‘Listen to Me my child
I’ll feed your body, free your mind‘
That… was from an unorthodox old 90’s hymn.
Ahem. Anyway…
Time’s running out. Need to move, need to feed and exhaust the body, need to strain and free the mind.
Thank You, Father, for the reading of Your Word.
Psalm 80
Prayer for Israel’s Restoration
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Testimony of 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!
First off, we’re noticing a ‘Chorus’-type line, in the form of a verse repeated thrice in this composition: Verse 3, verses 7 and 19 are all the same: Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
I suppose that’s a timely chorus to see and savor in this season. Consider everything happening around the world – the conflict between Iran and the USA, the state of affairs in Venezuela, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and Lebanon, the illegal immigrant issues in the United Kingdom, France, and the rest of Europe, the infighting online and face to face in the USA, the Epstein Files, and on and on and on…
Consider everything happening in our country – the shameless lambasting in politics, way in advance before the presidential elections this coming 2028, the armed clashes between our army and Communist insurgents, the spike in temperature, and on and on and on…
Consider everything happening in our city – The recent brownouts after just one bout of rain, the issues arising from now required building permits, adjustments in public transport fares due to the increase in fuel prices, and on and on and on…
Like a certain fellow minister I know, we can simply cave in to all these concerns and sort of ‘own’ them by way of giving our own limited (yet ultimately insignificant and irrelevant) ‘analysis’, and only in the end say a quick ‘consuelo’ by lifting our hands and saying we trust the Lord…
Or, we can just cut the middleman (in this case, us), and cry out, before we go into any detail – Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
But see, I suppose that’s why Asaph wrote and re-wrote it at the first, in the ‘middle’ and at the end of the entire composition – to emphasize that it’s doesn’t really matter when you say it, but you would do well to keep coming back to it, as situations and circumstances start, progress, and resolve.
So with that in mind I guess it’s okay to overthink – long as every now and then we go back to remembering what truly matters, we would be in less risk of falling into the paralysis of over-analysis.
Notice also that Asaph composes the first verses to specify that the Lord He is crying out to is the Shepherd of Israel, further emphasizing this by calling on His face to shine specifically upon (the tribes of) Ephraim and Manasseh (who are both sons of Joseph), and Benjamin. We could go further into this, although I wouldn’t really know off the bat the reason why Asaph mentioned these tribes in particular; But I choose to gather that our Good Shepherd not only knows us by name, but He also knows the bloodlines we come from.
And with that said, I take heart in knowing that my Lord is my Savior who stirs up His strength, and saves both Lardizabal and Songgadan, whom He leads like a flock.
Indeed, in these times of turbulence and testing, our cry is to the Lord; For Him to restore us, for His face to shine, that we, along with the bloodlines we represent, shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in great measure.
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!
Here we see how it really should be part of our new heart to be comfortable enough with our Father to be real with Him, and to cry out to Him; because Asaph and David were real enough with the Lord to call Him out – I assume that though they knew that they were loved by Him, and that He was as much a Father to them as He was God, King and Lord, they couldn’t help but express how they believe He has something to do with all this strife which is happening to them and their people.
I tell a whole bunch of people that there’s always more reason to give thanks than there is to complain – but I never told anyone that we shouldn’t be complaining. No, I think that if we are to complain, then we would utilize our time and saliva best if we were complaining to our Father – even down to blaming Him.
I would catch myself in my times alone; If I’m not doing my usual bouts of overthinking, I’d be fantasizing, and I’d be telling the Lord every now and then how it just sucks to feel how I’m feeling about this issue or that circumstance, and how I just hate this situation or that event, or even go as far as to question why this or that happened.
But, see here – at the end of it all, we’re not stopping at our complaints, nor are we stopping at our trying to be edgy in our being ‘real’ to our Father; Because I believe it is by the power of the Holy Spirit alive in our new hearts that we are brought back to crying out: 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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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!
In these verses, is Asaph prophesying about Christ? I mean, I saw ‘vine’ and John 15 immediately came to mind… But if it was really Christ who the vine was referring to, then what I imagine was His shadow of influence covered the entire land of the Israelites, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan down to the Dead Sea;
I could imagine His crucifixion was His being uprooted and devoured, His being burned with fire and cut down. Christ became sin and endured God’s rebuke at the cross, crying of rejection and separation.
Of course, the Son of Man in verse 17 is definitely referring to Him – indeed, God’s hand was upon Christ, who is now seated at His right hand… and who He has apparently not only revived, but also ‘made strong for (Himself)’. Now I thought that His hand upon Him was initially an act of favor and approval, but it could also very well be His wrath upon Him.
And Christ rose from the dead because death could not hold Him down, He paid the wages of sin in full, draining the cup down to its dregs without being drained Himself…
Here we’re reminded that His resurrection was also for the Godhead’s names’ sake, to the glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit – so that, indeed, the true enemy of our souls would not only be subdued and placed under His feet, but also given a foretaste of his final judgment.
Here I believe Asaph was brought to cry out, yet again, because I suppose we’d do the same thing, after realizing the extent of Christ’s finished work – how much He paid, and how much we were saved.
We’d cry out as Asaph would: Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
Just as You did so much for us at the cross, Jesus, come to our aid, and save us for Your Name’s sake!
Arise, Christ, my Beginning and End, my First and Last;
Arise, Jesus, our Alpha and Omega; You hear our cry, loud and clear, and we know You are definitely willing and far more than able to rescue us!
Indeed, Lord, You hear our groaning, our complaining – We would rather entrust You with all that we’re really feeling about each and every situation and circumstance we willingly decide to gather and digest. Daniel’s prophecy of knowledge increasing in the last days – that’s come true, and is now a fact that is impacting every represented generation in this time.
Many people are also going to and fro – if not from all that’s already happening all around, we’d be pushed around like waves in a raging sea of our own condemnation and insecurity.
But Lord, You’ve seen ALL of us like this – wandering around, rushing and striving like headless chickens – You’ve seen this idiocracy and You still thought it was well worth dying for us!
Thank You so much, Jesus! For before we even had anything near the noble idea of laying our lives down to save others, You already had it in Your mind to save all of creation by way of Your sacrifice!
I suppose I could be as Asaph, crying out and going into detail about how I feel about my life here and now, and simply how I think it’s all so pathetic, and painfully discouraging given my age and my upcoming turning of yet ANOTHER year with NOTHING to show for myself…
…But oh, dear Lord – THANK YOU for Your Spirit, which will not allow me to stay here; for in the end, the resolution You have died for us to arrive at, is that in You, there is NO condemnation, only conviction from the Spirit of Adoption that even in this time and in all the lies I am surrounded with, I will ALWAYS have the Creator of the Universe, the Maker of Time and Space, the all-knowing, all-powerful, Almighty God of Israel, and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as my beloved FATHER, who restores me and reminds me at every turn: ‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’
Oh, thank You, Jesus! Arise, Father, and come to my aid! Please, come to OUR aid!
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
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