Introduction
In today’s psalm, the psalmist once again laments before the Lord because of the trouble that has befallen God’s people; and he prays to the Lord to restore their fortunes.
You may have noticed the refrain or chorus which appears three times in the psalm. It first appears in verse 3, where the psalmist says:
Restore us, O God;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
And it appears again in verse 7; and once again right at the end in verse 19. This threefold refrain divides the psalm into three parts: verses 1 to 3; verses 4 to 7; and then verses 8 to 19. In the first part the psalmist likens Israel to a flock of sheep and the Lord is their shepherd. In the second part he complains that God has fed them with tears and their enemies are mocking them. In the third part he likens Israel to a vine, which God planted in the Promised Land. But having cared for them in the past, it now seems that God has abandoned his vine. And so, the psalmist prays to the Lord to restore them. That is, he’s asking the Lord to restore their fortunes. So, all the good things they once enjoyed have been taken from them, including peace and prosperity. Or think back to that image from 1 Kings where we read of the glory days during Solomon’s reign and how each man sat under his own vine and fig-tree. It was a picture of peace and security and happiness. But it’s now been taken away from God’s people.
And so, the psalmist turns to the Lord and prays for the Lord to restore them to the way life used to be. And he asks the Lord to make his face shine upon them. This recalls the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
When someone is angry with us, there’s a dark scowl on their face. But when someone is pleased with us, there’s a bright, warm smile on their face. And the psalmist wants the Lord to smile on them and to save them from their trouble. Instead of afflicting them with curses, bless them and keep them.
And notice how the refrain builds. In verse 3 he prays: ‘Restore us, O God.’ In verse 7 he prays: ‘Restore us, O God Almighty.’ And in verse 19 he prays: ‘Restore us, O LORD God Almighty.’ This perhaps indicates how the psalmist is becoming more urgent. Think of how we might say to someone: ‘Help me.’ Then we say: ‘Please help me.’ Then we might say: ‘Please, please help me.’ We add more words the more urgent and desperate we become. And so, the psalmist’s prayer becomes more urgent and desperate. But then again, when he repeats the refrain in verse 19, he uses God’s covenant name, Yahweh, or LORD in capital letters, which speaks to us of God’s commitment to his people and of his steadfast and never-ending love for his people. The psalmist may be desperate, but he knows he can rely on God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
And the final thing to say before we get into the text is to notice that he mentions Joseph in verse 1. And then he mentions Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh in verse 2. Ephraim and Manasseh were the names of the two tribes of Israel which came from Joseph. And all three tribes — Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh — were part of the northern kingdom of Israel. And it’s therefore possible that the trouble the psalmist is referring to in the psalm is the time when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom and took the people away into captivity. We normally only refer to one exile in the Bible, which was the time when the Babylonians took the people of the southern kingdom in captivity. However, before that exile, the people of the northern kingdom were captured and taken away by the Assyrians. And this psalm may be referring that time. God was angry with his people because they turned away from him to worship false gods like Baal; and they disregarded the prophets who were sent by God to summon them to repent. And since they did not repent, he let the Assyrians take them captive. And now the psalmist cries out to the Lord to save them from their enemies.
Verses 1 to 3
Let’s turn now to verses 1 to 3 where the psalmist likens Israel to a flock of sheep and God is their shepherd.
He calls on their shepherd to hear them. When sheep bleat, their shepherd hears them and comes to see what’s troubling them. And the psalmist wants their shepherd to hear them and to come and see what’s troubling them. He then describes the Lord as the one who sits enthroned between the cherubim. He could be thinking about the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in the temple, which was God’s throne-room on earth and signified his presence with his people. And on either side of the ark, there stood gold statues of angels. But the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies symbolised God’s throne in the true temple in heaven and how the Lord rules over all things in heaven and on earth. The psalmist is therefore saying that he is King over all. And he’s asking his Great King to shine forth. That is, he wants the Lord to make his presence known: Don’t hide yourself away, but come forth and reveal your glory and power! When he asks the Lord to awaken his might, he might again be thinking of a sleeping shepherd who needs to wake up. And therefore he wants the Lord to wake up and see the trouble they’re in and to come and save them.
And the first part of the psalm ends with the refrain: Restore us. Make your face shine on us. Save us.
Verses 4 to 7
In the second part, the psalmist wonders how long will the Lord be angry with their prayers. In other words, the Lord is angry with his people and he’s not paying attention to their prayers. And the psalmist wonders how long this will continue.
And then he refers to the food and drink which the Lord has given them. However, whereas he fed them with bread and water in the wilderness, now he’s feeding them with tears. That is to say: every morning and every evening, they sit down, not to eat, but to weep. And God has made them a source of contention to their neighbours. When he refers to their neighbours, he’s probably referring to the nations around them, whom he also describes as their enemies. And those enemy nations around them are mocking them. The other nations are against them and are laughing at them.
And the second part of the psalm ends with the refrain: Restore us. Make your face shine on us. Save us. And since God is the Almighty One, then, of course, he’s able to help them by destroying their enemies and by restoring their life to what it once was.
Verses 8 to 19
And so, we come to the third and final part of the psalm. In this part, he likens Israel to a vine which the Lord transplanted from Egypt to Canaan. And in order to prepare the ground for planting, he drove out the nations who were living on the land at that time. So, he cleared the ground and planted his vine. And the vine took root and filled the land. He says the vine grew so tall that it was higher than the mountains which were in the north of the land; and it went higher than the mighty cedar trees. And it stretched out as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west and as far as the Euphrates River in the east. In other words, the people of Israel spread throughout the Promised Land and became a great and mighty nation.
However, why has the Lord now broken down the walls that once surrounded his vineyard? Why has he let passers-by pick his fruit? Why has he let unclean boars ravage his vineyard? In other words, why has the Lord let enemy nations invade the land and take them away?
And so, he pleads with the Lord in verse 14 to return to them. In fact, he uses the same verb as in the refrain. So, he’s really saying in verse 14: Restore us. Restore our fortunes and our life to the way it once was. He may even mean: restore us to the land from which we have been taken. And he asks the Lord to look from heaven and see their plight. And he asks the Lord to watch over his vine once again. And in verse 15, he refers to God’s root and son. He may be referring to the nation, but it’s also possible he’s referring to the king who represented the nation. The king is both God’s root and God’s son. In that case, he’s asking the Lord to watch over the king.
According to verse 16, the vine has been cut down and burned. The northern kingdom has been destroyed by their enemies. The NIV translates the second line of verse 16 as ‘at your rebuke your people perish’. So, God has been angry with them because of their unbelief and rebellion; and therefore they have perished at the hands of their enemy. However, the second line of verse 16 can also be translated: ‘may they perish at the rebuke of your face!’ In that case, the psalmist is asking the Lord to rebuke their enemies. And that perhaps fit the context better, because he’s asking God to save them. He goes on to ask the Lord to let his hand rest on the man at his right hand, who is also the son of man, whom God raised up for himself. When he says ‘let your hand rest on the man’, he means something like: give him strength or strengthen him or uphold him. If the Lord does that, then we will not turn away from you. In saying this, he’s perhaps acknowledging that they have turned away from the Lord, but that they will not turn away from him again. And when he asks the Lord in verse 18 to revive them, he means revive us by strengthening the man at your right hand. Revive us and we will always call on you in worship.
And the third and final part of the psalm ends with the refrain: Restore us. Make your face shine on us. Save us.
Conclusion
The people have turned away from the Lord. They have been unfaithful. And so, the Lord has been angry with them and he’s let the nations invade the land and take them captive. And the psalmist now calls on the Lord to restore their lives to the way they once were. Instead of scowling at them in anger, smile on them with grace and mercy and compassion. And save them from their enemies by strengthening the man at God’s right hand, who is also the son of man.
Who is the man at God’s right hand and the son of man? He’s referring to the king. The Lord ruled over his people in those days by means of an earthly king. With the help of the Lord, the king would defend the people from their enemies and give them peace and prosperity. However, most of the kings, especially in the northern kingdom, were evil. They did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And instead of worshipping the Lord, they worshipped Baal and other false gods. They led the people astray, instead of leading the people in the ways of the Lord.
And yet the Lord, who loved his people with a steadfast, never-ending love, promised to provide his people with a new and better king. And that new and better king is Jesus Christ, God’s Only-Begotten Son, who came into the world as our King. And as our King, he overcame sin and Satan and death on our behalf. And now he has been enthroned at God’s right hand in heaven, as the Son of Man in glory. And he promises his people peace and prosperity forever and forever in the new and better world to come, where we will live with him and reign with him, and where we’ll be safe forever from everything that harms us. The psalmist trusted the Lord to save his people by means of the king. And God has saved us by means of Christ the King, who will restore and renew all things when he comes again to give us eternal life in the new and better world to come.
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