Psalm 80:18-19

Psalm 80:18-19

The face of God

The final two verses of this beautiful Psalm are a plea to the Lord God which sounds initially like an attempt to bargain with Him. “If you revive and restore us, we will call on Your name and we won’t turn away from you.”Perhaps we need to remember that Israel were God’s only representatives on the earth, if He did not have them, He had no one. Their privileged position gave them some bargaining power! 

However, we need to read the last two verses together, these people hated the loss of their land and their heritage, they hated the brutal Babylonians and the poverty of their circumstances, and the plea was much more than a bargaining tool. They knew that only God could restore them and that He alone could save them from their predicament.

 Numbers 6:22-27 sets out the High Priestly blessing that was pronounced daily in the Temple, after the sacrifices had been made. As He prayed the Priest would lift up his hands over the people and everyone looked down at the ground for the glory of the Lord shone upon the hands of the Priest and no one dare look at him, they believed this to be a reflection of the face of God. That face shining upon them was a sign of God’s presence and of His blessing, if He withdrew the glory departed. 

So, they prayed with three requests, revive us, restore us and make Your face shine upon us. In return, we will not turn away from you, we will call on Your name and we will be saved. That’s worth remembering is it not, when we don’t know how to pray?

·      Revive us Lord.

·      Restore us Lord.

·      Make Your face shine upon us Lord.

And in return: -

·      We will not turn away from You.

·      We will call on Your name.

·      We will be saved.

 

Hallelujah!

 

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