What do we do when our cultural and individual sins have gotten us into big trouble? As we looked at Psalm 79 yesterday, we found that confession is an essential first step. For until we admit that we have a problem and identify the way in which we have turned aside from God’s will, it will be hard for us to get back on track.

But instead of just admitting that we deserve the consequences of our actions, true confession must also include the affirmation that God was right and just in administering those consequences to us. In verse 5, Asaph makes just such a confession, saying that God is the One Who fed His people “with the bread of tears.”

But if we only see God as an angry judge, we haven’t really understood Him. That’s why Asaph remembers the loving way in which God brought His people out of Egypt into the Promised land, giving them a place where they could prosper and flourish like a vine that sends out its roots to sources of water (verses 8-11). Asaph thus faces the unpleasant but undeniable truth: it is because God’s people rejected the One Who had blessed them so richly that they earned His displeasure.

And so Asaph asks God to remember the promises He made to His people, specifically the promise to strengthen the “man of Your right hand,” the Messiah (verse 17). And God has kept that promise, sending Jesus to conquer sin and death through His perfect sacrifice for all who trust in Him. In fact, because of the death and resurrection of Christ, we can be sure that if God is righteous enough to allow us to experience the consequences of our sin, He also loves us enough to forgive us of that sin and to cleanse us from everything that is not in accordance with His will (I John 1:9).

So, no matter how deep a hole we may have dug for ourselves, let’s not turn back from following the Lord. Let us instead trust in Christ to give us new life, and let’s keep calling on His name (verse 18). For Christ not only allows us to pray that God will restore us to a right relationship with Him. Jesus also gives us the confidence that whenever He turns His face towards us, we will indeed be saved (verses 3, 7, 19).

Psalm 80 (NASB)

For the choir director; set to El Shoshannim; Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph.
Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, Thou who dost lead Joseph like a flock; Thou who art enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Thy power, And come to save us!
3 O God, restore us, And cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, How long wilt Thou be angry with the prayer of Thy people?
5 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, And Thou hast made them to drink tears in large measure.
6 Thou dost make us an object of contention to our neighbors; And our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 O God of hosts, restore us, And cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
8 Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt; Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it.
9 Thou didst clear the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow; And the cedars of God with its boughs.
11 It was sending out its branches to the sea, And its shoots to the River.
12 Why hast Thou broken down its hedges, So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
13 A boar from the forest eats it away, And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
14 O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech Thee; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,
15 Even the shoot which Thy right hand has planted, And on the son whom Thou hast strengthened for Thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance.
17 Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom Thou didst make strong for Thyself.
18 Then we shall not turn back from Thee; Revive us, and we will call upon Thy name.
19 O LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.