Psalms 85:4

“Turn us, O God of our salvation, etc.] Who appointed it in his purposes, contrived it in council, secured it in covenant, and sent his Son to effect it; the prayer to him is for converting grace, either at first, for first conversion is his work, and his only; or after backslidings, for he it is that restores the souls of his people; and perhaps it is a prayer of the Jews, for their conversion in the latter day; when sensible of sin, and seeking after the Messiah they have rejected, when the Lord will turn them to himself, and turn away iniquity from them, and they shall be saved, (<280305>Hosea 3:5 <470316> 2 Corinthians 3:16 <451126>Romans 11:26), and cause thine anger towards us to cease:…”

“Turn us, O God of our salvation - The God from whom salvation must come, and on whom we are dependent for it. The prayer here is, “turn us;” turn us from our sins; bring us to repentance; make us willing to forsake every evil way; and enable us to do it. This is the proper spirit always in prayer. The first thing is not that he would take away his wrath, but that he would dispose us to forsake our sins, and to turn to himself; that we may be led to abandon that which has brought his displeasure upon us, and then that he will cause his anger toward us to cease. We have no authority for asking God to turn away his judgments unless we are willing to forsake our sins; and in all cases we can…”

“Turn us - Restore us to our former tranquillity, and free us from the troubles which we yet groan under. Psalms 85:6”

“turn us: The Israelites were not restored from their captivity all at once. a few returned with Zerubbabel, some more with Ezra and Nehemiah; but a great number still remained in Babylonia, Media, Assyria, etc.; and therefore the Psalmist prays for a complete restoration. Psa 80:3, Psa 80:7, Psa 80:19; Jer 31:18; Lam 5:21; Mal 4:6 O God: Psa 25:2, Psa 27:1; Mic 7:7, Mic 7:18-20; Joh 4:22 cause: Psa 78:38; Isa 10:25; Dan 9:16 Psalms 85:5”

“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…”