Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 85:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 85:2: The line “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered…” reaches Selah inside “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned,” marking an ancient pause of uncertain performance.
Read It With
- Psalms 85:1–13
Read Psalms 85:2 with 85:1–13. Read alone, “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 85:1–13, the communal voice carries the movement “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned” as part of “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned.” Its communal-lament form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 85:1–13 opens Psalm 85 with “LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob” and establishes the communal voice and “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 85:2 carries “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin.…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain.
What Remains True
Book III gives Psalm 85:2 a larger home, while “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned” supplies its immediate one. Psalm 85:2 carries “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin.…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Therefore, Confession seeks mercy and changed life while preserving truth, consequences, restitution, safeguarding, and the dignity of people harmed. The local movement is “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned.” The unit's reviewed limit is: Peace, righteousness, and land fruitfulness belong together; the psalm is not a technique for prosperity or a nationalist land claim.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because Psalm 85:2 belongs to “Restoration remembered and peace envisioned,” its role must lead the practice: Psalm 85:2 carries “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin.…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Name what “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all…” confesses, seek mercy without minimizing injury, and ask what truth, repair, consequence, and protection now require.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 85:1–13 — Restoration remembered and peace envisionedSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 85:1–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 85:1–13
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 85:1–13.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 85 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 85:1–13
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗