My Friend Jo-Ann

Devotion in  Psalm 80

A Prayer for Relief

September 9, 2014

Asaph. A Psalm.  1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!  2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, Stir up Your strength, And come and save us!  3 Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!

 

This psalm is probably related to the captivity of the ten tribes aggravated by the contrast of former prosperity, a prayer for relief comes through this Psalm.   It is a call to the Lord of hosts to lead them, a call to restore them to a former time, a call for His countenance to shine on them, to give them His favor.

 In verse one, the Lord of hosts leads Israel between the cherubim like a flock

            (Psalm 77:20 You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.)

In verse two, a reference to a time of Ephraim (a tribe), and a prayer that the Lord of hosts go back to the time He saved them.

Verse three is a plea for Him to favor them and to let the light of His face shine upon them!

 (Lamentations 5:21 Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old)

Verses 1-3 This is a prayer for the Lord to hear them, to make His strength and the light of His countenance or His favor to come to them for salvation and restoration.

How merciful the Lord God is to hear us when we call, how much we do need His favor in times of need and trouble, and how grateful we are when he brings salvation and restoration to us and to those we love!

4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?

 Psalm 79:5 How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?

Sometimes it seems that the Lord will never answer us, that He is angry at us or jealous of our time and focus someplace else.  We ask, how long will you make us wait, Lord?  It becomes an agonizing prayer, a prayer that seems to come from desperation.

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure.

Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

Many times, it is our bread of tears, our bread of adversity, tears, or water of affliction that are our greatest teachers.  Oftentimes, it takes us a very long time to hear our teachers and see our teachers.  We seem to take a very long time to learn the lessons of life.  How I would like to just be able to hear the word, do the word and not have to have these teachers, but hardship and the pains of life sadly bring us to a place of compassion for others, and also cause us to be thankful and grateful for the very smallest of things in life.

⁶     You have made us a strife to our neighbors,

And our enemies laugh among themselves.

 

⁷     Restore us, O God of hosts;

Cause Your face to shine,

And we shall be saved!

 

⁸     You have brought a vine out of Egypt;

You have cast out the nations, and planted it.

 

The voice of the Lord is heard when Jeremiah writes:

 

^{Jerimiah 2: 21} Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.

How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?

 

It seems there is forever and always dialogue going on between God and His people He brought out of Egypt.  They disappointed Him, mocked what He had done for them, but yet, when they get into a tight place, they immediately start calling on God to come to their rescue and give them favor.  This seems so familiar today.  There is still dialogue with God about bringing mercy, intervention, and salvation when we are in disastrous times in our country, on our job, in our city, or with our children.  Why is it so difficult for us to just grow up and serve God in the good times and the bad and not use Him as someone to use at our convenience.  This must disappoint Him greatly.

 

⁹     You prepared room for it,

And caused it to take deep root,

And it filled the land.

 

¹⁰   The hills were covered with its shadow,

And the mighty cedars with its boughs.

 

^{Leviticus 23:40} And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

 

It was not as if the Lord had given them a land desolate.  He gave them a land of beauty with so many resources.  That is the same as with us.  He has given us a beautiful planet, but rather than tend it and appreciate it, we seem to pollute it and use its’ resources as if it were nothing and will always be available.   How similar are we to those ungrateful people?

 

¹¹   She sent out her boughs to the Sea,

And her branches to the River.

¹²   Why have You broken down her hedges,

So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?

 The Lord then comes back with a decision and takes away the protection He has given because of their disrespect, disobedience, and their rebellion. 

 Our land suffers, our people suffer, and our children suffer, all because we do not acknowledge Him in a manner that is consistent and pleasing.  People turn to wickedness; they turn to their own agenda, forgetting there is a God in heaven. We have a very forgiving God, because of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sin, but we seem to act as if things will go as they are forever and ever.  They will not.

 

^{Isaiah 5:5} And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:

I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;

And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

 

¹³   The boar out of the woods uproots it,

And the wild beast of the field devours it.

¹⁴   Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;

Look down from heaven and see,

And visit this vine

Now the people are becoming repentant and offer up penitence to Him.  Oh, that a cry would go out from our land, even the earth, a repentant cry for our sins!

  ^{Isaiah 63:15}    Look down from heaven,

And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious.

Where are Your zeal and Your strength,

The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?

Are they restrained?

 

¹⁵   And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted,

And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.

 

¹⁶   It is burned with fire, it is cut down;

They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.

 

When the chastisement of our Father comes to us, it is almost unbearable, not so much in the physical, but just to know that He has been displeased can hurt us so much more.  He is a loving patient God, but the bread of tears mentioned earlier in this devotion is a great reminder that we indeed must make Him and His ways so much about who we are that it is like a second skin to us.

 ^{Psalm 39:11}          When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,

You make his beauty melt away like a moth;

Surely every man is vapor.

 

It is then that we grow to realize that we are not permanent upon this earth; all that we think we are can melt away in a thought.  We are only wisps, or do I need to say wimps?  We are so finite while God our heavenly Father is so powerful and infinite.

 

¹⁷   Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,

Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.

 

¹⁸   Then we will not turn back from You;

Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.

¹⁹   Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;

Cause Your face to shine,

And we shall be saved!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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^[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ps 80:8–19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.