Psalms 85:6 • 2 Corinthians 5:17
Summary: Redemptive history is marked by a profound paradigm shift, transitioning from the Old Covenant's repetitive pleas for communal restoration to the New Covenant's declaration of definitive, ontological transformation for the individual and the cosmos. Central to understanding this progression is the dialogue between the urgent cry for revival in Psalm 85:6 and the announcement of new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17. While the Psalm represents a recurring need for life to be re-infused into a stagnant covenant community, the Epistle unveils an inaugurated reality where "old things" have fundamentally passed away, giving way to a new quality of existence in Christ.
Psalm 85:6, rooted in Israel's post-exilic desolation, is a communal prayer for God to "revive us again." The Hebrew root *chayah* signifies a desire for reanimation and a return to a former state of favor, prosperity, and spiritual vitality. This prayer, framed as a negative question expecting a strong affirmative, underscores the petitioners' confidence in God's unchanging character as the Life-Giver and His past acts of forgiveness. The term "again" highlights the cyclical nature of Israel’s relationship with God, necessitating repeated divine interventions to restore the people to their covenantal joy and well-being.
In stark contrast, 2 Corinthians 5:17 proclaims a radical, non-cyclical reality: "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." The Greek *kaine ktisis* denotes a newness in *quality* and *nature*, signifying a direct act of God akin to the original creation. This new creation is both individual, through being "ingrafted" into Christ, and cosmic, indicating a profound disruption of the old age by an "invasion from heaven." The "old things"—our former moral condition, worldly perceptions, and self-centered life—have definitively passed away, establishing a new identity. This pivotal transition culminates in the doctrine of reconciliation, where the poetic harmony of divine attributes in Psalm 85:10 ("righteousness and peace kiss each other") finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ's atoning work at Calvary, where God reconciled the world to Himself.
The Holy Spirit is the indispensable agent in both dynamics. In the Old Testament, the Spirit functions as an external force of reanimation, breathing life into a community for corporate rejoicing. However, in the New Covenant, the Spirit’s role is far more intimate and ontological; the new creation is "born of the Spirit" and continually renewed from within. Although regeneration in Christ is a permanent, once-for-all transformation, the reality of spiritual stagnation persists. Thus, the prayer of Psalm 85:6 remains a vital tool for the new creation, serving as a call for ongoing *renewal* (*anakainosis*) of the inner person—a continuous "conversion of the church" to the fullness of the Gospel, enabling believers to live out their ambassadorial identity empowered by the indwelling Spirit.
Ultimately, the interplay between these two texts presents a unified vision of redemptive vitality and God's unchanging character as the sole source of life. The Old Testament longing for God to turn away His anger finds its definitive answer in Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross. The emotional and relational plea of Psalm 85:6 is therefore fulfilled, not by a return to the Old Covenant's cyclical pattern, but by the ongoing, Spirit-empowered life of the new creation. This dual reality ensures that the joy of God's people remains eternally centered on Him—the One who was favorable to His land, who definitively absorbed wrath in Christ, and who now makes all things new in His Son, inviting a dying world to experience the life-giving power of a God who both revives and recreates.
The movement of redemptive history is punctuated by a shifting paradigm that transitions from the repetitive, restorative pleas of a covenant nation to the definitive, ontological transformation of the individual believer and the broader cosmos. At the center of this theological development stands the interplay between the petition for revival in Psalm 85:6 and the declaration of new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17. While the former represents a cry for life to be re-infused into a stagnant community within the context of the Old Covenant’s cyclical nature, the latter announces the arrival of an inaugurated reality where the "old things" have fundamentally passed away in favor of a new quality of existence in Christ. This relationship is not merely one of chronological succession but involves a deep linguistic, historical, and systematic-theological dialogue that illuminates the nature of God’s interaction with humanity across the two testaments.
Psalm 85 is traditionally situated within the post-exilic period, functioning as a communal prayer of restoration for a people who had returned to the Promised Land but found themselves in a state of spiritual and material desolation. The return from the Babylonian exile, while fulfilling prophecy, was fraught with the difficulties of rebuilding a devastated society, leading to a profound sense of weariness and spiritual apathy. The psalm is structured to move from a remembrance of past mercies (vv. 1-3) to a current plea for intervention (vv. 4-7), culminating in an expectant vision of future peace and flourishing (vv. 8-13).
The designation of the psalm as a product of the Sons of Korah provides a significant narrative layer. These individuals were descendants of Korah, the man who led a catastrophic rebellion against Moses in the wilderness, resulting in divine judgment (Numbers 16:1-40). That the descendants of such a rebel should become the worship leaders and psalmists of the post-exilic temple underscores the theme of radical mercy. Their cry in verse 6, "Will You not revive us again?", is not only a prayer for their nation but reflects a heritage that survived purely by the sovereign choice of God. They represent a community that has historically experienced the consequences of disobedience and now encourages the priesthood and the people toward faith and obedience.
The "season" of revival described in the opening verses of the psalm is characterized by God magnifying His favor and manifesting His forgiveness. The Hebrew term for "favorable" ($\text{rasah}$) carries the connotation of being pleased with, satisfying a debt, or accepting a person after a period of estrangement. In the post-exilic context, this favor is evidenced by the "restoration of the fortunes of Jacob". The psalm highlights that revival begins with a retrospective look at God's completed actions: He showed favor, restored fortunes, forgave iniquity, covered sins, and withdrew His fury.
This retrospective glance is essential because, technically, one cannot "revive" something that has not previously experienced life. Revival is the process of bringing back to life that which has experienced decline, atrophy, or "spiritual comatose". The structure of the plea in verse 6 assumes that God's past forgiveness (vv. 1-3) is proof of His willingness to act again. The finite nature of God's wrath, when justice is satisfied, is a foundational premise of the psalmist’s request; wrath is viewed as redemptive discipline rather than a permanent state of being for the covenant people.
The request for revival in Psalm 85:6 hinges on the Hebrew root $\text{chayah}$ ($\text{חָיָה}$), which appears in the specific verbal form $\text{techayenu}$. This root fundamentally means "to live," but its semantic range in this context extends to "causing to live," "quickening," "restoring to health," and "sustaining life".
Linguistically, verse 6 is constructed as a negative question, which in Hebrew rhetoric expects a strong affirmative response. By asking "Will you not revive us?", the psalmist is effectively demanding a "Yes" from the Almighty. This grammatical structure signals the confidence of the petitioner in the character of God as the Life-Giver. Various translations attempt to capture this nuance: the New Jerusalem Bible uses a strong affirmative ("Surely You will revive us again"), while the Good News Translation represents it as a direct, urgent request.
The word $\text{chayah}$ implies a multifaceted restoration that is not merely symbolic but tangible and historical. It conveys a literal restoration of land, life, and spiritual vitality. The historical occurrences of the word in the Hebrew Bible often refer to the reviving of the spirit of the lowly and the heart of the contrite.
| Hebrew Term | Root Meaning | Contextual Application in Psalm 85:6 |
| $\text{Chayah}$ ($\text{חָיָה}$) |
To live, remain alive, or prosper |
The foundational act of restoring vitality to a dying community. |
| $\text{Techayenu}$ |
To cause to live or bring back to life |
The specific verbal invocation for God to act as the sovereign Life-Giver. |
| $\text{Shub}$ ($\text{שׁוּב}$) |
To turn, return, or restore |
The act of turning back toward God (repentance) and God turning toward His people. |
| $\text{Chaim}$ / $\text{Chayim}$ |
Life (plural of intensity) |
The resulting state of flourishing found in being a student of the Word. |
The usage of "again" ($\text{shub}$) alongside "revive" underscores the cyclical nature of Israel’s relationship with God. This repetition acknowledges that spiritual decline is a recurrent threat, necessitating periodic "turnings" where God restores the people to their former state of favor and joy.
The declaration of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 represents a shift from the restorative cycles of the Old Covenant to a definitive, inaugurated reality. The statement, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come," introduces the concept of $\kappa\alpha\iota\nu\dot{\eta} \kappa\tau\acute{\iota}\sigma\iota\varsigma$ (kaine ktisis) as the fundamental marker of Christian existence.
The term $\kappa\tau\acute{\iota}\sigma\iota\varsigma$ (creation) is only used with God as its subject in biblical Greek, signifying an act that is beyond human ingenuity and parallels the original creation of the world. The adjective $\kappa\alpha\iota\nu\dot{\eta}$ (new) denotes a newness in quality, nature, or kind, rather than merely being new in terms of time ($\text{neos}$).
Paul’s vision for the new creation is both individual and cosmic. While it applies to the person "in Christ," the lack of a subject or verb in the second clause of the original Greek ("If anyone in Christ—new creation!") suggests that the presence of the believer is a sign that the entire cosmic order has begun to be transformed. This "invasion from heaven" disrupts the current age, signifying that the believer lives in a "new time zone" defined by the victory of Christ over death.
The phrase "in Christ" represents the mechanism of this transformation. It is a first-class conditional statement in the Greek, implying "since" or "assuming that" one is in Christ. Being in Christ means being "ingrafted" into the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, resulting in a total "regime change" in the heart. This union renders the "old things"—the previous moral and spiritual condition, worldly evaluation criteria, and life lived for the self—obsolete.
The "old things passed away" ($\text{ta archaia parelthen}$) uses an aorist verb, indicating a completed, historical fact for the believer. This passing away includes the "fleshly" or "worldly point of view" ($\text{kata sarka}$), whereby people are no longer evaluated according to physical or social standards but according to the Spirit.
| Concept | 2 Corinthians 5:17 Application | Theological Implication |
| Kaine Ktisis |
New Creation (in quality) |
A divine act creating a new order of existence. |
| En Christo |
Union with Christ |
The primary identity that transcends job, status, or culture. |
| Parelthen |
Passed away (aorist tense) |
The definitive end of the old life and its associated guilt. |
| Gegonen |
Have come/become (perfect tense) |
The ongoing, established reality of the new state. |
| Idou |
Behold! |
An exclamation demanding attention to the new reality. |
A critical dimension of the interplay between these two texts is the distinction between the "restoration" sought in the Psalm and the "transformation" announced in the Epistle. Scholars argue that the Old Testament concept of revival, as a return to a previous state of peace or innocence, is not entirely applicable to the New Testament reality of the Kingdom of God.
Restoration ($\text{apokatastasis}$ or $\text{shub}$) involves bringing something back to its original form or state of being. In the context of Psalm 85, it is a plea to "bring us back to the peace known before" the sin occurred. However, theologically, this presents a problem because a state of "real" innocence has not existed for humanity since the Fall (Romans 5:12). The Old Testament sacrificial system could promise a "covering" ($\text{kaphar}$) of sin and a restoration of covenantal favor, but it could not achieve the permanent "regeneration" of the human nature.
In contrast, the transformation ($\text{metamorphoo}$) and regeneration ($\text{palingenesia}$) described by Paul involve a "complete, permanent, and different" kind of human being. Transformation is not a return to a past state but the inception of a "new life in Him" that was previously non-existent. While revival in Psalm 85:6 is a repetitive necessity due to the cyclical decline of the people, the new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is a once-for-all ontological change that establishes a new identity as "ambassadors for Christ".
The most profound thematic bridge between Psalm 85:6 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 is the doctrine of reconciliation. Psalm 85:10 famously portrays a meeting of divine attributes: "Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other".
In the Old Testament, these virtues were often estranged by the interference of sin; God’s holiness (righteousness) demanded judgment, while His covenant loyalty (steadfast love) sought to provide peace ($\text{shalom}$). The "kiss" signifies a reunion where God’s attributes work in perfect harmony to restore the people. This reconciliation results in faithfulness "springing up from the ground" and righteousness "looking down from the sky," a picture of holistic, cosmic flourishing where the land yields its harvest.
Paul interprets this reconciliation as a completed work achieved through the death of Christ. The "kiss" of righteousness and peace occurred preeminently at Calvary. In the cross, the righteousness of God was satisfied by Christ’s substitutionary death, allowing the peace of God to be extended to the world.
The "ministry of reconciliation" given to the new creation involves begging others to "be reconciled to God" based on the fact that God has already reconciled the world to Himself in Christ. This highlights a shift in focus: in Psalm 85, the people pray for God to turn His anger away; in 2 Corinthians 5, God has already turned His anger away in Christ, and He now calls for humanity to turn (repent) and accept this peace.
| Feature | Reconciliation in Psalm 85 | Reconciliation in 2 Cor 5 |
| Imagery |
A "kiss" between personified virtues. |
A judicial "not imputing" of trespasses. |
| Timing |
An anticipated event following judgment. |
A finished work of God in history (the Cross). |
| Object |
The "land" and the "people of Jacob". |
The "world" and "anyone in Christ". |
| Result |
National restoration and material harvest. |
New creation and the vocation of ambassadorship. |
The mechanism of both revival and the new creation is the activity of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 85:6 uses the imagery of God "breathing life" into His people, similar to the "resuscitation" of dry bones in Ezekiel 37.
In the Old Testament context, the Spirit acts as an external force that quickens the hearts of the people, causing them to "rejoice in Thee". This revival is often linked to the proclamation of the Law and the people's repentance. It is seen as an "invasion from heaven" that changes the moral climate of a community.
In the New Testament, the Spirit's role is more intimate and ontological. The new creation is "born of the Spirit" (John 3:5) and "renewed in the spirit of your minds" (Ephesians 4:23). The indwelling of the Spirit is the "marker" of the new creation, enabling a "converted criteria" for life. Unlike the periodic visitations sought in the psalm, the Spirit's presence in the new creation is a permanent "sealing" that guarantees future glory.
For the believer, "personal revivals" occur when the indwelling Holy Spirit points out sin, leading to repentance and a fresh experience of freedom and love. This creates a "spiritual irony": the prayer for revival in Psalm 85:6 is fulfilled in the New Testament not by a return to the Old Covenant but by the constant, daily "renewing" ($\text{anakainosis}$) of the inner man, which thrives unperceived by the senses.
A significant tension exists between the corporate focus of Psalm 85 and the individual/Christocentric focus of 2 Corinthians 5.
Psalm 85:6 explicitly links revival to corporate joy: "that Your people may rejoice in You". The prayer is plural, focusing on the "fortunes of Jacob" and "the land". The goal of revival is the restoration of communal worship and the removal of the national "displeasure" of God. In this framework, the individual's identity is found primarily through their membership in the covenant nation.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, identity is relocated from the national/ethnic sphere to the "in Christ" sphere. The statement "if anyone is in Christ" emphasizes individual participation in a new community that transcends cultural backgrounds. The "land" of the Old Testament is seen as a symbol pointing to Jesus; for the new creation, "Jesus is the land," and the joy of the believer is found in their union with Him.
This new identity is characterized by a shift from self-preservation to self-giving love. The "love of Christ controls" the new creation, who no longer lives for themselves but for the one who died for them. Thus, the "rejoicing" the psalmist sought becomes a permanent state of living "to the praise of His glory".
| Feature | Psalm 85 Corporate Joy | 2 Cor 5 Christocentric Joy |
| Primary Unit |
The Nation/The People. |
The Individual "in Christ". |
| Geographic Focus |
The Land of Israel. |
The Cosmic Kingdom/Ambassadorship. |
| Motive Force |
Removal of Divine Anger. |
The Love of Christ. |
| Goal |
Rejoicing in God's Favor. |
Reconciling the World. |
The interplay of these texts suggests a theological continuum where the new creation fulfills the longing of the psalm while acknowledging the ongoing need for spiritual vitality.
Even though the believer is ontologically a "new creation," the research materials indicate that "spiritual decline," "stagnation," and "atrophy" remain real threats. Faith can become "lukewarm" when individuals rely on church activities rather than their own spiritual connection. This "stultifying effect" occurs when the experiential and practical elements of salvation are neglected in favor of a purely legal understanding of justification.
In this context, the prayer "Will You not revive us again?" (Psalm 85:6) serves as a vital tool for the "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). While regeneration is a once-for-all act of God, "renewal" ($\text{anakainosis}$) is an ongoing process of growth in the new life. Revival, then, is the "continual conversion of the church" to the full content of the Gospel, preventing the "inner man" from decaying even as the "outer man" wastes away.
The "new creation" is empowered for this renewal through the "power of the Spirit". The "revival" sought in the psalm is effectively the "rekindling" of the fire of the Spirit within the believer, allowing them to live out their true identity as ambassadors.
The relationship between these texts offers significant insights into the nature of God and the structure of redemptive history.
The psalmist begins by reflecting on God’s past works to provide confidence in His unchanging character. The "reviving God" is the same God who "creates new things". This emphasizes that God is the sole source of both revival and transformation; humans are essentially passive in the inception of life, receiving credit neither for being "born again" nor for being "revived".
The interplay highlights the substitutionary nature of the atonement. In Psalm 85:2-3, God "covered" sins and "withdrew" wrath. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul explains the mechanism: Christ was "made sin" in our place so that we might have "the righteousness of God" imputed to us. This suggests that the "removal of wrath" in the Old Testament was a precursor to the definitive "absorption of wrath" by Christ.
There is a debate within Reformed and Arminian traditions regarding the extent of this work—whether it potentially saves all or actually saves the elect—but both agree that the "new creation" is the specific beneficiary of Christ's representation. The "new creation" is the community of those who participate in the "new covenant," possessing resurrection life and overturning the curse brought by Adam.
The analysis of Psalm 85:6 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 reveals a unified scriptural vision for the vitality of God's people. Psalm 85:6 provides the emotional and relational baseline: a heart that recognizes its own lifelessness and cries out to the only Source of breath. 2 Corinthians 5:17 provides the ontological fulfillment: the announcement that in Christ, the Source of breath has fundamentally changed the nature of the human spirit.
The transition from the corporate, repetitive "revivals" of Israel to the cosmic, permanent "new creation" in Christ marks the progression of God's plan from promise to fulfillment. Yet, the interplay persists in the life of the believer, who is at once a "new creation" and a person in constant need of the Spirit’s "reviving" touch. This dual reality ensures that the joy of the people remains centered on God—the One who was favorable to His land, who turned away His burning anger at the cross, and who now makes all things new in His Son. The "kiss" of righteousness and peace in the psalm becomes the "ministry of reconciliation" in the epistle, inviting a dying world to experience the life-giving power of the God who revives and recreates.
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