Psalms 80:3-18 - Homiletics

A cry of weakness, a prayer of faith,

"Turn us … we shall be turned." The life of the individual, of the Church, of the nation, depends not on means, methods, forms, institutions. With God is the fountain of life. These words are a cry of weakness, helplessness, humiliation; but also a prayer of faith, hope, joyful expectancy.

I. A CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS , DANGER , SIN .

1 . In ordinary affairs a sense of weakness, helplessness, despondency, is the forerunner of failure, often its cause. Rash over boldness, conceit of ability and good luck, though dangerous, are more apt to ensure success than timid self-distrust. Strange, then, that the "glad tidings," calling us to the grandest, most hopeful of all enterprises, begins by bidding us despair of ourselves! for true repentance is nothing less. The reason is precisely the grandeur of the mark set before us. In undertakings and tasks within our reach, calm self-reliance is the winning temper; but when the task is altogether too vast, the aim too high, for our strength and wisdom, self-confidence becomes folly, humility our safety. Further, the reason lies in the original greatness of man ' s nature, and his undestroyed capacity. The height measures the fall. If a temple or a pyramid be overthrown, what hands have built, hands can rebuild; but if a landslip carries down half a mountain, God's hand alone can rebuild.

2 . A confession, not only of weakness, but of sin. The soul has turned away from God, and in so doing destroyed itself ( Hosea 13:9 ). No sense of helplessness more absolute than conscious guilt. The past is irrevocable. Tears cannot wash the memory. Prayer cannot undo the deed ('Macbeth,' act 2. sc. 2, "Wake, Duncan," etc.!). I cannot sever today from yesterday, my present self from my past. This is the sting and burden of remorse ('Macbeth,' act 5. sc. 1, "Here's the smell of the blood"). He whom we have forsaken alone can restore us ( Lamentations 5:21 ).

II. A PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS AND FULL FAVOUR . "Cause thy face to shine," etc. Salvation can be nothing less than full restoration to God's favour, childlike trust; no middle ground between condemnation and acceptance ( Romans 5:1 ). When the storm cloud is blown away, what comes in its place is not mere daylight, but sunshine. Our sins are the cloud that hides God's face ( Isaiah 59:1 ). The sort of half-and- half condition in which many seem contented to live—between hope that they shall be saved, and fear that they shall be lost—has no warrant in Scripture. "We shall be saved," not "We hope we may be." Salvation is God's free, full gift in Christ, if not rejected or neglected, to be accepted fully, and wrought out with all our might ( Philippians 2:12 , Philippians 2:13 ; Ephesians 2:10 ). "He that hath the Son hath life" ( 1 John 5:12 ). The true Christian temper, therefore, is the perfect, habitual union of these two—profound humility because of our sin and sinfulness; joyful trust and thankfulness because of "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus" ( 2 Timothy 2:10 ).