Psalm 80:18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
Do you feel spiritual today? It is always a dangerous thing to ask about feelings because feelings can change. I will tell you that there is an ebb and flow in a relationship to God. Certainly feelings are important, but they are not the sum and substance of our relationship to God. This year there has been an ebb and flow to my relationship with God. Sometimes I feel very close to God, and sometimes I feel like I am not close to God and am just not getting much out of the Bible. Feelings are not unimportant, but they are not the sum and substance.
The psalmist felt a distance from God and for good reason. On several different occasions over many years, God’s enemies destroyed the cities of Israel and took the Jewish people captive. In Psalm 79 the psalmist is beside himself, “God, what are You going to do about Your enemies who have destroyed the temple and taken Your people?” In Psalm 80 he turns the focus to the relationship to God, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock.” He is saying, “God, You’ve led us before, lead us again.” Then in verse 3 is the refrain we find throughout Psalm 80, “Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” He is saying, “God, we are distant from you. Give us deliverance.”
The psalmist reminds us of four things we need to remember about any needed revival of a relationship to God. Note that we are talking about a relationship and not a temperament. Sometimes people have a very serious temperament or they come across as pious. They may love God, but just because a person has a serious temperament or a pious attitude it does not mean he is spiritual. We need not confuse those two things. We are talking about a relationship with God.
First, a revival of a relationship to God is spiritual, not primarily physical. Several times in the psalm you have the refrain, “Turn us again, O God of hosts.” In verse 3, I think he is talking about a return to Jerusalem, freedom, and the good old days. To be sure, the people of Israel were in a very specific covenant with God that had physical ramifications. So, this physical calamity was God’s chastening of His own people because He loved them.
Not every calamity in your life means that God is judging you. God does judge His own because He loves them and wants to bring them back to Himself, but primarily a revival of our relationship to God is a spiritual thing, not a physical thing. We are not asking God to make us rich or healthy. We are asking God to help us to be close to Him once again. We don’t need what God gives. We need God. That leads us to the second truth.
Second, a revival of a relationship to God is about a person, not a place. When you get to the last verse he says, “Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” I think he comes to the realization that we don’t just need to return to our homeland, prosperity, or the good old days. We need to return to God, our relationship with God Himself. Revival is about a person, not a place. While I thank God for places God has used in my life, it is God Himself that is important.
Third, the revival of our relationship to God is about our sin, not God’s weakness. God’s ear was not deaf. God’s hand was not shortened, but sin had separated God and His people. In the refrain, “Turn us again, O God of hosts,” “O God of hosts” is a term referring to God’s military might and power. Often you may notice when “God of hosts” is used, God is about to judge. So, this is not a matter of God not being able to get close to them. It was that God’s people would not get close to Him. It was a matter of their sin, not God’s weakness. God is as able as ever He was. If He feels distant, take a moment and pray the prayer of the psalmist, but remember the thing that needs to change is not God’s strength or weakness. God is a God of strength. Is there something between me and the God Who loves me?
Finally, a revival of our relationship to God is ultimately in some sense something for God’s sake, not only for our sake. In verse 17 he says, “Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.” Talking about Israel as a vineyard he says, “Thou madest a branch strong for thyself.” In verse 8 he talks about Israel as a vine and how it was once flourishing, but now is burned and shriveled. In Psalm 79 the psalmist mourns the destruction of his people, and he says, “Wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.” There is a sense in which the psalmist was able to look to God and say, “We are in trouble, but we are your people and these are your problems. We appeal to God.”
Maybe today you don’t feel as close to God as you have at times. You can be close to God and you are as close to God as you want to be. The psalmist reminds us of things that help us to understand the revival that we need. It is spiritual, not physical; it is a person, not a place; it is a matter of our making right our sins, not God’s gaining power instead of weakness; and ultimately it is for God’s sake and not merely for our own. God loves you; God made you; and God wants to have a vital, living relationship with you. As the psalmist says in Psalm 78:18, “So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.”