Now well over half way through the Psalms, perhaps you have become weary with the whining psalmist. In Psalm 85, bad things have happened and the writer doesn’t understand why.
Again.
Reading Israel’s history, we can understand why. It’s not difficult to discover. Once again, Israel has turned from the Lord. Difficulties have come upon them in judgment and now, in penitence, they are turning to the Lord for help.
Again.
Why do we keep having these psalms? Why do we need so many of them?
This type of psalm is called a “lament” and fully 40% of all the psalms are laments. The reason they are there, and there are so many of them, is that their predicament is so often our predicament. Their sheer prominence shows us God is used to hearing these cries, that our circumstance is not new, and reminds us that God is our only hope of deliverance.