LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land. The self existent, all sufficient JEHOVAH is addressed: by that name he revealed himself to Moses when his people were in bondage, by that name he is here pleaded with.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Often and often had he done this, pausing to pardon even when his sword was bared to punish. Who is a pardoning God like thee, O Jehovah? Who is so slow to anger, so ready to forgive? Every believer in Jesus enjoys the blessing of pardoned sin, and he…

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Having removed the sin, the anger is removed also. How often did the longsuffering of God take away from Israel the punishments which had been justly laid upon them! How often also has the Lord's chastising hand been removed from us when our waywardness called…

Turn us, O God of our salvation. This was the main business. Could the erring tribes be rendered penitent all would be well. It is not that God needs turning from his anger so much as that we need turning from our sin; here is the hinge of the whole matter.

Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? See how the psalmist makes bold to plead. We are in time as yet and not in eternity, and does not time come to an end, and therefore thy wrath! Wilt thou be angry always as if it were eternity? Is there no boundary to thine indignation? Will thy wrath never have…

Wilt thou not revive us again? Hope here grows almost confident. She feels sure that the Lord will return in all his power to save. We are dead or dying, faint and feeble, God alone can revive us, he has in other times refreshed his people, he is still the same, he will repeat his love.

Shew us thy mercy, O LORD. Reveal it to our poor half blinded eyes. We cannot see it or believe it by reason of our long woes, but thou canst make it plain to us. Others have beheld it, Lord shew it to us. We have seen thine anger, Lord let us see thy mercy.

I will hear what God the LORD will speak. When we believe that God hears us, it is but natural that we should be eager to hear him. Only from him can come the word which can speak peace to troubled spirits; the voices of men are feeble in such a case, a plaister far too narrow for the sore; but…

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him. Faith knows that a saving God is always near at hand, but only (for such is the true rendering) to those who fear the Lord, and worship him with holy awe. In the gospel dispensation this truth is conspicuously illustrated.

Mercy and truth are met together. In answer to prayer, the exulting psalmist sees the attributes of God confederating to bless the once afflicted nation.

Truth shall spring out of the earth. Promises which lie unfulfilled, like buried seeds, shall spring up and yield harvests of joy; and men renewed by grace shall learn to be true to one another and their God, and abhor the falsehood which they loved before.

Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good. Being himself pure goodness, he will readily return from his wrath, and deal out good things to his repenting people.

Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps. God's march of right will leave a track wherein his people will joyfully follow.

Thy land. The land of Jehovah the poet calls it, in order to point out the close relation of God to it, and to the people thereof, and so confirm the favour of God towards it.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity. nvs tsn, nasatha avon, Thou hast borne, or carried away, the iniquity. An allusion to the ceremony of the scapegoat. Adam Clarke. Thou hast covered all their sin.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Or gathered it; sin occasions wrath, and the people of God are as deserving of it as others; but the Lord has gathered it up, and poured it forth upon his Son, and their Surety; hence nothing of this kind shall ever fall upon them, either here or hereafter; and…

Cause thine anger toward us to cease. The phrase, break thine indignation towards us, (that is, wherewith thou art angry with us, in order that it may cease of itself,)comprehends the abolition of the signs and the effects of anger.

Wilt thou not revive us again? The Hebrew is, Wilt thou not return and revive us? We translate the verb return by the adverb again: Wilt thou not revive us again? Thou hast given us many revives: when we were as dead men, and like carcases rotting in the grave, thou didst revive us, wilt thou not…

Thy mercy. It is not merely of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, but all is mercy, from first to last,—mercy that met us by the way,—mercy that looked upon us in our misery,—mercy that washed us from our sins in his own blood,—mercy that covered our nakedness and clad us in his own robe…

I will hear, etc. The true attitude for a sinner to take in the presence of divine revelation, is that of a listener. To enter the place of a doer before you have occupied that of a listener, is to reverse God's order, and throw everything into confusion.

That glory may dwell in our land. What land the true church of Christ, the saints and they that fear God, do dwell in; there doth glory dwell: there God, there Christ by his Spirit bringing righteousness and salvation to such a society, is glorious; and for his presence the people are glorious; and…

Mercy and truth; righteousness and peace. Note, four virtues stand out prominently in the incarnation; namely, mercy, truth, righteousness and peace, or love producing peace. These were like four steps of the throne of Christ, or four princes standing near and accompanying Him. 1.

Truth shall spring. The literal sense is, that the promises which for a long time are not fulfilled, and seem like seeds or roots hidden and concealed under ground, when they shall be fulfilled, shall be considered to spring up, to grow, etc. Lorinus. Spring.

It has sometimes been objected that the Christian doctrine of a Millennium cannot be true, for the earth could not support the teeming millions that would naturally be found upon it, if wars and vice should cease to waste its population.

Righteousness shall go before him, etc. The meaning of this difficult verse may probably be as follows:—Righteousness shall go before Him (Jehovah), and shall make his footsteps a pathway for his servants to walk in.—Ernest Hawkins. Shall set us in the way of his steps.