A prayer to restore (Jer 47-49; Ps 80; 2 Peter 2)

What do you do when those you love have turned away from the Lord? You cry out to the Lord that they would return. That is what Asaph does in Psalm 80. The northern kingdom of Israel have turned away from the Lord, and they have gone into exile in Assyria. Asaph cries out to the shepherd of Israel. He recognises who God is and asks Him to restore his people (v3). The word that is used for restore, is to return. Here is a longing for the lost to repent, and to experience the blessing of God’s face shining on them once more.

Here is something we can pray for individuals and also for the whole church where she has wandered away from God. Asaph is praying for the northern kingdom to return, and we should surely pray for the churches that have drifted to return to God’s ways and experience His blessing. Our reading from 2 Peter 2 warns us of false teachers coming into the church “forsaking the right way” (2v15) and leading people astray. They may be hard to spot, for they can appear very religious, but Peter warns they are “waterless springs” (2v17). They appear to offer life, but there’s nothing there.

It’s similar in Psalm 80, the rebellious people are still religious! They are praying, but their prayers just make God angry (v4) because they are ignoring His Word.

Asaph remembers God’s kindness in the past, and longs that the church will return to God. He retells her story, God brought her out of Egypt, He rescued her from slavery, and gave her a good land to live in (v8-10). But because of her sin, her walls were broken down and the nations have ravished the church. Don’t we see the same thing today? In places where God’s church has ignored his Word, the world has entered in, so that in many places the morality of the church looks like the morality of the world. “Times have changed” we hear. Asaph tells us that the boar has entered in, here is picture language from an unclean animal entering God’s holy place. The way of the world has come into the church. Here is a warning to us, just as God broke down the walls (v12), He may remove a lampstand from a church that continues to ignore His Word (Revelation 2:5).

Just as Asaph pleads for God to remember the vine (v14) so should we. We know that Jesus Christ is the true vine, and the good shepherd. He prunes the branches that don’t bear fruit, but He also seeks out the lost sheep. We can plead with him to restore.