Psalm 80--Restore Us, O God

Psalm 80
English Standard Version

Restore Us, O God
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.
80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
2     Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
    and come to save us!

3 Restore us, O God;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!

4 O LORD God of hosts,
    how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
    and our enemies laugh among themselves.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea
    and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.

14 Turn again, O God of hosts!
    Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15     the stock that your right hand planted,
    and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
    may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
    the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18 Then we shall not turn back from you;
    give us life, and we will call upon your name!

​19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
    Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

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I've included a song by Philips, Craig, and Dean based off of this psalm.  Asaph wrote this psalm to ask God to restore His people unto Himself so that they would once again experience the blessings of His covenant (His face shining on them).  Asaph recognizes first that He is the Shepherd, which means they are the sheep.  Sheep get lost if they don't listen to the voice of their shepherd, and they are pretty helpless (they don't really have any way to defend themselves) and they aren't too smart either--they can get themselves into trouble and not be able to get out of it, and the other sheep will just follow the leader into danger or peril.  The shepherd not only saves the sheep from danger, but he mends them back to health and restores them to their place in the flock because He loves them.

Once again, Asaph wonders how long the LORD will be angry with His people.  Did he really save them from Egypt only to let their enemies destroy them now?  Doesn't He still have future plans for them which are yet to be fulfilled? They were given the Land of Canaan--a Land flowing with milk and honey which is now being ravaged by their enemies and by wild animals (exactly as the LORD said it would be if the people turned away from Him).

Asaph asks the LORD to turn back to the people, but it is the people that need to turn back to the LORD.  The LORD never moved.  If He is far off from them, it is because they ran away from Him (like the Prodigal Son did).  The Father was out watching for the Prodigal Son to return home and saw him from a long way off and was quick to restore him.  With that in mind, I think the answer to Asaph is that the LORD is waiting on the people to repent.  The punishment is still ongoing because the people are still in rebellion.  The blessings are not flowing because the people are not obeying.  The Mosaic Covenant was clear with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.  that is not to say that we could perfectly keep the Mosaic Covenant, nor is it to say that God can't bless His people if there is any sin in their lives, but God knows when the people are His people are being obedient and when they are being rebellious, and this time in their history is a time of rebellion.

There are also times even when we are being obedient that God allows hard times to come upon us to refine us and test us and draw us even closer to Him (look at the story of Job who was described as blameless and yet suffered greatly).  We cannot always associate suffering with rebellion, though that probably is the right answer in this case if Asaph is asking for restoration.  Restoration isn't a one-way street; the people need to turn back to God and then they will realize God never moved and He's been waiting for them to come back to Him all along.  The psalm is full of promises of the kind you have probably heard from your children, and I remember saying when I was a child.  "We promise to be really good if you just give us what we want this time, right now."  Mary Poppins calls those "pie crust" promises--easily made, easily broken.  They may even be well-intentioned at the time, but often we get what we want and think we've gotten one over on God and that we no longer have to live our lives in obedience to Him (We might even thing, "Didn't He know we weren't going to anyways?").  We treat God like someone or something to be manipulated to achieve our will instead of submitting to Him and being submissive to His will.  When will we learn that the fullest blessings come from total surrender and complete obedience?  We will then hopefully be in right relationship with God and walk with Him all the days of our lives as He leads us step by step.