Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 80

[00:00:07] Welcome to Lessons From the Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this podcast we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:22] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this psalm today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Psalm 80, beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:07] And we shall be saved.

[00:01:09] O Lord God of hosts,

[00:01:12] How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

[00:01:17] You have fed them with the bread of tears,

[00:01:20] And given them tears to drink in great measure.

[00:01:24] You have made us a strife to our neighbors,

[00:01:27] And our enemies laugh among themselves.

[00:01:30] Restore us, O God of hosts.

[00:01:34] Cause your face to shine,

[00:01:36] And we shall be saved.

[00:01:38] You have brought us a vine out of Egypt.

[00:01:42] You have cast out the nations and planted it.

[00:01:46] You prepared room for it,

[00:01:48] And caused it to take deep root,

[00:01:51] And it filled the land.

[00:01:54] The hills were covered with its shadow,

[00:01:57] And the mighty cedars with its boughs.

[00:01:59] She sent out her boughs to the sea,

[00:02:03] And her branches to the river.

[00:02:05] Why have you broken down her hedges?

[00:02:09] So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit.

[00:02:13] The boar out of the woods uproots it,

[00:02:17] And the wild beast of the field devours it.

[00:02:21] Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts.

[00:02:25] Look down from heaven and sea,

[00:02:28] And visit the vine and the vineyard,

[00:02:31] Which your right hand has planted,

[00:02:33] And the branch that you made strong for yourself.

[00:02:37] It is burned with fire,

[00:02:39] It is cut down.

[00:02:41] They perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

[00:02:44] Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand,

[00:02:49] Upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.

[00:02:53] Then we will not return back from you.

[00:02:57] Revive us, and we will call upon your name.

[00:03:01] Restore us, O Lord God of hosts.

[00:03:05] Cause your face to shine,

[00:03:07] And we shall be saved.

[00:03:10] Friends, Psalm 80 is a beautiful song.

[00:03:14] It is a song of lament.

[00:03:16] It is kind of like a community lament.

[00:03:20] And basically what is happening in this psalm,

[00:03:23] Is people are going in and out of their love for God.

[00:03:28] They're basically falling away from Him,

[00:03:31] And then they seek God and ask Him to restore them.

[00:03:35] But this psalm was written by Asaph,

[00:03:39] Who was a song leader,

[00:03:40] And he was a wonderful psalmist.

[00:03:43] Okay?

[00:03:44] He wrote one psalm,

[00:03:45] And then he began in Psalm 73.

[00:03:48] And he wrote Psalm 74,

[00:03:50] And 5,

[00:03:51] And 6,

[00:03:51] And 7,

[00:03:52] And 8,

[00:03:53] And 9,

[00:03:53] And 80.

[00:03:54] And he also wrote 81,

[00:03:56] 82,

[00:03:56] And 83.

[00:03:57] So he has a lot of advice for us.

[00:04:01] But what can we learn from Psalm 80 today?

[00:04:05] And what I'd like to do is break this psalm down into three parts.

[00:04:10] First of all, the first two verses.

[00:04:14] Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,

[00:04:18] You who lead Joseph like a flock,

[00:04:21] You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth.

[00:04:26] Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,

[00:04:31] Stir up your strength, and come and save us.

[00:04:36] Now, friends, the first point that I would like to make in today's psalm is that Jesus is the good shepherd.

[00:04:45] Verse number one reminds me of Psalm 23 verse one, and it says,

[00:04:50] The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

[00:04:55] And friends, if you are not familiar with the good shepherd,

[00:05:00] I invite you to go to John's Gospel and read chapter 10.

[00:05:06] Now, let's go to verses four through six.

[00:05:11] Oh, Lord God of hosts,

[00:05:13] How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

[00:05:19] You have fed them with the bread of tears,

[00:05:23] And given them tears to drink in great measure.

[00:05:27] You have made us a strife to our neighbors,

[00:05:31] And our enemies laugh among themselves.

[00:05:34] Friends, the second point I would like to bring up in today's lesson is if you ever get away from the path that God has for you,

[00:05:44] Pray that God will get you back on course.

[00:05:49] And that is what is happening in this particular community.

[00:05:54] The people have gotten off track,

[00:05:57] And basically they are pleading with God to restore them.

[00:06:02] Now, let's go to verses eight through eighteen.

[00:06:07] You have brought a vine out of Egypt.

[00:06:10] You have cast out the nations and planted it.

[00:06:14] You prepared room for it and caused it to take deep root,

[00:06:19] And it filled the land.

[00:06:21] The hills were covered with its shadow,

[00:06:24] And the mighty cedars with its boughs.

[00:06:27] She sent out her boughs to the sea,

[00:06:30] And her branches to the river.

[00:06:33] Why have you broken down her hedges?

[00:06:36] So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit.

[00:06:41] The boar out of the woods upwritz it,

[00:06:44] And the wild beast of the field devours it.

[00:06:48] Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts.

[00:06:53] Look down from heaven and sea,

[00:06:55] And visit this vine,

[00:06:58] And the vineyard which your right hand has planted,

[00:07:02] And the branch that you made strong for yourself.

[00:07:05] It is burned with fire,

[00:07:08] It is cut down,

[00:07:09] They perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

[00:07:14] Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand,

[00:07:18] Upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.

[00:07:24] Then we will not turn back from you.

[00:07:28] Revive us and we will call upon your name.

[00:07:32] Friends, this passage of Scripture is referring to Jesus Christ himself.

[00:07:42] Let's look at my third point of the day,

[00:07:45] And it's Jesus is the true vine.

[00:07:48] And what is happening in these 11 verses

[00:07:51] Is that every once in a while we get off track.

[00:07:56] And we do.

[00:07:58] And if you are not familiar with the passage of Scripture

[00:08:03] That talks about Jesus being the true vine,

[00:08:07] After you finish listening to this today,

[00:08:10] I invite you to go to John's Gospel, chapter 15.

[00:08:14] And Jesus identifies himself as the true vine.

[00:08:19] And what Jesus does,

[00:08:21] If you receive him into your heart,

[00:08:23] What he will do is he will prune you.

[00:08:28] He will watch and see what you're doing.

[00:08:31] And friends, we need to understand and examine ourselves.

[00:08:36] We need to examine our life.

[00:08:38] Is there anything we need to get rid of in our life?

[00:08:43] Because Jesus tells us that as a Christian,

[00:08:47] We are to bear good fruit.

[00:08:50] And the only way we can do that is if we get rid of the things in our life

[00:08:56] That are not pleasing to God.

[00:08:58] Now before we close,

[00:09:00] I feel the need to go over verses 3, 7 and 19.

[00:09:06] They are so similar.

[00:09:08] Verse 3 says,

[00:09:10] Restore us, O God.

[00:09:12] Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.

[00:09:15] Verse 7 says,

[00:09:17] Restore us, O God of hosts.

[00:09:21] Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.

[00:09:25] And verse 19 closes with,

[00:09:28] Restore us, O Lord God of hosts.

[00:09:33] Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.

[00:09:38] Verse 3, verse 7 and verse 19.

[00:09:42] All point to the fact that Jesus is our salvation.

[00:09:49] Will you turn to him today?

[00:09:52] Friends, please join me again soon as we take a closer look at Psalm 81.

[00:09:58] I see that even if I'm a god of hope.

[00:09:58] I don't believe.

[00:09:58] Well, as people have said it.