“Restore us, O God; Make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80.3)
The prayer concern of the worshipper is restoration. Restore us, O God. Restore us to what? Had the worshipper fallen into sin? Had his love grown cold? Was he failing to love neither his God nor his neighbor as himself? Was his marriage in trouble? Restore us, O God. Actually, it could have been either or all of the above.
Make Your face shine upon us. The worshipper saw clearly his only hope for restoration to whatever he needed restoring—God’s smile. The Hebrew had a saying that believed that if God looked at you and smiled, your life would be blessed. Make Your face shine! In your smile, O Lord, lies our only hope to be saved. Selah.
Father God. How we long for Your face to shine upon us…How we need to experience the smile of Your countenance. We need restoration! We need salvation! Not from others primarily, nor from our circumstances. Mostly, our Savior, we need salvation from ourselves—Especially, O Lord, ourselves! Save us, O God, from ourselves! Make Your face ever shine upon us…Smile upon us...Give us peace. Amen.
Peter,
I like that comment,
save us from ourselves...
so true...Just like Paul in Phil 2; to die is gain. Why? Cause then he wouldn't have to deal with himself (Rom 7)
Hosanna, Save Now!
Posted by: Seth McBee | 2006.12.09 at 11:30 PM
Peter: I must decrease...indeed. SelahV
Posted by: selahV | 2006.12.10 at 10:46 PM