A Prayer for Israel's Restoration — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll be continuing with A Prayer for Israel's Restoration, as we pick up in the 80th Psalm, beginning with verse 1. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

The Shepherd of Israel and the Prayer for Restoration

Psalm 80, again after the destruction, the casting away. Notice that verse 13 of the previous psalm talks about the people, the sheep of thy pasture. Psalm 80 begins, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel. A tie between the two.

You that leads Joseph like a flock, the sheep of your pasture. You that dwell between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. It is interesting that these three tribes were grouped together.

Well, you have the camp of Israel like this. And in the center was the tabernacle. And around on each side were four tribes camped. And when they would move this direction, these three tribes that are listed here were behind, so they followed after the tabernacle.

Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. And so, they are back here in this grouping of the camp of Israel. And thus, they are listed together. Stir up your strength, come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

So, the plea of this psalm is that God would turn to them again. It would seem that God had turned away from them. And so, in verse 3, verse 7, and verse 19, you have this prayer that God will turn to us again.

But notice, though they seem the same, there's a slight difference in all three. Turn us again, O God, cause thy face to shine, we shall be saved. Verse 7, turn us again, O God of host. And so, there's added there the of host.

And the same, cause your face to shine, we shall be saved. Then verse 19, turn us again, O Lord God of host. So, it keeps amplifying upon God. O God, O God of host, O Lord God of host. Now, back in Numbers, God commanded the priest, when they came forth from the tabernacle and doing their ministry before the Lord, that they were to go out to the people to place God's name upon the people.

And God said, this is the way you are to place my name upon the people. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord cause his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. So, this God turning his face towards you, cause his face to shine upon you.

And so, picking that up out of that blessing, he says, Lord, turn again to your people. Cause your face to shine upon your people that we might be saved. And then, O Lord God of host, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

For you feed them with the bread of tears and you give them tears to drink in great measure. Lord, how long are we going to endure this suffering? Now, according to the prophet Jeremiah, they were to endure it for 70 years.

Israel's Seventy Years of Judgment

And there was a reason for the 70 years. They had been dwelling in the land from the time of the establishment of the kingdom for 490 years, during which time they had not kept the law of God in allowing the land to rest every seven years.

And so, God said one year for every year that the land was not rested. In 490 years, every seven years, there would have been 70 years in which the land would have rested, would not have been planted, tilled, cultivated, but just let go wild so the land could replenish itself, so the soil could be replenished, so the food would be fully nutritious.

But the people did not obey this command. They kept planting year after year after year for 490 years, and God says, hey, the land has 70 years coming to it of rest, and therefore, you'll be captives for 70 years that I might give to the land its Sabbaths.

So, they were looking for God to bring immediate revenge upon their nation, but they were going to be fed with tears for 70 years. You make us a strife unto our neighbors, our enemies laugh among themselves.

That scoffing and ridicule is always hard to handle. And so, the prayer again, turn to us, O God, God of hosts, cause your face to shine, we shall be saved. Now, he uses a parable of sorts, and he likens the nation of Israel unto a vine, a grapevine.

Israel as God's Vine

And it's interesting that the nation of Israel is likened to a grapevine in both the prophecies of Isaiah and again in Jeremiah. Jesus used the figure that I am the vine, the true vine, you're the branches, every branch in me, and so he uses this analogy.

And so, for the nation of Israel, you brought the vine, the nation of Israel, out of Egypt, and you cast the heathen out of the land, and you planted the vine. God planted the nation of Israel there in the land.

And then you prepared room for it, because you did cause it to take deep root until it filled the land. The nation of Israel, having been rooted there, began to be established, and it began to spread out over the whole land.

And the hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like goodly cedars, just became strong, broad boughs. She sent out her boughs under the sea, they conquered all the way over to the Mediterranean, the branches clear unto the river Euphrates.

Why have you then broken down her hedges, so all which pass by do pluck her? Now, when they would plant their vineyards, they would build up rock walls around them to protect them from people just passing by and ripping off the fruit.

Even today, you'll see these rock walls all over the valley of Eshkol, where they still grow grapes. You'll see these walls, and some of them no doubt trace clear on back to this time. But you have broken down the walls so that all that pass by do pluck her.

Israel is no longer protected by God, but has become a prey to their enemies. The boar, the wild boar out of the wood does waste it. The wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts.

Look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine, the nation of Israel. We've been wasted, we've been devoured, but Lord, help us. And the vineyard which your right hand hath planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself, it is burned with fire, it's cut down.

They perish at the rebuke of your countenance. Let your hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou made as strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee, quicken us, we will call upon thy name.

The Messiah at God's Right Hand

Now this verse 17 is a very interesting verse. Very interesting in light of the fact that it is really a prophecy for let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. Who is it that is at the right hand of God on I?

What is he called in the scripture? The son of man. So let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man who you made strong for yourself. So we will not go back from thee, make us alive and we will call upon your name.

So really it's the prayer for the Messiah. And it is interesting that today in Israel, there is again that prayer for the Messiah. They realize that they are having a difficult time surviving as a nation.

And many of them realize that their only hope is for the Messiah. Let God's hand be upon the man of his right hand, the son of man. Psalm 81 begins with a encouragement to sing unto God aloud, for God is our strength.

Worship, Deliverance, and Returning to the Lord

Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. And so the calling of the people to sing unto God, a joyful noise. Take a psalm, that is one of their songs that they sang, and bring out the timbrel, which is sort of equivalent to our tambourine, and the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

The harp and the psaltery were stringed instruments that they used to accompany the singers. Then blow the trumpet in the new moon, and in the time appointed, and on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, the law of God for Jacob.

This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt. So let's return to the Lord. Sing unto God. Bring out the musical instruments. Let's get together. Let's worship the Lord.

Let's turn back to God. Now God, in verse 6, seems to answer and respond as he tells them and reminds them of his past blessings in their history. I removed his shoulder from the burden. That is the burden that the Egyptians have placed upon them.

They would put these straps over their shoulders, and they would carry these heavy bags of bricks. Or they would put the yoke that was over both shoulders, and on each side, these bags with the heavy loads.

And so I removed his shoulder from the burdens. His hands were delivered from the pots. They would carry in these large pots the clay to make the bricks, and may be carrying 200 pounds with the yokes and the pots on the end of this clay.

And all day long, in the hot sun, being pressed on by the slave taskmasters, and God said, I delivered them from that. They called me in trouble, and I delivered them. And so it was that they cried unto God by reason of their taskmasters, and God sent Moses to the Pharaoh to demand the release of the people.

And God brought them out by the plagues, the thunder, that God destroyed the crops of the Egyptians and by other things. And then God said, I prove thee at the waters of Meribah. Twice in their wilderness experience, once towards the beginning and once towards the end.

Israel's Wilderness Testing at Meribah

They came to a place where they were dying of thirst. There was over a million and a half of them making that trek through the wilderness. Now, there are those today who are trying to declare that there was probably only a handful, and that the figures are all greatly exaggerated.

They say that they can't find the evidence of such a massive amount of people through the wilderness and so forth, and thus they are casting doubts upon the Word of God. Let me say that these kind of critics have always existed, and they've been pounding at the scriptures for years.

Every time when all of the evidence is in, the critics are proved to be just a bunch of nuts, and the Word of God stands. I mean, all of these things that they have criticized in the past have all turned out to be not verifiable.

When the facts come in, the Word of God proves to be true, and all of the theories and all go down the tube. So, their problem though, of course, they say it's impossible that a million and a half people could survive in that wilderness.

It's just a complete impossibility. Well, for man, no doubt. But you see, it all depends on your concept of God. They wouldn't have had food. Well, God gave them manna. They wouldn't have had enough water.

Well, God gave them water. God gave them quail. And even after God gave them the manna and all, they said, well, can God give us meat in the wilderness? So, God caused these quail to fly in about three feet high.

And these guys went out with their sticks and just took batting practice, you know. And little kids were going around, gathered them all up, put them into piles. And so, God did take care of them. But when they came to Meribah, this was towards the end of the wilderness journey.

They had already seen the miracle of God bringing water out of the rock in the beginning. But of course, a lot of those were dead now. In fact, most of that generation had died off. And they came to Moses.

They said, look, our children are crying for water, and we're thirsty, and we're going to die if we don't get some water. And they began to make all kinds of accusations against Moses. Moses was angry, went in before God and said, God, what am I going to do?

I can't handle this anymore. I've had enough. Can't take their complaining all the time. So, God said, Moses, they are thirsty. Go out and speak to the rock that it might give forth water. So, Moses went out and began to yell at them, called them a bunch of rebels.

How long are you going to rebel against God, against me? Must I smite this rock again to bring you water? And he took his rod, and he hit the rock again. And the water came forth, and the people drank.

God said, I proved you at the waters of Meribah. The proof of God always was to prove to them what was in their heart. God allows us to go through testings that he might prove to us the things that are in our heart.

We think that we are stronger than we really are. And so, God gives us those tests where we fail, where we begin to see our weaknesses, where I realize, God, I can't stand without your help. I'll never make it without you, Lord.

Dependence on God Revealed Through Testing

God wants me to be dependent upon him. And every place where I feel that I can do it on my own, I feel that I have that wired, Lord, I don't need your help here. It's just, you know, let me show you what I can do.

I show him. But in so doing, I discover a lot of truth about me. I discover that I'm not as strong as I thought I was. That my strength comes from the Lord, and without him, I am nothing. Think of old Samson.

Power of God upon him. And man, this guy was just really wiping out the Philistines until he broke his vow, his consecration to God. And when Delilah said, Samson, the Philistines are upon you, he stood up and he said, I'll go out as I did before.

And he knew not that the Spirit of God had departed from him. And without God's Spirit, he was weak, just like anybody else. And he was then the prey. He was overcome by the Philistines. And without the strength and the power of God's Spirit, hey, you're nothing.

And if you don't believe it, God will just prove you at the waters of Meribah or someplace else. And he'll let you see the perversity of your own heart, the deception of your own heart, in order that you might learn to trust him fully and trust him.

Completely. I proved you. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of the Psalms in our next lesson, as Pastor Chuck Smith continues with The Appeal for Israel's Repentance. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message, or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one, you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives, and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details.

Simply call 1 -800 -272-WORD. And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday, 8 a .m. to 5 p .m. Pacific Time. Once again, our toll-free number is 1 -800 -272 -9673. And for your added convenience, you can order online anytime when you go to thewordfortoday .org.

And while you're there, be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs, and so much more. Once again, that's The Word for Today online at thewordfortoday .org.

And for those of you who still prefer to write, you can use our mailing address, which is The Word for Today, P .O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, CA 92628. And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence.

And now on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse venture through the Psalms.

That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now once again, here's.

Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing comments. God bless you, and may the Lord guide you in His plan for your life. And may you learn as David to just commit your ways unto the Lord, knowing that the Lord will take care of things as you just submit your life, its facets unto Him.

And may.

God just continue to use you as His instrument in bringing His love to a needy world. The Word for.

Today has put together a booklet series by Pastor Chuck called The Answers for Today. It addresses questions pertaining to hot topics such as, what does God say about alternative lifestyles? If God is love, then why are people so against Him in the first place?

And of course, the always asked questions, why does God allow suffering? Or what is the rapture? And when is Jesus coming again? It's time these questions are put to rest, and we help our loved ones come to a simple understanding of the Bible and how to have a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

To order The Answers for Today booklets individually or collectively as a set, you can call The Word for Today at 1 -800 -272 -9673. Or you can order them online at thewordfortoday .org. I want to encourage you, order these to keep on hand because you never.

Know when you're going to get asked that question. This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.