The lament continues. The lament that while Israel is God’s chosen, her sin has led to the removal of God’s protection and she has suffered accordingly. Man does not do well on his own without God.
Asaph cries out for restoration:
“Restore us, God; look on us with favor, and we will be saved” (Ps 80:3).
For Asaph the suffering is a hard pill to swallow.
- “How long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?” (Ps 80:4).
- “You fed them the bread of tears” (Ps 80:5)
- You “gave them a full measure of tears to drink” (Ps 80:5)
- “You make us quarrel with our neighbors” (Ps 80:6)
- “Our enemies make fun of us” (Ps 80:6)
It’s a very uncomfortable time of suffering. Asaph then goes on to liken it as a treasured fine that the Lord uprooted from Egypt and planted carefully in the land of Israel. He tended the vine and it grew to cover the whole land, reaching to the far nations. But now that walls around that vine are broken down. People come freely to pick its fruit. And wild boars decimate it.
Asaph calls on the Lord to be with the king. To restore the people that are His own.
“Then we will not turn away from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name. Restore us, ‘Yahweh, the God of Hosts; look on us with favor, and we will be saved” (Ps 80:18-19).
And isn’t that the cry of all of our hearts? Whenever we are in distress, we ask the Lord for help and deliverance, and if he does so we will be committed to him for life. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn’t. But it seems like it is always a prayer.
It seems it may become a global prayer soon.
The truth is sometimes we don’t wake up until suffering happens. Already the wild boars are being unleashed upon the earth.
