land before. You did it on the basis of forgiveness, a forgiveness that dealt with Your own righteous anger. You established a pattern of restoration rooted in atonement. Therefore, on that same basis, do it again!"
This is how we must pray for our nation. We do not come to God wringing our hands and hoping He might feel sorry for us. We come to God and point to the cross of Jesus Christ. We point to the ultimate act of favor, the ultimate restoration of fortunes, the ultimate forgiveness of sin, and the ultimate turning of wrath. We say, "Father, because of what Your Son accomplished, You have already shown favor. You have already forgiven iniquity and covered sin. You have already turned back from Your burning anger. Therefore, for the glory of His name, apply that finished work to us. Turn us back to You. Revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You."
The path to national revival is not a new path. It is the ancient path. It begins with a good memory, it is paved with forgiveness, and its destination is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.