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Restore Us Again, O God Our Savior!-Psalm 85

By Charlie Vensel | March 13, 2007

It was a bright Sunday morning in 18th century London. All along the street there were people hurrying to church, but in the midst of the crowd Robert Robinson was a lonely man. The sound of church bells reminded him of years past when his faith in God was strong and the church was an integral part of his life. It had been years since he set foot in a church; years of wandering, disillusionment, and gradual defection from the God he once loved. That love for God, once fiery and passionate, had slowly burned out within him, leaving him dark and cold inside.

Robinson heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horse-drawn cab approaching behind him. Turning, he lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that a young woman dressed in finery for the Lord’s Day occupied the cab. He waved the driver on, but the woman in the carriage ordered the carriage to be stopped. “Sir, I’d be happy to share this carriage with you,” she said to Robinson. “Are you going to church?” Robinson was about to decline, and then he paused. “Yes,” he said at last. “I am going to church.” He stepped into the carriage and sat down beside the young woman.

As the carriage rolled forward Robert Robinson and the woman exchanged introductions. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes when he stated his name. “That’s an interesting coincidence,” she said, reaching into her purse. She withdrew a small book of inspirational verse, opened it to a ribbon-bookmark, and handed the book to him. “I was just reading a verse by a poet named Robert Robinson. Could it be…?”
He took the book, nodding. “Yes, I wrote these words years ago.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Imagine! I’m sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines!”

But Robinson barely heard her. He was absorbed in the words he was reading. They were words that would one day be set to music and become a great hymn of the faith, familiar to generations of Christians: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. His eyes slipped to the bottom of the page where he could barely read the last few lines through the tears that brimmed in his eyes. “I wrote these words—and I’ve lived these words. ‘Prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.’” The woman suddenly understood. “You also wrote, ‘Here’s my heart, O take and seal it.’ You can offer your heart again to God, Mr. Robinson. It’s not too late.” And it wasn’t too late for Robert Robinson. In that moment he turned his heart back to God and walked with him the rest of his days.

For many of us, Robinson’s experience rings a bell. We remember a time, in our lives when all seemed well with the Lord. We were excited, romanced, and captivated; we were in love with Jesus Christ, daily living out the joy of our salvation. But, something happened along the way. For some of us, it may have been a catastrophe where we could not make sense of the faith in light of seemingly present evil, for others of us it may have been the cares of the world daily wooing us out our faithfulness and we not particularly knowingly or willingly, began to fill God’s rightful place in our hearts with gods of a temporal nature. Yet for others, it may have been our unwillingness to part with the sins we love. In any case, the result is always the same. We find ourselves outside the immediate blessings of God, dry, cold, and alone.

I know what it is like to have wandered for a season, to leave the one I love. I know what it is like to have had the brightness grow dim. Yet, praise God, I also know what it is like to have the blessings of God restored and what it is to be hopeful towards a day when nothing will get in the way of perfect fellowship with the Lord. I think if we are honest, and we have walked in faith for no short time, you too have experienced something similar or seen it in someone you love. Praise God, for he is jealous for our affections and is not content to leave us alone to our own destruction. I propose to you this morning, that: Because God is faithful to his redemptive promises, he will lift us out of spiritual discouragement, and back into blessing.

We have here in our text a picture of our faithful covenant God restoring a wandering and stiff-necked people yet again–a people nonetheless who have asked God to seal their hearts, and a people of faith who are so confident that he will do so, they revel in the hope of the present, and look beyond to a day of complete perfection and victory in the Lord. Let us look at it for the counsel by which discouraged Christians, maybe some of us here this morning, like Robinson, can be lifted from spiritual exile, depression, waywardness, and discouragement if you will, to new levels of fellowship and rejoicing. Perhaps we will see indeed, that a God faithful to his promises will restore our spiritual fortunes. In this light, there are four main points I would like to discuss this morning.

The first thing we need to notice in this psalm is found in verses 1-3; in order to overcome our discouragement, we need to reflect on the goodness of God toward us in the past.

In verse 1, the king dwells upon the Lord’s favor to his chosen land, which he had demonstrated throughout Israel’s history and invokes the same favor for his time. God chose this land for his people, conveyed it to them by the Abrahamic covenant, conquered it by his power, and dwelt in it in mercy; it was fitting that God should show favor to a land and to a people that were so uniquely his.

Perhaps nothing is so effective in pulling us out of our discouragement, than when coming before the throne of grace, we remember God’s former blessings in our lives and the Gospel promises of redemption. If we did not remember them, and that he is inclined to look favorably upon his chosen people, grant us repentance for restoration, grace for endurance, and sanctification for success, our faith would crumble at the first sign of adversity. God’s faithful acts of deliverance in the past serve as prophetic witness to his unchanging character, granting us hope and spiritual fullness for the present and for the future. So, we like the king, should hope with expectation that the Lord will once again, lead us out of discouragement and bring us into our redemption and inheritance as children of God.

The second thing we need to notice in this psalm is found in verses 4-7; In order for us to overcome our discouragement, we need to pray for restoration when we have wandered. The psalmist moves to petition in verses 4-7:

The first petition is found in verse 4, and is closely related to our previous section. Here, the king pleads in prayer that God would turn again to his people, since he seems to have turned from them in his displeasure, allowing their wandering to burn a hole in their conscience.

I ask us this morning, how often do we just complain about the distance between where we are and where God’s will is? What would happen if we would stop complaining and start praying? Far too often in my own life, I have just received circumstances as they are, never giving the situation over to prayer, but rather, constant complaint. What would happen, if we prayed to the Lord for restoration when we have wandered, rather than complain about the fruit of our waywardness?

I remember a time not long ago, preparing to transition from full time employment to full time seminary student. A dear friend and somewhat of spiritual mentor of mine had promised for years to handle raising the funds for my family and me when it finally came time for us to go off to seminary. He was well connected in the church and the community, a notable fundraiser, a respectable businessman, and partly responsible for leading me to the Lord; he was perfect for this task. I had always perceived this a great blessing. It was as if my wife and I would have no worries, we could just concentrate on our time there and not have to worry about finances, that is how he had always presented it. I met with this man several times to discuss this in detail as the day drew near-setting budgets down to regular oil changes in our cars and drafting lists of people to contact. Sixty days away from moving, I contacted him to request the funds he had personally promised and to see how the fundraising effort was going. He had not written the first letter, nor made the first phone call on our behalf. He, all of a sudden, did not remember his personal large financial pledge, or his promise to raise our funds. It was clear he was going to do nothing. By this time my wife was unemployed and I would be very soon. We had not even sixty days of expenses in the bank, we had no money to move, and almost no monthly support raised.

I released my friend from his oath and repented before God for trusting in men for my provision. This would now be between God and me. Now, I know that sounds godly and noble, but inside, I was devastated, angry, confused, fearing for our future, and very unprepared. I felt betrayed by my God and my friend. It was a crisis of faith. I turned my back on God and all but forgot about him. Those next few weeks at work I grew despondent; I was so far away from God, I was dry, cold, and alone. Our entire life’s trajectory over the last six years had been centered on entering seminary at this point; I saw six years of preparation being burnt up before my eyes. It was what appeared to be a failure of cataclysmic proportion.

I whined incessantly to my closest brothers in the Lord. I complained against God. I doubted my calling and even my salvation. Finally, my right hand man at work pulled me aside and gave me a strong rebuke:

“Charlie,” he said, “I know you think you need sympathy and you think you need answers, but I am not going to give you either one, but a rebuke.” I said, “A rebuke?” “Absolutely a rebuke,” he said. “You are living like there is no God in heaven, you have not asked any of us to pray and meant it, I haven’t seen you pray once, and when you should be rallying the spiritual troops, you are retreating and giving up. You are living without hope, without a savior, and without a cause. You are disappointing your family and setting a bad example for your children. Grow up, repent for your hard heart, seek the Lord, and get busy! God did not lead you out into the wilderness to be overcome, but for you to overcome the wilderness. Your God is faithful to his promises; he ‘will never leave you, nor forsake you’. It is you that has forsaken him in your unbelief.”

I did not want to hear that in that instance, but my friend was absolutely correct. Later that afternoon, I began the process of repentance and once again to pray, and once my heart was back on track, set out to raise our funds. By God’s grace, my relationship with the Lord was restored quickly and within our first month of being at seminary, we had everything we needed. What seemed to be a great evil turned out to be one of the most profound spiritual lessons I have ever learned. While this could just as easily be an example of God’s provision, and it is, it is to me, first and foremost an example of our God rescuing one of his own from the waywardness of unbelief and despair and restoring him to fellowship.

So, let us pray for restoration when we have wandered or lost sight of our God. Restoration is God’s will according to his covenantal promises. When we pray for restoration, we are praying God’s will. Therefore, we can count on the fact that God will restore those that belong to him when we pray. He will never leave us nor forsake us. (Deut 31:6).

We may think of the Book of Joel here, where God promises to “restore what the locusts have eaten.” “There had been a devastating invasion of locusts in Joel’s day to which he attributes it directly to God’s judgment for the people’s sins as well as a warning of a greater and final judgment yet to come; A similar situation to the psalmist’s situation indeed. Nevertheless, if the people repent, says God, “…I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…” (Joel 2:25-26 NIV)

Now, no doubt, “Sin causes us to lose many blessings. These cannot be recovered; they are gone.” I cannot get those days back when I was living in unbelief-so despondent, I cannot undo the poor witness I gave to those around me, I cannot go back in time and handle those couple of weeks over the right way. “But God can give new opportunities and new blessings. So, if you are one whose life has been ruined by the locusts of sin and unbelief, making it a spiritual desert, [repent, turn back again to God in prayer, and he promises that he will return to you and] restore what ‘the locusts have eaten.’”

The third thing we need to notice in this psalm is found in verses 8-9; In order for us to overcome our discouragement, we need to wait for God to answer.

Now, when waiting for God to answer, let us not confuse waiting and prayer. “It is never foolish to wait on God. Our problem is that we are often impatient and do not wait for him at all. In fact, it is often the case that we do not even lay our requests before him. We do not pray.” Let us not say, we are waiting on God until we can say, we have prayed. I was not waiting on God to respond in those weeks of despondency, nor did I really pray to God, but merely complained to him. I had little right to expect God to do something in my complacency.

But let us not confuse waiting with sloth either. Often, we throw up our hands stating, “God’s got it all in control.” Praise God, this is a true statement, but how many times do we use it as an excuse not to do the things he has given us most plainly to do? Absurd! No, if the Lord has revealed anything to us, let us be diligent in working towards it, even while he is working unseen at the moment. Our waiting is an active response; it is a crucial response, or a discernment ready position, it is not a passive recreation time.

Having a young son, I had the privilege of coaching a couple of little league baseball teams. There are two types of players in the field: those who are in the game, and those who are picking daisies. Those who are “in the game” take a stance in the field while waiting for the ball to be in play. Their knees are bent, their rear-ends down, their forearms resting just over their thighs, hands open, eyes on the pitcher, then the batter, then the ball, all the while asking themselves what they will do if the ball comes to them. They can spring into action when its time and make the kind of play they have been practicing all season; they are “baseball ready”. The other type, bless their hearts, sits down in the outfield to pick daisies, look at bugs, or draw in the sand. Even though it is really very cute, they don’t know what is going on when the ball comes their way.

When we are waiting on the Lord, let us be “baseball ready,” able to spring into action when it is time. Time is a gift from the Lord, let us not waste it.

And, when God’s promises are being realized, let us be sure to guard our zeal. The psalmist writes,
…but let them not return to folly.” (Psa 85:8 NIV)?

Verse 8 is the turning point of the psalm and does not move us into wishful thinking, but to truth-God’s fulfilling his promises of redemption. How exciting to watch the Lord act and bring us back into intimacy, yet how dangerous for us? What we have here is a recognition and reminder that when things are well, we tend to lose sight of the things of the Lord, we take him for granted; when he is near, we have so little need for him. It is not long before we find ourselves right back from where we started-another exile in the case of Israel, another dry spell for us. Let us always be thankful, never taking the nearness of the Lord and his blessings for granted.

The fourth thing we need to notice in this psalm is found in verses 10-13; In order for us to overcome our discouragement, we need to look to God’s promises for the future.

The psalmist recalls the promised day when the Messiah, Jesus, would come, when mercy and truth would meet each other. This is pointing to the atonement of Jesus Christ “for our sins by which God alone is able both to satisfy the demands of his righteousness or justice and at the same time to show mercy to those who have fallen short of his just standards.”

However, there is more here than the coming of Messiah. We have undertones of a final day, “an ideal day when the harmony that is in God will also pervade and dominate his creation. In these verses four great attributes of God meet together-love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace-and then, like conquering generals, they march side by side to a victory that is the sure and certain hope of God’s people.” These verses have direct application for NT believers today:

While we will often struggle and wander in this life, there comes a day when such futility is ended. So many times, our discouragement starts when we wrestle with the same old things that have brought us down time and again. We feel powerless, defeated, and without proper perspective, a failure before God, ready to just give up and wander on with style or in denial. Before long, we are wayward and have forgotten our Lord. Let us remember that we live in a time of “already, but not-yet.” We will not achieve perfection this side of Christ’s return. It is important for us to remember we will always struggle, that is the way of the cross. We have now been delivered of sin’s dominion, not its influence. That glorious day, when Christ comes again, to fulfill the restoration of the cosmos, we too will at last be set free of our remaining imperfection and we will be completely and finally new! Perfect righteousness and perfect peace will meet each other; they will kiss. Our final and perfect righteousness in Christ will at last experience the fulfillment of perfect peace. God’s faithful promises of redemption, those he made first in the Garden in Gen 3:15, then with Noah, then with Abraham, then with Isaac and Jacob, the twelve tribes, the line of David, Jesus Christ, and all the descendants of Abraham by faith in Christ are fulfilled. From the heavens-the faithful promises manifest, from the earth-the righteous fruit of the faithful promises is shown. They run towards each other, like lovers who have been apart for far too long, arms out and open wide, and embrace. The new heavens have now come down to earth, God’s redemptive theatre, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb commences. God’s harvest is finally reaped, the creation no longer groans with anticipation (Rom 8:19). Now, I don’t know about you, but I long for a day like this; it keeps me going.

Also, as we see in verse 13, righteousness goes before the Lord on the final day, but so too do we participate now. While God’s march will leave a track where his people will joyfully follow in the future, he has given us the down payment of our inheritance in the Holy Spirit. We are not left orphans, but empowered to do the will of God until Christ’s return-to prepare the earth for the coming of the new Jerusalem. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us in a life-long cycle of repentance, faith, and obedience which are the instrumental means ordained by God for the ongoing conversion of Christians into the likeness of Christ. Yes, we have been transformed, but we are also a work in progress; we are being transformed now as a taste of God’s future promises.

“So what do we do now pastor,” you ask? We must recognize that restoration is God’s initiative. It is important to note that the psalm does not read, “we have done well in exile and we deserve another chance.” No, it is clear that any restoration to take place is God’s prerogative, and so should we be aware as evidenced by, “You showed favor… you restored… you forgave… you covered… you set aside…and you turned.” We did not save ourselves nor will we be able to restore ourselves, we cannot simply pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But God is able; and we should ask will the One who saved us and restored us from the worst of exiles (death in our sins), not do so again for the seed of Abraham, the faithful baptized into Christ Jesus, the broken-hearted repentant, to whom God’s plan and promises of redemption and restoration belong? As we read “…Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5 NIV) Brothers and sisters, let us have great hope that a God who has made promises of redemption and an inheritance to his people, will lead us back into restoration.

Perhaps, like the psalmist and like Robinson, he is calling some of us from waywardness or discouragement today. If that is the case, let us reflect on his awesome goodness to us in the past. He has blessed us with his Word and his Spirit, blessings and power unspeakable in the present. Let us then pray with specific cause, “Restore us again, O God our Savior!” May we confess and repent, beat our chests like the tax collector, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner,” with a simultaneous shame and a longing for a new day, and cry out believing for our restoration. Then, let us wait on God for his sure and promised response. Lastly, remember God’s promises of forgiveness, restoration, and strength by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the present and for the promises of final restoration in the future, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6 NIV) Our God is a God who keeps his promises; therefore he will restore our spiritual fortunes. He will show us his unfailing love, his salvation will be near, righteousness and peace will kiss, and our land will yield its promised harvest. Amen.

Sources: James Montgomery Boice’s Commentary on the Psalms, Spurgeon’s Sermon on Psalm 85, Calvin Commentary

Topics: Advent, Psalms |

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