“Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine,”
~ Psalm 80:14
Hi James and Ellen,
It is about 2725 years ago. Your home is in the city of Jerusalem. Your dad and ma are an Israelite people group guy and gal. Your dad and ma are from the Benjamin tribal clan. Your dad and ma are called Jews. Up until a few years ago, you had been living carefree lives. You are now feeling uneasy about all the guys and gals who are suddenly filling up the city where you are living. You sense that things are not right. Asaph – your grandpa, has told you stories and has written song psalms about what life had once been like in the city and in the country where you are living. Your grandpa has told you that God gave the Israelite people group’s tribal clans the country where you are now living – which had been Canaan, with the caveat that they will always have this country to live in as their very own country if . . . this God Who your grandpa has also been telling you stories and writing psalm songs about is not the same god who you are seeing most of the guys and gals worshipping who are streaming into your city. The guys and gals who you are seeing streaming into your city – who are from the Ephraim and Manasseh tribal clans, are worshipping idol gods that have been made by hand from wood, stone and metal. The guys and gals who are streaming into your city are trying to escape an advancing enemy – the Assyrian people group’s army. You have heard your grandpa talk about a prophet whose name is Isaiah who also worships the God Who your grandpa has told you about – who is telling every guy and gal who is living in and who is showing up in your city to stop doing at once what they are doing worshipping idol gods that have been made by hand from wood, stone and metal and repent or . . . if you were kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem 2725 years ago, would you worship a God that only a very few guys and gals were worshipping or would you worship gods that the majority of the guys and gals were worshipping? If you were kids who were living in the city of Jerusalem 2725 years ago, would you have continued to listen to your grandpa – who was still telling you stories and writing psalm songs about what life was purportedly like way before you were born or would you listen to your kid friends whose grandpas were telling their grandkids that they need to worship the wood, stone and metal idol gods that have been made by hand or bad things would happen to them?
It is an evening about 2725 years ago and Asaph – your grandpa, is reading to you a psalm song that he has just written. Your grandpa sounds frustrated and desperate as he reads the psalm song to you. Your grandpa has divided his new psalm song into five stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. Your grandpa has written his new psalm song to the Lord God Almighty. Your grandpa’s psalm songs were to be chanted but . . . this psalm song that your grandpa just wrote is being sung 2725 years later to the music of ‘The Lilies of the Covenant’. This psalm song that your grandpaa just wrote is now Psalm 80 in the Psalms Book. Your grandpa is using his latest psalm song – which he has written to the Lord God Almighty, to plead with the Lord God Almighty to please listen to him and restore the guys and gals who He had specially chosen for Himself to the kind of life that they had once lived in the land that He as the Lord God Almighty had given to them to always have to live in as their very own land. Your grandpa knows that his Father God – the Lord God Almighty, has every reason to do what He is doing but . . . you want to go back to those happy days, too – when there was not the fear and tension that is now obvious in the faces of every guy and gal who you see in the city where you are living – which is the city of Jerusalem. Your grandpa in his newest psalm song asks his Father God how long was He going to be angry with His specially chosen guys and gals. Your grandpaa in his newest psalm song asks his Father God how long was He going to continue to ignore the prayers from guys like him. Your grandpa in his newest psalm song tells his Father God that the land that He had given to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, to always have to live in as their very own land was being ravaged and destroyed by wild animals and enemy nations. Your grandpa in his newest psalm song reminds his Father God that He was Who had taken the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids out of Egypt years before and that He was Who had planted the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids like a vine which had taken root in the land that He had promised years and years before to the Israelite people group’s forefathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He would set aside for their ancestors for them to return to one day to always have to live in as their very own land. Your grandpa – Asaph, in verse 14 pleads with his Father God to “Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine,” Do you think that Who Asaph was writing this psalm song to heard and answered Asaph?
It is November 14, 2003. You have heard that many guys and gals are continuing to detest the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. You have heard that suicide bombers are killing innocent kids in the country of Israel. You wonder what planet Earth would be like if God had never chose the Israelite people group’s guys and gals to be His specially chosen guy and gals. Your grandpaa believes that God will bless the countries – such as the United States, that are willing today to stand alongside the Israelite people group’s guys and gals instead of fearing and hating the Israelite people group’s guys and gals as so many guys and gals are who are living in countries all over planet Earth. God will never ever forget the guys, gals and kids who He chose to be His own specially chosen guys, gals and kids.
Psalm 80 (426)