Restore Us, O God – Psalm 80

Posted by on November 28, 2011 under Sermons

Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. – Psalm 80

 This tribal hymn of old Israel comes from the Joseph and Benjamin clans.  We could fit this prayer-song into a few different historical contexts: A plea of the people when they found themselves in exile because of the Babylonian army makes the most sense.

The story of the vine that God planted and nurtured, but then was ravaged and attacked by wild beasts certainly reaches back to the exodus and then the exile.    One phrase becomes a chorus or refrain throughout the psalm: Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

 We might talk about what that refrain meant to them – and we may at another time – but this morning let us ask what this phrase means to us.  For this is a psalm “of the people” – not simply an individual’s quiet talk with God, but a song of God’s people who cry out for restoration, favor, and salvation.  I think we find ourselves in that same need as a people whether we care to admit it or not.

Restore us, God Almighty . . . .

The appeal is to the God of Heaven’s Armies, or The Lord of Hosts – a name of God that references God’s power and might.  The appeal is for God to turn back to us and to reinstate the relationship that made us feel alive and thriving.

I imagine that we all feel that need to be restored when we sense the creeping decay and decline that plagues us as a people and as a nation.

For many decades (for some of us our entire lives) we have felt that the moral situation of our culture continues to erode.

  • It’s too easy to note how entertainment has become crass and degenerate – the line of what’s acceptable seems to be shoved back or fading away all the time
  • Now the news outlets are infected by the same decline.  When matters of national or international significance were all around us, the focus of many outlets was the Casey Anthony trial – simply for the sake of sensationalism and scandal.
  • We are locked into political debates (and stalemates) that rarely seem to be about right vs. wrong or even mutual compromise for the betterment of society and instead appear to be about grasping for power and self-promotion – or perhaps we have become too cynical and if so, then that’s also part of the problem.
  • Black Friday and Black Saturday have become an embarrassment, but few seem to mind.  We drunkenly waddle around in the pools of toxic greed.  Whether one is a CEO whose stingy grip on the wealth makes her a member of the 1% class, or a shopper at Wal-Mart madly pepper spraying the competition to grab an XBOX – it is all greed.  It is the same strain of selfishness.
  • Restore Us O God Almighty . . .

Greed is expected, though not excused, when one considers the economic decline that we all feel.  Just keep it local and despite our efforts to be reasonable, positive, and creative – it seems like we are just hit with too much bad news at once . . .

  • The Whirlpool plant is finally shutting down.  We’ve known this would probably happen for years, now we just wait to see who goes down with it.
  • The government may cut the funding for the 188th which would only add salt to our wounds.
  • All of this contributes to attitudes of despair and worry that are hard to shake off.  Perhaps it is time that we come together in prayer and say, “Restore Us O God Almighty . . .”

What about this congregation?  You may not want to hear me admit to decline, although it doesn’t stop any of us from whispering it to one another.  So please bear with me as I strive to simply voice what all of us probably think about from time to time . . .

  • Years ago this congregation was packed with over 1,200 members.  Just look at the size of the auditorium.
  • A crowd of 700 was not unusual about 10 years ago.  600 is a good number on Sunday morning today.
  • There are many other ways to measure growth and we ought to keep that in mind, but what happened to all those other folks who used to assemble with us?
  • Did they move away?  Did they just stop attending worship?  Did they start going to another church?  Did they die?   – The answer is yes – it is a combination to all the above.
  • But the reality is that there is decline and if we don’t address it and name it out loud and faithfully, then we will start to get uneasy and the despair of decline will make us negative and hopeless within.  We will lose the energy and the creativity to believe that anything can ever be better.  We will resign ourselves to decline and just commit to turning out the lights if we are the last one left.

Instead of bearing this burden of despair and feeling like it is all up to us to turn the tide, why can’t we own this Psalm and be humble enough and outspoken enough to say loudly: “Restore Us O God Almighty!”

And let’s know what we are asking for . . .

1.       Make your face shine on us – This is part of the old threefold priestly blessing from Numbers 6:25.  It goes beyond having God bless us and keep us.  Any impersonal, divine, invisible force could do that.  We could just say “good luck” or carry around a rabbit’s foot.  Trust in the stars, light a candle, and do good deeds to build up karma.  But our appeal is to have a personal God show us his face – not in anger or disappointment – but shining with happiness and delight.

  • We must do away with any false notion of trying to manipulate an impersonal force called God.  We are called into a relationship with him.  That’s the story we tell in the gospel – God drew near to us and became real to us so that we might be real with him.
  • Like any relationship, we (not individuals, but we the people) need to take responsibility for the ways that we have disappointed God and even made him angry.
  • When we as a people have supported and contributed to social structures that create injustice and greed, God is disappointed.  Just as you would be disappointed and angry with a child who cheats, steals, or abuses others.
  • When we as a people have tolerated the selling of sex as a commodity and created unrealistic burdens of physical beauty that have nothing to do with health but everything to do with using sex as power and lure, then God is disappointed.  Just as you would be with your children.
  • When we speak the language of bitterness, violence, ingratitude, hate, mistrust, and slander, then we forget the language of love and thanksgiving that our Father taught us to speak and his face does not shine upon us.
  • Let us repent and let God also repent and turn to us.  Turning to one another (God and his people), may his face shine upon us – “Restore Us O God Almighty”
2. that we may be saved –What we hope for is much more than survival or renewal.  We call out for more than a cash bailout to get us back on our feet.  We need more than a new election or tax reform or jobs.  We need much more even that a new program for church evangelism.
  • We need salvation – So often that word is limited to being saved from a future trip to hell.  But it means so much more.  It is rescue from the decaying, declining circumstances that surround us even in this life.
  • We need to be saved from the weak and empty visions of life that our common stories give to us – We need a better vision of who we are and who we might become with God’s saving work and his restoration and his shining face upon us.  We need a better “story” that informs our past, present, and future.
  • But this is going to be difficult because if our common stories are good enough then we aren’t convinced that they are weak and empty. – We carry within us the stories and myths of our culture.  For a long time it was the myth of “the self-made man.”  And now, to show that we aren’t sexist, we have added the charge of “You go, girl!”  These phrases contain bundles of ideas about becoming successful and not letting anyone stop you.  They contain a lot of good virtues like hard work, perseverance, dedication, positive outlook.  But in what sense is God important?  These stories are not bad, but in what way are they particularly Christ-focused? These stories are “good,” but are they the “good news?”

A good example of how these songs and stories inform our outlook (sometimes much more than the Christian worldview) is Lee Greenwood’s popular song,

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin’ here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

Well at least God comes in at the end to sprinkle blessings on all the hard work and sacrifice that we have made to make America the best land in the world.

But I don’t want to seem like I am picking on this song or Lee Greenwood.  I admit that this song captures some great ideas.  I even have a hard time criticizing it.  I think it is a good song, but is it the good news? And this is the touchy problem:  The stories and ideas behind this song are good enough, and that makes it easy to embrace.  Those ideas can even stir our passions – and at times for good reason.  But where is our hope in God and how does our passion get stirred enough to sing the visionary songs of the reality of God that we know to be true?  Is there a story that is above all other stories?

For Israel, the story is told in Psalm 80 as the story of the vine.  The little vine was taken out of hostile Egypt.  Mighty God pushed the “god-man” Pharaoh aside to rescue this vine.  God cleared the land and made it rich so that the vine could thrive and with his care and nurture it did.  So much so that it covered the known earth and spread out from sea to sea.

But now the people of the vine wonder why the protection of God seems to have fallen off.  Why are they vulnerable to the attacks of brutes and strangers?  They accept God’s rebuke for their lack of holiness and they commit themselves to repentance.  All they ask is that God restore them to their proper purpose: to be God’s “right hand man” who brings him favor.  They want to be God’s people who find their purpose in living for him.

I think that’s a better story, do you?  That the kind of story that can confidently cry out with hope, “Restore Us O God Almighty, make your face shine upon us that you may save us!”

I ask you to pray for the elders of this church.  This Friday and Saturday a retreat is scheduled.  The elders are asking Roland Orr, also an elder in the church, to come and guide them in a time of conversation and prayer.  This is not a business meeting.  This is not an assembly of the church’s house of representative.  This is a time when our spiritual leaders and working together to catch a vision of God’s purpose and calling for this congregation.  You will be hearing more about this before and after the fact but these shepherds turn to us to ask for our prayers.  Let us pray that they can help us tell the story as our own “Vine out of Egypt” story.

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