Prayer for Israel’s Restoration
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm.
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your strength, and come and save us! Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!
O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure. You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the Sea, and her branches to the River. Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, and the wild beast of the field devours it.
Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and the branch that You made strong for Yourself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!”
Once more, the Sons of Asaph have produced a heart-wrenching psalm. Jerusalem has fallen, and the Babylonians have completely destroyed the temple, leaving only the structure which will later be known as the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. The walls of Jerusalem are broken and the gates burned, symbolizing the destruction of Jerusalem as a corporate entity. The psalmist is not defending the Israelites for their sins; instead, he is begging for God to deliver them for His Name’s sake. The writer realizes that arguments based on the virtues of the Israelites will be worthless, for the Israelites have invited these attacks upon themselves by whole-heartedly worshiping idols and reducing the worship of the God Who has established them as a nation to meaningless rituals.
As the psalmist calls on God to deliver and restore the Israelites, he also begs God to raise up a Godly leader. The psalmist risks divine credibility, promising that if God will give Godly leadership and revive the Israelites, they will turn back to Him. At this point, God might be excused if His reaction is “Show me!”
For generations, the citizens of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms have taken God for granted, despite pointed warnings by innumerable prophets. It is safe to assume that the prophecies recorded in the Bible represent only a small fraction of the warnings God has actually sent to His people. Repeatedly, God has warned His people that He knows every hill and every green tree where they have established heathen shrines, Asherah poles, and other monuments. God knows every rooftop in Jerusalem on which His people have made offerings to the sun, moon, and stars. Even when the prophet Ezekiel has been carried off into Babylon, God has shown him visions of the idolatry still being practiced by those remaining in Jerusalem.
The One True Living God is omniscient and omnipotent, all-knowing and all-powerful; yet, somehow these people think they’ve successfully hidden their sins from God. The Hebrew term for “crazy” is “meshuga” from which we get the Yiddish term “meshugenneh.” This is only one of many spellings, but no matter how you spell it, someone who is meshuga is totally crazy. If we think we can hide from God, we are truly meshugenneh! (Yiddish is a wonderfully expressive language. For a fascinating introduction, check out Leo Rosten’s book The Joys of Yiddish. This book gives Yiddish words with English explanations and is highly entertaining as well as informative.)
“Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and the branch that You made strong for Yourself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!”
The psalmist is begging desperately for God’s intervention. Realizing that God alone can deliver Israel, the psalmist also realizes that without revival and restoration, God’s blessings will be useless because the Israelites will simply repeat all the mistakes of the past.
APPLICATION: Sometimes people speak of scheduling revival meetings as if the Holy Spirit can be organized; yet, revival really depends on us. How can we guarantee revival? First, we need to recognize that we are sinners and that nothing we can do will free us from our sins. Second, we must be willing to confess those sins to God and beg His forgiveness. Next, we should copy the psalmist and ask for revival and restoration. Finally, we should trust that God will answer us, sending us His Holy Spirit.
How will we know when the Holy Spirit shows up? We will experience light and joy and peace such as we have never known before. And we will feel clean inside, completely clean.
“God, if You’re really there, God if this guy isn’t lying and if You will really send Your Holy Spirit, then do it!” It was April 15, 1978. I was sitting alone in my bedroom praying a desperate prayer. Details don’t matter, but my life was in a shambles and I was in total despair. I had spent all day reading books about men and women who had taken a step of faith, only to have God move mightily in their lives. The last book I read was Prison to Praise by Merlin Carruthers. Carruthers was a Methodist army chaplain who was ready to give up on the ministry because he wasn’t seeing any evidence of God’s power. When Carruthers received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he watched his entire life and ministry change beyond belief.
In that book, Carruthers described praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and advised that one might not feel anything but that there would be little syllables forming in one’s mind. If the person praying would begin speaking those syllables, then God would take over and the Holy Spirit would come. I felt like a complete fool; four years of college, four years of medical school, and two years of surgery residency had not prepared me to babble in my bedroom; however, I observed that if I made a damn fool of myself, nobody else would ever know. (That’s a direct quote.) I prayed, and God showed up big-time! I began speaking in a beautiful flowing language and I could literally feel God scrubbing away all the crud and filling me with life and joy and peace. I could have stopped at any time, but I didn’t want to.
That experience transformed my life and set me on a course that I continue to follow today. You don’t have to wait for a special church service or even for someone else to pray for you; you can pray for yourself. How God will manifest Himself is up to Him; however, God is a good Father who doesn’t play charades with his children. Try asking God for the Holy Spirit. What do you have to lose, apart from despair?
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, we confess that we have made complete messes of our lives. Please cleanse us, restore us, and fill us with Your Holy Spirit. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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