Tehilim Perek 85

Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, and today we’ll be discussing Tehilim, Chapter 85.

This is a prayer for God to remove His harsh judgments and to show us loving kindness.

The perek was written by the sons of Korach about the long, bitter exile. Just as Hashem showed His love by returning us to His land in the times of the second Bais Hamikdash, may He increase His love now to show us the ultimate Redemption.

The perek opens by expressing gratitude to Hashem for returning us to Eretz Yisrael, a sign that He had forgiven us.

Keep in mind that this was written about the Jews returning to Eretz Yisrael at the time of the 2^nd Beis Hamikdash, but it obviously applies now as well. Hashem has begun to return His nation from captivity by bringing Jews from across the world back to Eretz Yisrael. This is one of the stages of kibbutz galius, ingathering of the exiles.

The prayer continues by asking Hashem to bring us back to our homeland.

“Will You disgrace us forever? You’ve promised that you’ll revive us once again.” The Meforshim point out that this refers to Techiyas Hameisim, when God will re-infuse each body with its Neshama, and all death will end forever.

The prayer ends by asking God to reveal His peace, love and kindness, righteousness and truth.

Verse 12 says:

אֱמֶת מֵאֶרֶץ תִּצְמָח וְצֶדֶק מִשָּׁמַיִם נִשְׁקָף׃

Truth will sprout from earth; justice looks down from heaven.

Rashi and the Radak explain that when the Jewish nation acts with truth and integrity, God will send down His flow of kindness from heaven.

The Medrash tells us that when Hashem created the world, the quality of Shalom advocated for man to be created. However, the trait of Emes, truth, told Hashem not to create man because man will mess up His world!

Then, says the Medresh, Hashem “hishlich emes arzta, threw truth to the ground,” and Hashem created man. This is what is meant by emes m’eretz tasmiach – truth will emerge from the ground.

The classic question asks why Hashem threw emes to the ground? He could have dismissed shalom instead.

Reb Nosson says that Hashem threw emes to the ground because He wants shalom. So often we see people stubbornly causing hurt feelings to others in the name of truth. They may have won the argument, but lost a friend, so what was really gained?

The deeper truth is that Hashem wants peace. We need to throw truth to the ground in order to humble ourselves.

Now we can understand what’s meant by “emes m’eretz tasmiach – truth will emerge from the ground.” The only way you’ll have Hashem’s truth is by being humble and putting your truth aside to create shalom!

May we merit putting aside our egos and humbling ourselves before one another, with the understanding that Hashem wants peace.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.