“Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”

David did not write all the Psalms. One of the additional writers was a man named Asaph; he was a musician who founded the “Sons of Asaph”. This guild of musicians often used Asaph’s Psalms (50, 73-83) as pointers to the Babylonian exile and the evils experienced by the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Psalm 80 is one of those callbacks. While Asaph, appointed by King David, wrote these musical lines, his disciples implemented them during the exile.

The third verse calls out for restoration, as you can read above. Yet I don’t think the words are asking God to restore Israel to its former glory or to save it from its impending doom. After all, Asaph wasn’t alive during the exile. Instead, these words were most likely meant as a plea to God to restore the faith of people in Asaph’s time. “Restore us, O God” is more than likely pointing toward a restoration of faith and practice and not to prominence or wealth.

Taken in that context, Psalm 80:3 comes to life in our prayers this morning.

How often do I pray that God will do something for me rather than instill something within me? I would like to think that I ask God for strength of faith more than I ask for favors, but I’m not sure that’s the case. All too often, I’m guilty of asking God for favors instead of asking for faith; if this happens at all, it happens too often. The first prayer of my lips should be to beg God for mercy and thank God for grace. Those simple words can and do lead to a deeper and more meaningful dialogue. Conversations with God shouldn’t be unilateral—they should be ongoing. Difficult moments are mitigated by God’s unrelenting love. Period. So, knowing that, why do I ask for anything else prior to asking for that love to deepen? 

Thus, restoration in God becomes the real root of my prayer during the Psalm, today. As I pray Psalm 80, being mindful of that third verse, I hope I will remember that it is God who is mighty to save and not me. That it is God who sustains me with the Holy Spirit and not my works. That it is Jesus Christ who provides salvation from not just situations, but for the redemption of the world and not my actions. Then, and only then, can I faithfully move forward with my day.

I pray that you will find hope in Asaph’s words, too. May we all pray that God will restore our faith, delivering us from the insidiousness of worldly self-reliance into the holiness of the Father’s embrace.

Restore us God, restore us…

Faithfully,

Fr. Sean+