Musings and Contemplations

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts

Gracious God and most merciful Father,
You have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)

Psalm 80:7-19 NRSV
Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that moves in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted. They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

From a dry, an arid life, comes a cry for restoration; come to us, O Lord, have mercy; heal your people; save your nation.
We have sinned, rebelled against you; we have turned from your good ways; come to us, O Lord, and save us, and redeem for us our days.
Any judgment that you bring to us is, sadly, our deserving; but our prayer is for your mercy that will lead to our preserving.
Broken walls give no protection, broken cisterns hold no water; while we wander, living fruitless, hear, O God, our heavenly Father.
Consumed by fire, hacked down by blade, used up by sin and thrown away; in your judgment you’ve rebuked us; in your mercy hear us pray.
Come to us, O Lord, restore us! Give to us your saving grace! Shine upon us with your presence; restore, O God, your chosen race.

Matthew Henry
The church is like a vine, needing support, but spreading and fruitful. If a vine does not bring fruit forth, no tree is so worthless. And are we not planted as in a well-cultivated garden, with every means of being fruitful in works of righteousness? But the useless leaves of profession, and the empty boughs of notions and forms, abound far more than real piety. It was wasted and ruined. There was a good reason for this change in God’s way toward them. And it is well or ill with us, according as we are under God’s smiles or frowns. When we consider the state of the purest part of the visible church, we cannot wonder that it is visited with sharp corrections. They request that God would help the vine. Lord, it is formed by thyself, and for thyself, therefore it may, with humble confidence, be committed to thyself. ^[1]

Merciful God,
You desire not the death of sinners, but rather that they should turn to you and live; and through your only Son, you have revealed yourself as the God who pardons iniquity. Have mercy on the unrepentant and those who do not believe. Awaken in them, by your Word and Holy Spirit, a deep sense of their sinfulness and peril. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of your Word. Grant them to know and feel that there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, bring them home and number them among your children, that they may be yours forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer,2019)

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

^[1] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ps 80:8.