All right, let's turn in our
Bibles again to Psalm 80. I titled the message this evening,
Turn Us Again. We believe that David was the
writer of this psalm. It says it's a psalm of Asaph,
but the center margin reference for that says it's a psalm for
Asaph. So we believe David was the writer
of this psalm. And you may have noticed when
we read it a few moments ago that three times in this psalm,
David says what he says in verse three, turn us again, O God,
and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. David says,
turn us again. I wonder why he says turn us
again. Well, it's because the believer
knows, and if you believe God, you know this from your own experience,
the believer needs to be turned again and again And again, it's
a lifelong process. Turning to God is what repentance
is. Repentance is turning away from
what we have been trusting in and trusting in Christ. Repentance
is turning away from what we were looking at and looking to
Christ, turning to Christ. And that repentance, like I said,
is not a one-time act. It's a continual, lifelong process. And that's why David says, turn
us again. Now there are three specific
turnings that are mentioned in this psalm. I want to look at
each of them in a little bit of detail. And the first one
is this, Lord, turn us again and save us, save our soul. Verse
one, Psalm 80, give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest
Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth. Now we need to be turned again
to God. David says, turn us again to
God. Because we turned away from God
in Adam. When Adam sinned, we became lost. God turned from us and we turned
from God. Now salvation is God turning
us again. Turning us back to Him and causing
His face to shine upon us again in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know that day after Adam ate that fruit, And he was hiding
from God out there in the bushes. And God walked in the cool of
the day. That's pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was walking
in the garden in the cool of the day and said, Adam, where
are you? There were no smiles going on
in that conversation between the Lord and Adam was there.
His face was not shining upon Adam. Well, the Lord must turn
us again to him and cause his face to shine upon us. He has
got to take away what made him angry. He's got to take away
what made him frown so his face can shine upon us. And these
verses tell us about that. This verse tells us who will
be turned, who will be saved, and how will they be saved? Well,
it's God's elect. That's who will be saved. Lord
Jesus Christ is the shepherd of Israel. David cries, give
ear, O shepherd of Israel. God's not the shepherd. of every
human being, is He? He's the shepherd of His people.
He's the shepherd of His sheep. He's the shepherd of spiritual
Israel. So our cry is to the Great Shepherd. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Great Shepherd of His sheep. Now, who are the
sheep? He's got a sheep. He calls them. They follow Him. They belong
to Him. Who are the sheep? Well, the sheep are the elect
that the Father has given to Christ. And I can show you that
in John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Verse 26. Our Lord says, but you believe
not because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, he
didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe on
me, did he? Now he says, here's why you don't believe on me.
You're not my sheep. If you are my sheep, if you belong
to me, I'd give you faith in me. You'd believe me. The evidence
that you're not my sheep, the evidence that you've not been
elected of God is you don't believe me. He says in verse 27, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life and they should never perish. Neither
should any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand." Those sheep which belong to Christ,
they're God's elect. They belong to Christ. So the
sinner's cry is, Lord, you're my shepherd, lead me. You're
the shepherd, turn me back to you. And that is exactly what
Christ, the shepherd of the sheep, will do. He will lead all of
his sheep to him. Verse 16 there in John 10. and
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them also I
must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be
one fold and one shepherd." See, that's who the Lord will turn.
That's who he will save, his elect. And these verses also
tell us how they will be saved. Those sheep, those elect will
be saved through the sacrifice of Christ. Look back in our text,
David's cry here is to the one who dwells between the cherubims.
Now the one who dwelt between the cherubims is God Himself.
The Shekinah glory of God dwelt above the mercy seat between
those outstretched wings of the cherubim. And on the day of atonement,
the high priest would go in, he'd sprinkle the blood of the
sacrifice on that mercy seat right between the cherubim where
the Shekinah glory of God dwelt. Now that was just a picture.
All that was done was just a picture. But it's a mighty good picture.
It's a picture of God's justice being satisfied by the blood
of Christ. It's a picture of God accepting
his people in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ has blotted
out the sin of God's elect. God took away what made him angry.
God's been turned. He turned himself to his people
by taking away what made him angry. Now God can accept his
people because of that sacrifice of Christ. And in verse two,
the psalmist asked the Lord to come in the power of that sacrifice
and save us. He says in verse two, before
Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come
and save us. The tribes Ephraim and Benjamin
and Manasseh, those were the first tribes to get in line behind
the ark. When that cloudy pillar moved
and Israel was going to move again through the wilderness,
those three tribes were the first ones in line. They were directly
behind the ark. If the Lord had suddenly appeared
from that ark, He made His power known from that ark, they would
be the first tribes to see it. And Israel knew that the power
of the Lord was shown in that ark. This was the throne of God
where God dwelt. So the sinner's cry is, Lord,
come save Your people by Your power, by Your sovereign power,
the power of the blood of Christ, the power of the sacrifice that's
been shed. and been applied to take away
what makes you angry so you can smile at us again. Now, verse
three, this is what he's been leading up to. Turn us again,
O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Now, this is our prayer. Lord,
we're sinners, and we've turned away from you. Our sin has rightfully
brought your anger, made your face to frown in anger. So, Lord,
turn us Take away the sin that's made you angry so you can smile
at us again. God can only be satisfied by
the blood of Christ. Scripture tells us that on almost
every page, God can only be satisfied by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then if I'm a sinner, I want
God to hear me. I want God to turn me. I want
God to save me. A mighty good plea would be Lord,
Save me because you're satisfied. Save me because your justice
is satisfied through the sacrifice of your son, my substitute. And
part of that plea is this. Remember, the people who are
going to be saved are God's elect. We can plead this. This ties
right in with the blood. Lord, save us in your electing
love. Now, how do we know God loves
his people? God has a people he chose. He
has a people that he loves. How do we know that God loves
those people? Well, the apostle John told us,
1 John 4 verse 10, herein is love. Not that we love God, but
that he loved us. How do we know he loved us? What's
the proof of it? He sent his son to be the propitiation for
our sin. That word propitiation is mercy
sin. He sent His Son to be the mercy seat, covered in blood,
the place where God would meet with men and smile on them. He could turn them to Him because
He's taken away the sin that makes Him angry. God loves His
people so much, He sacrificed His Son so He could save them. Who would you kill your child
for so you could save them? I mean, think about that. God
loves his people so much, he sacrificed his son so that he
could save them in justice. If you look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, I know that's exactly what the psalmist is saying here.
Because where is the only place that you and I, sinners like
you and me, can see God's smiling face? Just one place, the Lord
Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. If we see God's face shine, it's
going to be the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only
appearance of God we will ever see. This is all in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, save me. in Him. Wash me in His blood. Turn us
to Christ and we will be saved. Lord, reveal the glory of Christ
to us and we won't be able to take our eyes off of Him and
we'll be saved. This is all it takes for God
to save a sinner. All it takes is for the Lord
to turn us, turn us to Christ and give us faith in Him and
we will be saved. Right here's the second turning.
Lord, turn us again and deliver us in times of trial. Verse four,
Psalm 80. O Lord God of hosts, how long
wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest
them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink
in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto
our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. David
here is describing A time of trial that is miserable. Miserable. It may be the Lord
is correcting us. It could be the Lord's teaching
us. You know, part of every trial, who knows what the Lord's will
is in every trial, what His purpose is for them. But part of it,
as far as I can tell, is always this. To teach us to depend upon
Him. To look to Him. To depend upon
Him. When He takes our legs out from
us, from under us, and we're just flat on our back, what else
can you do but depend upon the Lord? He's teaching us to depend
upon Him. But you know, for whatever reason
for the trial, whatever purpose the Lord's accomplishing in the
trial, while we're in it, it's a misery. It's a misery. God's people are miserable. This just jumped out at me when
I read it. When the Lord won't hear our
prayer. Now, I can understand the Lord being angry at us because
of our sin. We all understand that, don't
we? But here the Lord's angry against our prayer. He's angry
against the prayer of His people. Well, there could be a million
reasons for that. You know, our prayers are so
full of self. They're just so full of the flesh
and so full of sin. The Lord would never hear our
prayers unless the Holy Spirit made intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. You know, we don't know what
to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit does. He makes intercession
for our prayers and leads us to pray according to the will
of God. That's the only way our prayers
could ever be heard. But for a child of God who's
in great trial, and great heartache. How much is that magnified when
we think the Lord's not hearing our prayer? Oh my goodness. Then we're miserable. We want
joy. All of us want joy, don't we?
Happiness. But the Lord here is feeding
his people with tears. He's feeding them with sorrow.
And those tears and those sorrows are made worse because the Lord's
not answering our prayer. Our sorrows and tears are so
much more because we don't feel the comforting presence of the
Savior. We feel like we can't go to Him and talk about Him.
He's not hearing our prayers. He's angered with our prayers.
That just troubles the heart of a child of God more than anything. This is a miserable time. We
want peace. Every believer wants peace. But
the Lord is giving us strife. He's giving us strife with people
around us. He's given a strife in our own
heart. We can't even find peace in our own heart. Now, remember
the people we're talking about here are caught sheep. Sheep
are peaceful animals. Sheep don't go attacking people
and, you know, attacking each other. They're peaceful animals. So it's a great trial for caught
sheep to not have peace in the heart. You know, I don't expect
peace in the world. Our Lord told us, don't expect
peace in the world. But I tell you what really, I
mean, it bothers me still yet, I suppose. I don't want to be
at peace. But I tell you what bothers me
the most is when I don't have peace in the heart. And I tell
you why that bothers me. Remember what the Lord told his
disciples? My peace I give unto you. Well, if I don't have peace in
the heart, does that mean I'm not on his sheep? Does that mean
he hasn't given me peace? This is a time of great misery,
isn't there? And during these times of trial,
when we're just in a miserable situation, this is our natural
instinct. I'm going to find a solution
to this. I'm just going to find a solution to this problem. Our
instinct is to look for a way that we can do something to help
God get us out of this fix. And our efforts add to our misery
every time. And when we're finally brought
to the end of our road, when we're finally brought to the
place that all we can do is depend entirely upon the Lord, we'll
cry verse 7. Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Now you
know we will never turn to God unless he turns us. He's going
to have to turn us. And the Lord often tries His
people to turn us, to force us to ask Him, Lord, turn us. Look over at Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah had the exact same situation, the exact same reaction. Jeremiah 31. This is the Lord
speaking in verse 18, Jeremiah 31. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus. Thou hast chastised me, and I
was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and
I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after
that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Now, this trial
caused Ephraim to cry out, Lord, turn me and I shall be turned. And you know, when the Lord turned
me, I learned something. I learned, I was instructed and
then I was ashamed of myself. I should have known that before.
After the Lord turned me, I was confounded. How could I have
been so stupid? How could I have done whatever
it was I was doing? But the trial caused him to cry,
Lord, turn me. And isn't that our cry? Lord,
turn me. Turn me back to you. And you
know the Lord will. He'll always turn his people
back to them because he loves them. Look here at verse 20,
Jeremiah 31. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he
a pleasant child? For since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels are troubled
for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord. He cried, Lord, turn me. And
the Lord's going to turn his people. He's going to save them
and deliver them because he loves his people. So we need to remember
that this is a good crime in time of trial and trouble. Lord,
turn me. Now, you notice both David and
Jeremiah said, Lord, turn me. They didn't say, Lord, turn this
situation around, did they? How often have I prayed that?
How often have you prayed that? Lord, turn this situation around.
The situation may not be the issue. More likely, it's me. Lord, turn me. Lord, turn me
to see you. And that'll be the end of the
trial. That'll be the end of the heartache. Lord, turn us
to see Christ. The trial may not be over, but
it'll be a whole lot more bearable. if the Lord turns me to see Christ. Now, did you notice this? David's
cry in verse 7 is just slightly different than we said in verse
3. In verse 3, he says, turn us again, O God. In verse 7,
he says, turn us again, O God of hosts. Turn us, O God of hosts. You have a host of people. Lord, turn us. Turn us to you. Turn us, O God of hosts. You're
the God over the host of all the earth. Lord, you have power
over all things. There's nothing that's too hard
for you. You are the God of hosts. So turn us. Turn us to you. Cause your face to shine upon
us and we'll be saved. We'll be delivered. We'll be
comforted if you will turn us. Then thirdly, Lord, turn us again. and deliver us from the world.
Verse eight, Psalm 80. Thou has brought a vine out of
Egypt. Thou has cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou
prepares room before it and did cause it to take deep root and
it filled the land. The hills were covered with the
shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
She sent out her boughs under the sea and her branches under
the river. Now here, David's giving us a
picture of Israel. The vine is his people. And the
Lord brought Israel. He brought them out of Egypt
miraculously with great power and brought them into the land
he promised their fathers. And when they got there, he drove
the heathen out of it and gave the land to Israel. And the Lord
caused Israel to take deep root in that land. They prospered,
spread throughout all the land that God gave them. Now, were
they thankful? Were they so grateful that the
Lord brought them there and gave them this land flowing with milk
and honey? Were they so grateful for that
that they faithfully worshiped the Lord? Were they so grateful
they thought, I'm never going to forget the Lord's blessings
to me. I'll never turn away from Him. No, they weren't, were they? You know the history of Israel.
No, they weren't. Every time they began to prosper, what'd
they do? Turn to idolatry. Every time they began to prosper,
they turned away from the Lord who was the one blessing them.
I mean, you think how dead our flesh is, our fleshly nature
is, that God blesses us and prospers us so that we turn away from
the very one who's blessing us. We're a lost cause. This flesh
is a lost cause. And the Lord always dealt with
their idolatry, didn't he? Look here at verse 12. Why hast
thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by
the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth
waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven,
and behold and visit this find, and the vineyard which thy right
hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself,
it is burned with fire, it is cut down. They perish at the
rebuke. of thy countenance. The psalmist
here is taking full responsibility for the sin of the people. He
said, this is our fault. You've broken down the hedges.
You've let the heathen come in and take the land, take over
the land because of our sin. It's our fault. It's only right. It's only just that you deal
with us after this way, because this sin is our fault. And Lord's
gotta bring us to that point. Before He's ever gonna save us,
the Lord's gotta bring us to that point. Nobody's ever gonna
be saved until their sin is their fault. Nobody's ever gonna be
saved until they see, it's not Adam's fault, it's my fault.
It's not God's fault, it's my fault. It's not God's fault I'm
not saved. It's not God's fault for not
choosing me. It's my fault for my sin. And God would be right
to damage me. Nobody's gonna be saved until
we come to that point. This is exactly what I deserve
for God to damn me. And if the Lord ever teaches
us that that would be right for Him to do, that that's just exactly
what we deserve, then and only then will we see the need for
Christ our substitute. And that's who the psalmist is
talking about in verse 17. Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand. upon the Son of Man whom thou
madeest strong for thyself." Now you know this can only be
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the right hand
of God. He's the right hand that He sent
to do the work that He prepared for Him to do. Christ is the
man that God made strong for Himself. For Himself. The Father sent the Son to do
something for God. He had to do something for God
before he could ever do anything for sinners. God had to do something
for himself. So he sent Christ to do it. He
sent Christ as a man to satisfy God's holiness. You see, a man
had to keep the law. A man had to satisfy God's holiness
because the first man disobeyed the law. So another man had to
come and obey the law. So the father made his son strong
to obey the law perfectly and to bring in everlasting righteousness.
But then, in order for sinners to be saved, a man had to die
to satisfy God's justice against the sin of his people. By man
came death. So by man, the only way life
can come is by another man. God's elect are going to be saved
by the God-man. man that God made strong to put
away the sin of his people by dying in their place. That seemed
pretty extreme, doesn't it? For God to save his people by
by making his son sin and then killing him for it. That seemed
pretty extreme. But you know what? That's the
only way salvation could be accomplished. That's the only way God could
accept the people he chose to save is if his son made him righteous. And his son took their sin away
by his sacrifice. So he made his son strong to
get the job done. Now the sinner's cry is, Lord,
I'm just like Israel. You blessed me beyond measure. You blessed me beyond measure.
You've been faithful to me. You've kept your covenant mercy
to me at every turn. You've been faithful to do everything
you promised to do. but I have not been faithful
to you. I let the world break in. I'm in this flesh and I love
the world. My flesh loves the things of
the flesh. So Lord, my prayer is turn me. Turn me back to you. Turn me
again. Lord, keep me by your power. Don't cast me off. Don't let
me get caught up in the way of the world. Don't let me get caught
up in the religion of the world and the way the world thinks.
Don't let me be condemned with the rest of the world. Lord,
punish my sin by putting your hand of justice on Christ my
substitute and not on me. Put your hand of justice upon
your son so that you can reach out your hand of mercy to me.
That's exactly what he's talking about there in verse 17. Let
thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. Lord, put your hand
on Christ and accept him and accept me in him. Don't accept
me in anything I've done. I'm not asking you to ever look
at anything I am or anything I've done. Put your hand on your
son and accept him and accept me in the beloved. Verse 18. So will not we go back from thee?
Quicken us and we will call upon thy name. This is our cry, Lord,
I need you. I need you every hour. Lord, I'm dead. But if you'll
quicken me, I won't turn back. Lord, if you'll give me life,
I won't lose it. See, I won't lose my salvation
if God's the one who saved me. I won't lose my salvation if
God's the one who keeps me. It all is dependent upon him.
So this is what David's saying, Lord, if you turn me, I'll be
turned. Verse 19. Turn us again, O Lord,
God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Turn us, Lord, again and again
and again. Turn us and we shall be saved. But I hear verse 19, David says
something a little bit different, he said before. In verse three,
he says, turn us again, O God. In verse 7, he says, turn us
again, O God of hosts. Now in verse 19, he says, turn
us again, O Lord God of hosts. Now David includes the name of
Jehovah, the self-existent one. God my Savior. Oh, if God my
Savior turns me, I'll be turned. If God my Savior turns me, I'll
be saved. If Jehovah, the self-existent
one, If he turns me, I'll stay turned. So, Lord, turn us to
you. Lord, turn to us because you
took our sin away. Lord, turn to us and make your
face shine upon us because you took our sin away. But now, Lord,
give us life. Give us repentance and turn us
to you. Lord, show us the glory of God
in the smiling face of Christ and we'll be saved and we'll
stay saved. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, after reading this
psalm, what can we say but say with our brother David, O Lord
God of hosts, turn us again, turn us to Thee, cause Your face
to shine upon us and we shall be saved. Lord, how thankful
we are. There is forgiveness. There is
salvation. There is repentance with thee.
And Lord, I beg that you'd grant that to us tonight. That you'd
grant your saving power, your saving grace to those of us here. Father, make us to know thee.
Turn us to thee. Enable us to see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we'll give you all the praise,
all the glory, and all the honor for it. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for his glory we pray.