Latest / Reformed Thinking / Restore Us, O God: A Cry for Revival (Psalm 80) | Charles Spurgeon

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Restore Us, O God: A Cry for Revival (Psalm 80) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to REFORM Thinking. We are really glad you're here
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  with us. We could be here today.
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  We have a special text to look at.
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  We're opening up Psalm 80. But we aren't just, you know,
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  reading it flat on the page. We're going to be looking at it
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  through the lens of Charles Spurgeon and his, well, his
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  massive work, the Treasury of David.
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  And yes, Psalm 80 is a heavy one.
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  It's beautiful, but it carries a lot of weight.
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  There's a sorrow to it that you feel right away.
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  It really does. I was reading through the notes
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  we have from Spurgeon and he pulls in all these other voices,
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  men like Musculus, Savonarola, Venema.
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  It's almost like a choir of historical theology, all focused
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  on this one song by Asaph. That really is the beauty of the
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  treasury, isn't it? Yeah.
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  Spurgeon didn't just write down his own thoughts.
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  He curated the best thoughts of the church throughout history.
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  He's gathering a consensus. Yeah.
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  He's like a Theo Psychological Museum curator.
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  He is, and for Psalm 80, the mission for us today is, I
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  think, pretty specific. We want to look at what Spurgeon
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  calls the testimony of the church during a time of decline.
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  Right. It's not a Psalm of victory, at
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  least not at the start. It uses these really vivid
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  metaphors. A Lily among thorns, A ravaged
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  bind. It's bleak.
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  Spot on. And since this is Reformed
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  thinking, we are going to be analyzing this specifically
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  through a Reformed framework. We're going to see God's
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  absolute sovereignty and restoration.
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  We're going to see that we can't fix ourselves.
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  That's a key point. It is.
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  And most importantly, we're going to see the Christological
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  hope that anchors the whole text, even the deepest darkness.
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  There's a pointer to Christ. So let's get right into the text
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  itself. The title of the Psalm is, well,
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  it's a bit of a mouthful to the chief musician upon Shoshanim
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  Eduth. It's a beautiful title that once
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  you break it down, Shoshanam translates to lilies and Edith
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  means testimony. So the lilies of testimony.
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  Exactly. That seems like such a strange
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  title for a Psalm that, as we're going to see, is about war,
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  desolation, and a vine being eaten by a wild boar.
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  Why Lilies? It is a striking contrast, isn't
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  it? You have this song about
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  delicate, lovely lilies, but it's set in a time that is
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  thorny and harsh for Israel. Spurgeon points out that this
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  might be a kind of poetic justification.
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  What do you mean by that? Well, even though the sayings in
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  the Psalm are what he calls dark sayings, the title itself
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  remains charming. It's a reminder that even in
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  suffering, there is a testimony, a beautiful witness that can
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  bloom. Like a flower growing in a
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  battlefield. That's a great way to put it.
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  There was another view in the notes, though, someone named
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  Schlossner. He had a different take.
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  Yes, Schlossner takes a more, let's say technical approach.
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  He suggests it refers to a musical instrument.
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  He translates it as the hexacord of testimony, which would
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  suggest A6 stringed instrument. OK, so either a Lily or a lute
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  basically. Something like that.
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  But whether it's a flower or, you know, a six string guitar,
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  the point is that this is a testimony.
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  It's a witness being given. And who is giving this witness?
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  The text says a Psalm of Asaph. Now I know Asaph was one of
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  David's chief musicians, a real pillar in that time.
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  But the content here, it sounds like Jerusalem is in ruins.
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  This doesn't sound like the Golden Age of David.
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  That is a very keen observation and most commentators would
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  agree it's likely not the Asaph who lived during the glory days.
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  Spurgeon calls him a ladder Asaph, or maybe the last.
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  Minstrel. The last minstrel.
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  That's a sad title. It is.
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  It suggests he's someone living in evil times, watching the
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  nation crumble around him and still trying to sing a song to
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  God. So kind of a legacy title.
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  A songwriter from the school or family of Asaph that's.
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  Probably the best way to understand it, unless.
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  Unless it was a prophecy. Right, that's the other option.
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  If it was the original Asaph, he would have been writing in the
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  Spirit of Prophecy for seeing a national woe that hadn't
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  actually happened yet. But usually the simplest
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  explanation is that this is is a later poet writing under that
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  family name or tradition. Either way, the tone is
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  definitely not the upbeat David killing Goliath style we see in
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  some other songs. No, not at all.
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  It is mournful, Spurgeon says. It's lilies are lilies of the
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  valley. It's low to the ground.
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  It's humble, but it has a very clear structure.
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  There's a refrain that shows up three times.
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  Turn us again. Oh.
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  God, that's the one. And that refrain breaks the
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  Psalm into three natural parts, like 3 movements in a Symphony
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  of sorrow. OK, so let's look at that first
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  part verses one and two. It starts with this incredibly
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  tender image. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel.
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  That title, Shepherd of Israel is just full of grace, isn't it?
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  When you're broken hearted, you don't really want to address God
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  as the judge of all the earth with a consuming fire.
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  You want the shepherd. It's.
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  Personal. It's gentle.
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  It is, and it Harkins back to Jacob.
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  You remember on his deathbed in Genesis, Jacob spoke of God as
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  the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
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  So Asaph is pulling on this ancient covenantal name for God.
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  There's a great illustration in the source material from WM
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  Thompson from his book The Land and the Book.
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  He describes watching a shepherd lead his flock across the Jordan
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  River. I thought that was such a
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  helpful visual for this whole idea.
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  It's a fantastic illustration. It really brings the metaphor to
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  life. Thompson describes how the
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  shepherd doesn't drive from behind.
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  He goes first. He enters the water himself.
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  And the sheep have to follow, but they don't all follow the
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  same way, which I found really interesting.
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  Right, he said. Some are bold.
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  They just jump right in and stay close to the shepherd.
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  They trust him completely. But others are terrified.
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  They're lingering on the bank, shivering, afraid of the
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  current. And that's where Thompson
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  mentions the shepherd's dog. The dog.
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  This is the part that got me. It's such a powerful image of
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  God's Providence. It really is.
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  The dog barks and snaps at them, driving the reluctant ones into
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  the water. Now, to the sheep, the dog
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  probably seems cruel, right? Like an enemy.
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  Of course, it's nipping at their heels.
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  It's terrifying, but the dog is actually saving them from being
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  left behind. It drives them into the stream
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  of safety where the shepherd is waiting to catch them.
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  That is such a powerful picture of discipline.
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  Sometimes our difficulties, our trials, they're just the
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  shepherds dog barking at us to get us into the water where God
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  can carry us. And then there are the Lambs.
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  The littlest ones. They can't cross at all, and the
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  shepherd has to just lift them into his bosom and carry them
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  across. It's a picture of total
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  dependence. From that image of the river the
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  text moves to the temple. It says, Thou that dwellest
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  between the cherubim shine forth.
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  This is precise theology. He's not just saying God in
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  heaven, the dwelling place is the mercy seat, specifically the
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  lid of the Ark of the Covenant between the two golden cherubim.
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  So. Why does that specific location
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  matter so much? Why not just say thou who
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  dwellest in heaven? Because in the Old Testament
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  economy, God reveals grace only upon the mercy seat.
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  If you approach God anywhere else, say on the throne of
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  judgement without the blood, you're consumed.
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  The mercy seat is where the atoning blood was sprinkled.
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  So for us, from a Reformed perspective, this is all
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  pointing to Christ. Absolutely.
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  Jesus is the true mercy seat, the true propitiation.
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  We approach God only through his substitutionary death.
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  So the prayer shine forth is really asking God to look at the
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  blood, look at the covenant of grace, and then let His glory
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  shine out from there. Precisely in the darkest times,
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  when everything is falling apart, the face of God is the
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  only necessary light, just one glimpse of His favorable
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  countenance. Then we get this list of tribes
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  in verse 2, before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up
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  thy strength. That seems on the surface like a
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  kind of a random grouping. Why those 3?
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  It's not random at all. In fact, it's brilliant.
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  First, think about their genealogy.
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  Who was their mother? They're all the sudden from
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  Rachel. Right, Joseph, who became the
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  two half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and Benjamin were the
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  sons of Rachel, Jacob's beloved wife.
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  So there's a family connection, but there's also a military.
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  Connection. A military connection?
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  How so? Well, in the wilderness during
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  the Exodus from Egypt, do you remember the marching order of
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  the tribes? I confess I don't have the Order
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  of the Camp memorized. I probably should.
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  Well, the Ark of the Covenant, God's throne, led the way, and
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  immediately behind the Ark marched these 3 tribes, Ephraim,
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  Benjamin, and Manasseh. They were the honor guard, so to
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  speak. OK, so when the psalmist says
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  before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, he's picturing the ark
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  setting up for battle. Yes, he's looking back to that
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  history and asking God to take his position at the head of the
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  army again. He's saying, Lord, take your
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  place as our general. Stir up your strength like you
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  did in the desert. Rise up, Lord, and let your
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  enemies be scattered. It's a call for action based on
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  historical precedent. That's amazing.
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  I never would have caught that. It makes so much more sense now.
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  And that leads us right into the refrain in verse 3.
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  Turn us again. Oh God.
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  This is one of the most critical theological points in the whole
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  song, and I want us to really slow down and notice the
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  phrasing. It is not turn our captivity,
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  it's not change our circumstances.
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  It's turn US. Turn us.
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  It's a prayer for inner conversion, for a change of
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  heart, a change of character. They recognize the problem isn't
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  primarily external, it's internal.
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  This sounds an awful lot like monarchism.
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  It is pure monarchism. This is the doctrine that God is
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  the sole active agent in regeneration.
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  We don't turn ourselves, he turns us.
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  Spurgeon has a great note on this.
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  He says conversion is as divine a work as creation.
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  You cannot create yourself out of nothing, and you cannot
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  convert yourself out of sin and. The text implies that this isn't
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  just for the initial moment of salvation.
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  It's not a one and done thing. Correct.
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  This is a prayer for believers, the psalmist says.
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  Turn us again. Those who have backslidden,
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  those who have grown cold, need God to sovereignly turn them
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  just as much as they needed Him at their first conversion.
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  We are constantly in need of that sovereign reorientation
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  back to Him. It's a prayer for revival, then,
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  personal and corporate. Yes, and the result of that
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  turning is described in the very next phrase.
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  Cause thy face to shine. Which is of course the ironic
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  blessing from #6 The Lord make His face shine upon me.
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  It is. It's the highest blessing you
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  can receive. Spurgeon has this beautiful line
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  about that. I wrote it down, he says.
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  One glance if his gracious eye would transform tofit into
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  paradise. It's true, isn't it?
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  If you have the smiling face of God, the favor of God, it
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  doesn't matter what your external circumstances are, you
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  are saved. You are safe.
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  There was another voice Spurgeon brought in here.
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  Savonarola, the great Italian reformer and martyr.
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  He had a meditation on this. He did.
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  Sivanarolla prayed that God would show his attributes, his
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  power, his wisdom, his goodness to the believer.
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  He argued that it's the sight of God, the vision of who he is,
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  that actually converts the rebellious will.
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  So we pray, turn us, and the way He turns us is by showing us His
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  face. It's a response.
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  We behold him and we are changed.
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  That's the mechanism of sanctification.
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  OK, now we move into the second section, what you called the
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  second movement, and the mood shifts dramatically.
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  We go from the plea for a smiling face to smoke and anger.
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  Verse 4. O Lord God of hosts, how long
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  wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
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  The title for God changes here too.
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  Do you notice that it's now Lord God of hosts?
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  Which sounds military again, we just talked about that.
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  It is. It's the name for God as the
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  Commander in chief of all creation.
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  Spurgeon has this amazing list where he points out that God's
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  hosts are not just angels and men, but also frogs, flies,
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  locusts. Right there.
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  Was that funny or I guess somewhat dark historical
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  anecdote in the notes about this God of hosts concept?
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  Yes, regarding Pope Adrian, the story goes that he was killed by
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  a common house fly that flew down his throat and choked him.
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  It's a stark reminder that God can Marshall even the smallest
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  insect as a soldier in his army. He can use a rat or a family
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  just as easily as his vein. He can use an Archangel to
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  accomplish his will. So he is the general.
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  But here the general is angry, and not just angry at sin in
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  general. The text says he's angry against
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  the prayer of thy people. That's the terrifying part,
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  isn't it? It's one thing for God to be
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  angry at wickedness. That feels natural, righteous.
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  But to be angry at prayer? The very act of coming to him.
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  It's a mind bending concept. It is.
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  The imagery in the Hebrew is that God is smoking.
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  His wrath is acting like a thick smoke that blocks the incense of
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  prayer from rising and entering the holy place.
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  Their prayers are just hitting a ceiling of smoke and falling
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  back down. So why?
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  Why would God be angry at prayer?
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  That seems so contrary to everything we're taught.
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  Ask and you shall receive right. Well, Spurgeon brings in another
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  old Puritan writer, Thomas Adams, who provides a very
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  rigorous, almost diagnostic analysis of this.
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  He lists several reasons why prayer might be rejected.
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  He uses these great Latin terms to describe defective prayers.
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  Let's unpack those because I have a feeling many of us, if
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  we're honest, might be guilty of some of these without even
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  knowing it. I think so.
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  The first one he lists is xanimies.
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  This means lifeless prayers, prayers without a soul.
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  You're saying the words. Maybe you're reading from a
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  list, but your heart is completely checked out.
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  Just going through the motions. A spiritual checklist.
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  Exactly. Then there's perfunctory, which
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  means prayers from feigned lips. You're performing a duty, maybe
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  so others will see you, but you don't actually mean what you're
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  saying. It's hypocritical prayer.
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  OK, then tentative. What's that one?
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  Tempting God rather than trusting him.
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  It's the kind of prayer that says God, if you do this, then
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  I'll believe it's putting God to the test.
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  And fluctuant taste. That means fluctuating or
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  wandering. You know when you start praying
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  and 30 seconds later you're thinking about your grocery list
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  or an e-mail you forgot to send, or what you're going to watch on
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  TV later? Yes, I am very familiar with
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  that one. We all are.
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  That's a wandering prayer. Then there's pre proper, a
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  hurried prayers. Adams calls it chopping up
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  prayer. You're just rushing through
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  because you want to get to the real business of your day.
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  But trying to microwave a deep relationship it doesn't work.
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  It doesn't. And finally, and maybe most
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  importantly, sign fiducia without faith.
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  Adam says a prayer without faith isn't worth a crust of bread.
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  And sign humiliate without humility.
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  If we approach God arrogantly, presumptuously, he resists US.
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  Wow, that's a heavy list. So when the psalmist acts, how
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  long will you be angry at our prayers?
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  The answer might just be as long as your prayers are fake,
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  hurried, faithless, or arrogant. That's the hard truth he's
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  getting at. And the result of this divine
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  anger is described so vividly in verse 5.
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  Thou feedest them with the bread of tears.
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  It is such a visceral image of a diet.
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  Their meals, their daily bread, are seasoned with the brine from
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  their own weeping eyes. Tears is of tears, Virgin calls
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  it, in which he says are large vessels, not just a few drops.
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  They're drinking tears by the gallon.
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  But notice the sovereignty here. Who is feeding them this bread?
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  The text says Thou feedest them. God appoints this diet.
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  This isn't just bad luck, it's a prescribed regimen for their
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  spiritual health. That's a challenging thought.
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  It is, but sometimes God puts His church on a diet of tears to
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  cure us of our pride and our worldliness.
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  It reminds me of what we said earlier about the shepherd's
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  dog. The tears are the discipline,
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  the barking and the snapping. Yes.
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  In his hands, it turns what feels like a curse into a
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  blessing. But it's not just internal pain,
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  is it? Verse 6 talks about being a
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  strife unto our neighbors. Right.
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  This is the psychological pain of scorn.
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  The neighbors here are the surrounding nations like Edom
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  and Moab, and they are laughing at Israel's downfall.
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  There's something particularly cruel about that, about being
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  mocked in your misery. It's devilish to find mirth.
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  To find humor in another's misery is the very nature of the
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  demonic. But for the believer, being the
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  punchline of a joke is incredibly hard to bear.
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  We want respect, we want to be seen as blessed, but here the
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  church is a laughing stock. This whole section is so bleak
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  it seems like there's no hope. Which I guess brings us to the
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  centerpiece of the Psalm, this great allegory of the vine in
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  verses 8 through 16. It is.
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  This is one of the most famous extended metaphors in all the
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  Psalms. It describes the entire history
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  of Israel using the image of a Grapevine.
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  And it starts with the transplanting.
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  Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt.
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  Egypt was unfriendly soil. It was the House of bondage.
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  The vine couldn't grow there, couldn't flourish.
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  So God in his sovereign election and grace, digs it up, but he
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  needs a place to plant it. So he clears the ground, the
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  text says, Thou hast cast out the heathen.
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  This refers to the seven nations of Canaan that were driven out
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  before Israel. God didn't just ask them to move
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  aside, the text says. He dug them out.
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  Spurgeon uses this great image of tearing up the old stubborn
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  oaks of Bashan to make room for this new pleasant plant.
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  The work was hard and God did it all.
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  And once planted, the vine took off.
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  It grew. It filled the land, the text
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  says. It covered the hills and even
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  grew as high as the Cedars of God.
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  Its branches, its influence, stretched from the sea, the
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  Mediterranean, all the way to the river, the Euphrates.
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  So this was the golden age, the era of David and Solomon.
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  A time of incredible blessing and expansion.
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  And it applies to the history of the church as well.
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  Yeah, there are times when God pleases to cause the influence
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  of the Church to spread far, far beyond its numerical proportion.
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  But then comes the twist, the gut punch in verse 12.
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  Why has thou then broken down her hedges?
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  This is the agonizing question that haunts the psalmist.
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  God, you built the fence. You planted the vine.
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  Now it seems God himself has torn down the protective fence.
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  And because the fence is down, the predators come flooding in.
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  Verse 13 mentions the boar out of the wood.
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  This is a very specific and terrifying image.
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  He doesn't just say animals, he says the wild boar.
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  Right, This isn't a domestic pig.
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  This is something else entirely. A wild boar is a beast of pure
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  destruction. It doesn't just eat the grapes,
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  it gores the vine with its tusks.
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  It digs up the roots. It wants to utterly destroy it.
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  Historically, this represents fierce, merciless nations like
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  Assyria and Babylon. They didn't just want to conquer
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  Israel, they wanted to uproot it from existence.
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  And then it says the wild beast of the field devours it.
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  It's one enemy after another. It's a picture of total
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  vulnerability. The vine is burned, it's cut
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  down, it's perishing. And why?
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  The text gives the reason and the rebuke of thy countenance.
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  We're back to the face of God again.
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  Always when his face shines, we are saved.
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  When his face rebukes, we perish.
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  His disposition towards us is the single determining factor of
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  our reality. Savonarola had another beautiful
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  prayer about this section too. Didn't he mentioned him earlier?
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  He did. He pleaded with the husbandman,
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  the great gardener, God himself, to visit the vine, and he asked
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  God to prune the superfluous shoots, the dead weight, the
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  sin. But, and this is the key to the
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  whole Psalm, he prayed that God would save the root.
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  Save the root that feels like the pivot point of the whole
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  prayer. Because in verse 17 the focus
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  shifts completely away from the damaged mind and onto a person.
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  Yes. This is it this is where we get
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  to the unshakable Christological hope verse 17 Let thy hand be
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  upon the man of thy right hand the.
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  Man of thy right hand. So who is this?
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  Well, on one level, in its immediate historical context, it
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  could be a prayer for the king of Israel, the heir of David, or
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  it could even be a clever play on the word Benjamin, which
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  literally means son of the right hand.
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  Connecting back to verse 2. Exactly.
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  But Spurgeon and the reformed commentators, they don't stop
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  there. We can't stop there.
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  The ultimate reference has to be the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
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  Christ. It has to be.
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  The text goes on to call him the Son of Man, who now made it
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  strong for thyself. And the Son of Man is the title
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  Jesus used for himself more than any other. 71 times in scripture
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  that title appears. It's his favorite self
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  designation. He is the true Son of Man, the
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  true Israel. So why does the psalmist look to
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  this man of the right hand when the vine is being destroyed?
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  What's the logic there? This is the heart of the
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  Reformed doctrine of stability. The vine, which is the church or
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  the nation, or even you as an individual believer, is weak.
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  It can be eaten by boars. It can be burned.
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  If we look at the vine for our security, we will always end up
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  in despair. Because it's always in some
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  state of disrepair. Always.
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  But the man of the right hand is strong.
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  God has made him strong for himself.
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  His strength is not derived or fragile, it's inherent.
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  So the prayer is essentially God put your hand of blessing and
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  protection on Jesus. Exactly.
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  It's a profound shift in focus. It's saying, Lord, do not look
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  at us, the ruined, pathetic find we failed.
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  Look at your son. He is at your right hand, the
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  place of honor and delight. Deal with him and in dealing
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  with him, save us. There's an old hymn quote I love
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  that feels like it. Fix your look through Jesus
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  wounds on me. We ask God to look at the sun
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  first, then at the center. That's the only Safeway to pray.
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  It is the only grounds for our acceptance.
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  If God looks at me directly in my sin, I'm consumed.
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  If He looks at me through the man of His right hand, I am
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  accepted, beloved and secure. And look at the immediate result
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  of that shift in focus in verse 18.
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  So will not we go back from thee?
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  This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints in a
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  nutshell. How do we know we won't
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  ultimately fall away? How can we be sure we won't go
• 21:16
  back to our old life? Is it because we're so strong
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  and determined? No, we just spent 10 verses
• 21:20
  establishing that we are a trampled vine with no hedges.
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  Right. We stay faithful because God's
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  hand is upon Christ. Our perseverance is not rooted
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  in our own strength, but in His. Because the Father holds the Son
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  and the Son holds us, we do not go back.
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  Our stability is entirely derived from Him.
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  It's what Jesus says in John because he lives, we live also.
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  Precisely, it is union with Christ.
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  Our life is hidden with Christ in God.
• 21:46
  Then the psalmist makes one final request.
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  Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
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  Quicken. Means to make a life, to give
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  life and notice the order of operations there.
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  It's so important. It doesn't say we will call on
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  you and then you will quicken us.
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  It says quicken us and then we will call.
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  Life must come before worship. Regeneration precedes faith.
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  Dead men cannot praise. God has to breathe spiritual
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  life into US first. He has to quicken us before we
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  can truly call upon His name in faith and repentance.
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  Another monarchistic Thunder clap.
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  Absolutely, we contribute nothing to our new birth but the
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  sin that made it necessary and. Then some ends with that
• 22:23
  beautiful refrain one last time in verse 19.
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  But it's slightly different, isn't it?
• 22:27
  It is, it expands, turns again. O Lord God of hosts, He adds the
• 22:33
  covenant name, Jehovah, Yahweh. Faith has grown bolder and more
• 22:37
  confident through the process of the prayer itself.
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  And the promise, the anchor remains the same.
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  Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
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  It ends with total confidence. Not confidence in the vines
• 22:49
  ability to grow back its own hedges, not confidence in its
• 22:52
  own fruitfulness, but absolute confidence in the shining face
• 22:56
  of God as seen in the face of the man of his right hand.
• 22:59
  So after walking through all of that, the lilies, the shepherd,
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  the angry smoke, the ravaged vine, and finally the man of the
• 23:06
  right hand, what does this all mean for us today?
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  I think the big overwhelming takeaways about where we look
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  for our security. We have a constant, nagging
• 23:14
  tendency to look at the vine, the visible church or nation's
• 23:18
  morality, our own spiritual performance.
• 23:20
  And when we look there, we often see the hedges broken down and
• 23:22
  the boars attacking and we panic.
• 23:24
  We think it's all over. We do, we despair, but Psalm
• 23:27
  commands us to look away from the vine.
• 23:28
  Look to the man of the right hand.
• 23:30
  Yes, the safety of the believer, the safety of the church, does
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  not rely on the strength of the vine, but on the unshakable
• 23:38
  strength of the Son of Man who upholds it.
• 23:41
  The visible vine can be cut right down to the ground, but if
• 23:44
  the root, who is Christ, is safe and alive, then we are
• 23:48
  ultimately safe. That is such a freeing thought.
• 23:51
  It really takes the burden off of our own performance.
• 23:54
  It does, and it completely reframes how we view suffering,
• 23:57
  how we view the bread of tears. That's.
• 24:00
  A good point, I was just thinking about that.
• 24:01
  If you listening to this are currently eating the bread of
• 24:05
  tears, if you feel like the shepherd's dog is biting at your
• 24:08
  heels and things are just hard, is it possible that this is the
• 24:12
  very method God is using to make you call upon His name more
• 24:16
  truly, more desperately than you ever did before?
• 24:19
  We tend to think God is absent when things are hard, but this
• 24:22
  Psalm suggests He is actively feeding us that difficulty to
• 24:25
  cure us of our wandering, to make us look away from the vine
• 24:28
  to the vine dresser. He creates the hunger so that we
• 24:31
  will finally feast on Him. That is a provocative thought to
• 24:34
  end on. If you were in a season of tears
• 24:36
  years right now, consider that it might be the shepherds severe
• 24:40
  mercy driving you out of your comfort and into the arms of the
• 24:43
  man of his right hand. I'm into that.
• 24:45
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into Psalm 80.
• 24:48
  It's been a rich and challenging discussion.
• 24:52
  Indeed, a good word for hard times.
• 24:54
  Yeah, Until next time.