Advent 4
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
-- Psalm 80:3
Psalm 80 is a community lament. Unlike most individual lament psalms, community laments are prayers that are left unanswered. They are prayers that pour out the communal pain because of trust in God, but they are also prayers that end still waiting for an answer. Psalm 80 is a perfect prayer for a world that seeks the peace of the Christ but has not yet experienced the realization of such a peace. The psalm recalls the intimate relationship of Israel with God by using the image of God as a shepherd of Israel. Later, in verses 7 through 11, it rehearses the history of God having brought the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and established them as a people.
But the heart of the prayer is the question of why God has not helped them realize the promise contained in their original covenant with God. In many ways it is the Christian question of why the world is not different now that the Christ has come. The psalmist offered this prayer after Jerusalem had fallen (v. 12) and assumed that the reason that Israel was suffering this fate was that God was angry with them. It would be sobering for Christians to reflect on whether the failure of the world to experience the peace of Christ is due to our own disobedience as a church.
The prayers for peace during this season might well include prayers of confession by Christians who have failed to be obedient to the Prince of Peace and are experiencing the consequences of their own disobedience. Yet, along with the psalmist, our hope is not in our own goodness but in our trust that God will not be angry with us forever. If the church has failed to be the obedient people of God, our hope remains in God's goodness. Our prayer, which honestly acknowledges our failures, finally concludes with our plea, "Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved." This prayer, like the communal laments of the psalmist, is an open-ended prayer that awaits the response of God.
-- Psalm 80:3
Psalm 80 is a community lament. Unlike most individual lament psalms, community laments are prayers that are left unanswered. They are prayers that pour out the communal pain because of trust in God, but they are also prayers that end still waiting for an answer. Psalm 80 is a perfect prayer for a world that seeks the peace of the Christ but has not yet experienced the realization of such a peace. The psalm recalls the intimate relationship of Israel with God by using the image of God as a shepherd of Israel. Later, in verses 7 through 11, it rehearses the history of God having brought the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and established them as a people.
But the heart of the prayer is the question of why God has not helped them realize the promise contained in their original covenant with God. In many ways it is the Christian question of why the world is not different now that the Christ has come. The psalmist offered this prayer after Jerusalem had fallen (v. 12) and assumed that the reason that Israel was suffering this fate was that God was angry with them. It would be sobering for Christians to reflect on whether the failure of the world to experience the peace of Christ is due to our own disobedience as a church.
The prayers for peace during this season might well include prayers of confession by Christians who have failed to be obedient to the Prince of Peace and are experiencing the consequences of their own disobedience. Yet, along with the psalmist, our hope is not in our own goodness but in our trust that God will not be angry with us forever. If the church has failed to be the obedient people of God, our hope remains in God's goodness. Our prayer, which honestly acknowledges our failures, finally concludes with our plea, "Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved." This prayer, like the communal laments of the psalmist, is an open-ended prayer that awaits the response of God.
