#DailyDevotion God Of Armies Shine Your Face On Us And Restore Us
7O God of armies, restore us and let Your face shine to save us. 10 Shepherd of Israel, listen. You who led Joseph like a flock, O One enthroned between the cherubim, shine! 2As You lead Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your power and come to save us. 3O God, restore us and let Your face shine to save us. 4O LORD God of armies, how long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people? 5You have fed them on the bread of tears, and have given them plenty of tears to drink. 6 You make us something for our neighbors to quarrel about, and our enemies mock us. 7O God of armies, restore us and let Your face shine to save us. 8You plucked up a vine from Egypt, drove out nations, and planted it.’ 9You cleared the ground before it so that it struck roots and filled the country. 10Its shade covered mountains; its branches covered the mighty cedars. 11It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the river. 12Why did You break down its stone fences? All who pass by are picking its fruit; 13the boar from the woods devours it; the animals of the field feed on it. 14God of armies, come back; look from heaven and see. Come to help this vine. 15Take care of what Your right hand planted, the son You strengthened for Yourself. 16May those who burned it with fire and cut it off perish before Your angry face. 17May Your hand be on the man at Your right hand, the son of man You strengthened for Yourself. 18Then we will not leave You. Give us life, and we’ll call on Your name. 19LORD God of armies, restore us and let your face shine to save us. 7O God of armies, restore us and let Your face shine to save us.
Sometimes it is surprising for Christians to read the militant tone of the psalms– “O God of armies!” After all Christians are supposed be like a soft plushy (that’s a furry stuffed animal) or Barney the dinosaur. Well in one sense that is true. We are to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, and to do good to those who would want to harm us. After all, that is how God our Father has treated us in Christ Jesus. But there is coming a judgment day and on that day the fury and wrath of God against all those who sinned against him and didn’t trust in Christ our Savior will be seen and felt. On this Christmas dawn we look to the God of armies to shine his face on us and save us. That means to look kindly on us and to have mercy on us. Indeed the Light of the World is the One’s who birth we celebrate this morning. Now the psalmist recalls the history of Israel and how the LORD had dealt with her. It starts off good but then everything seems to go wrong. The psalmist doesn’t seem to realize a lot of the evils being visited upon Israel is because she had rejected her LORD and turned to idols. But the psalmist calls for God to remember Israel and do for her what she did at the first.
Now Christians to day can probably related a lot to verse 12 and 13 as Christians in this world are objects of scorn and mocking. We are taken advantage of because we are modeling our LORD Jesus Christ in gentleness. We are something for our neighbors to quarrel about and we eat the bread of tears. What do we expect? Jesus promised us a cross and suffering with him in this world.
Now Jesus is the son of man, the man at God’s right hand whom He has strengthened. He intercedes for us as he awaits the day of his second advent. We pray with the psalmist for the LORD Jesus Christ to strengthen us, give us life and restore. He will do it.
Merciful God of Armies, shine your face on us and restore us that we may praise your name and the name of Jesus all our days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.