but I will read verses one through three and we'll reference other portions of it. So that's Psalms number 80. And for our reading, we'll read verses one through three. Beginning in verse one, it reads as follows. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might and come to save us, restore us O Lord and let your face shine that we may be saved. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now I know this particular Psalm, which is a Psalm of ASAP, the original purpose of the Psalm you'll see that the theme of it is restoration. Restoration of God's people, that theme is repeated at least three times, verse three, verse seven and verse 19. And that really, that sentiment of being restored is actually reflected throughout the entire Psalm. Now what exactly ASAP has as his point of reference for restoration, it's not really clear. He doesn't identify the particular incident. So when we speak of restoration or salvation because they are almost use synonymously here or interchangeably, when we speak of salvation or restoration, it could mean from a particular circumstance or situation. In other words, the Egyptian bondage and being set free from that is equated with salvation. Salvation there refers to being saved from Egyptian bondage or it could refer to the general fallen condition. In other words, the salvation of the soul from our fallen condition. Now ordinarily or in an ordinary sense, what ASAP is referencing here is salvation more than likely from a given situation. It could have been from one of Israel's enemies or one of the down periods, which he also alludes to in Psalm number 73, a period where the prosperity of the enemy was evident, but also the physical or financial depression of the people or also of the covenant people was also evident. So it could be from one of those circumstances. However, what I would like to do is look at this Psalm because ultimately it's still rest in the person of the work of Christ. And so what I want to do is extract from the words of ASAP here a proper anticipation and appreciation
of restoration or salvation that is in Christ. In other words, we want to see the proper anticipation and the proper appreciation for the Advent season, which of course refers to the coming of Christ. And that's how I want to look at this. I understand the nuances. I understand the historical context and the setting, but I would argue that since all of the scriptures ultimately are to point us to God's saving purpose and power in the person of Christ that we can extract the essence of the Advent from what is even here in Psalm's number 80. And so to do that, we want to look in three directions here. The first thing that we want to look at is how the Psalmist, ASAP in this case, how he appeals to God. In other words, ASAP's appeal to God is in light of the means that have been appointed by God. The way he approaches God is how he is consistent with the means that God has appointed by which he is to be approached. Now let me explain why that's important and then we'll look at how that is the case. The reason that's important is because fallen man, ever since the fall has some spiritual sense of his need for God. And fallen man continuously seeks to approach God on his own terms. And when we try to approach God on our own terms, we invariably create the context and even the character of the God that we are approaching, rather than approaching God as he is and as he has revealed himself. Now here's the biblical example of this. In Genesis chapter 12, we have the building of the tower of Babylon and what begins, what precipitates that building project is fallen humans looking at their condition and they are saying, you know what, we need to build a tower that reaches to God and this is their effort. In fact, some have argued this is the difference between and I hate this distinction, but they say this is between, this is the difference between religion and Christianity. And the reason I hate that distinction is because Christianity is a religion, but they would say the difference is Christianity as God comes down to us and religion is man reaching up to God. And I say, well, that's cute and all, but Christianity is a religion, but the difference of the Christian religion is that it is about God coming down to us revealing himself, whereas in Genesis chapter 12, we have the religious instinct of fallen humanity is to always reach out to God, always reach out to God. But here, we see that ASAF, and those that he represents, reaches to God according to the manner or means by which God has reached down to them. Let me show how that is demonstrated. It's seen in verse one where ASAF refers to God as being enthroned upon the cherubum, being enthroned upon the cherubum. What a wonderful image that God is enthroned upon the cherubum.
Now, this reference refers to the arc of the covenant. And if you know your Old Testament, you know that the arc of the covenant was this rectangular box that God instructed his people to build. And the box itself was a physical representation of God's presence among his people. That's what the box was. And there's a genius in that. There's a divine genius in that, because man, as Paul says in Romans chapter one, is quick to equate God with the creation, something within creation. So God is saying, and he says that we end up worshipping the creature instead of the creator. So what do we see? We see big birds and we are impressed by their strength and they become our God. We see winds, we see, or we see a big animal and they become our God. I spent time in Juno Alaska among the Lincoln Indian tribe and the Lincoln Indians, they were in their native religion. The God that they worship was the raven. And so throughout Juno Alaska, you would see these totem poles. And at the top of the totem pole, there was the head of a raven. And when you would see some of them in the garb of their religion, it included a raven's mass because they saw this, and you would see ravens throughout Alaska. And they were, it was beautiful to see them swoop down and pick a salmon out of the water or something, you know ravens. They were sort of predatory and beautiful and they became the object of worship. And here's what God says to his people, no, I'm not like a bear. I'm not going to, I'm not, I'm not like a lion. I'm not like an eagle. But here's how he depicts himself. Here's the symbol of my presence among you, a box. A box. Not an animal that's big and strong, but a box, a rectangular box. And on top of that box, God called it, it was a lid that was made out of gold. And on the top of that lid, there was on one end, a cherubum, which was an angelic being. And another one, on the other end, another cherubum with, which was an angelic being. And each cherubum would have wings. They would spread their wings out. And if you looked at it, this is the one end of the box. And this is the other end of the box. On each end, you had cherubum doing the same thing, bowing down, bowing down. Now, let me explain, look at Exodus chapter 25 versus 17 through 22. And we'll see what God says about that space, because the idea is that in that open space, where there was nothing, is God, is where God says, I will meet with you. And so looking in Exodus, Exodus chapter 20, 25, beginning in verse 17, Exodus 25 versus 17 through 22 reaches follows. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breath. And you shall make two cherubum of gold, of hammered work, shall you make them. One on the two ends of the mercy seat, make one cherubum on the one end and one cherubum on the other end. One piece of one piece with the mercy seat, shall you make the cherubum on its two ends. The cherubum shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces one to another. Toward the mercy seat, shall the faces of the cherubum be. And they shall, and you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. And notice this phrase, there I will meet with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubums that are on the ark of the testimony. I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. There's a song that says between the wings of the mercy seat is where God says I will meet with you. Now here's the thing. When sacrifices were offered, when it was time on the day of atonement or whatever the sacrifices, the blood sacrifices were offered, you know what the priests would do? He would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. Because the mercy seat was the place that God said he would meet with them and he would speak with them. The mercy seat, which was the ark, was the top of the ark of the covenant. And underneath the ark, you had, or underneath the mercy seat, you had the testimony of God or the commandments of God that the people by the way had broken. But on top of the mercy seat, you had the blood of atonement that covered them from the law that they had broken. In the new testament, the phrase that's used and Paul uses this in Romans chapter three is propitiation. Propitiation, which means to incur favor. And so the ark of the covenant itself represented the presence of God, but the mercy seat and that space in between the outstretched wings of the cherubim, which by the way is sort of a snapshot of what Isaiah sees in Isaiah chapter six verses one through three where Isaiah says he in the year that King Isaiah died. I went into the temple and I saw the Lord. High and lifted up. And he was seated on a throne and there were present other angelic beings, right? Angelic beings. And notice this says, and the whole earth was full of his glory. So here's three things that are communicated to the people about God from understanding and the mercy seat and the ark of the covenant were initiated by God. God says, if you want to know me, then you've got to know me through these means. And here's what God communicates, which is conveyed and understood in this idea of some what is understood about God from the idea of the mercy seat. Number one, they understand that God is King. Why? Because he's in throne. That's what it says in verse one. You, O Lord, are in throne and understanding that the mercy seat itself is sort of a snapshot of the universe. You are in throne where angels live. Your kingdom, your throne is not found, it's not like the thrones of this earth. You, O Lord, are King of the universe. The mercy seat was a symbol of God's sovereign reign, not over one dominion, but over all. And so they understood as they communicated with God that they are indeed dealing with the King. But secondly, secondly, we see that they understand from what God has revealed that God is, or even in the mercy seat, that he is the shepherd of Israel, that he's the shepherd of his people again in verse one. O shepherd of Israel. O shepherd, you and as a shepherd, that means not only is he King because he's in throne, but he's shepherd because he guides. And that's what he, that's what's conveyed here in verse one. O give ear, O shepherd of Israel who lead Joseph like a flock. They understand from what God has revealed through his appointed means, because again, if you look at the whole idea of the ark of the covenant, the ark of the covenant was to lead the people. In fact, it's a beautiful imagery when the children of Israel get ready to cross over the Jordan River. It says that it was high tide for the Jordan, but the Lord was leading the people through and so the priests, the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant which symbolized the presence of God that as soon as the feet of the priests touched the brims of the brim of the water, the water rolled back. The water rolled back, not because of the feet of the priests. No, it was because they were being led by the shepherd of Israel and the shepherd of Israel happens to be the king of the universe. And so if the shepherd needs to go through a river that's high tide, the king says move back. And so they understood from the imagery of what God uses to communicate his presence and his person among his people, they understood if nothing else, if nothing else, from the means that God has provided for knowledge of himself, they understand, and that's reflected in this Psalm that you, O Lord, are king, king of the universe, and the king of the universe is also the shepherd of Israel. But here's the third thing that's communicated from the ark of the covenant or actually from the mercy seat that seems to be grasped by ASAP in this particular Psalm. He understands that the God of the universe and the shepherd of Israel is gracious. He understands that he is gracious. The petition that reverberates throughout this Psalm is save us, save us. So what is it, if, listen, if the fact of the ark, which was to lead the people and every time they broke camp, they were supposed to take the ark and lead and what would be seen if you were to look at it from the top of a mountain, if you look down on traveling Israel, what you would see is a group of priests leading the caravan, carrying a box, and over that box was the cloud which represented the glory of the Lord, because he's the shepherd, but they understand that he's enthroned, so he's the king. But they also understand that he's gracious, and you know how they know he's gracious because the top of the mercy seat was to be sprinkled with blood, sprinkled with blood, and you know why it was to be sprinkled with blood because in the ark of the covenant was the law of God and the people that were worshiping him had broken his law, but they knew because the blood came from sacrificial animals and they knew that the God who was enthroned upon between the cherubum and the God who leads Israel is a God who can be appealed to for grace and how do we know because he receives their sacrifice and their blood, and so therefore they knew that God was gracious. Everything, not because of anything they made, but because of the means that God has given to them to communicate who he is, and so everything else that we see in this song flows out of the fact that the very fact of the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat has taught them that the sovereign creator or sovereign king of the universe is the shepherd, he's the shepherd king of his people and he is gracious and therefore you can approach him. Just think of this brothers and sisters, God who is so holy as Habakkuk says that he can't even so much as look at evil, but yet we know that he's gracious. Well here's the second thing that we see that points us towards the, and because all of that is important as it relates to the advent and the birth of Jesus, but but secondly let's look at what this song teaches about salvation because this song teaches that God is gracious to save, which is why they ask him to save. But what does this teach us about salvation? First off, we see that this song teaches us as they understand from the means that God has provided for them to know him, they understand that salvation is the result of divine power. Salvation is the result of divine power. Look at verse two in particular. He says, stir up your might and come and save us. Stir up your might and come and save us. Not me does halfway but your might, salvation comes from your hand. Brothers and sisters, don't ever get it twisted and think that Old Testament saints thought they were saved by their works. Every saint that is saved is saved because they know their salvation must come from the power of the Lord. This is reflected not only in verse two, but throughout the song, the whole idea is Lord, the power to save comes from you. The power to save comes from God himself. So he says, stir up your power. Think about that for a moment. Stir up your might in order to save us. Whose might are we talking about? We're talking about the king. The king who was enthroned above the cherubum. The king who has all power and all authority and can you imagine the boldness of individuals to save me? But that's exactly what God's provisions have given them the understanding of that the God who rules the universe is approachable. And he's approachable because it's only his power that can save. But secondly, we see that salvation from this song, salvation is necessitated because of external circumstances. In other words, there are a number of things in the created order that tell us we need to be saved. Looking verses four through six in particular, where the Psalmist says this, he says, oh Lord of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and you have given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Here's what we understand about salvation. Salvation, we need to be saved, not just because of our moral state. Our moral state, yes, that's an effect of our salvation, of our need to be saved. But here's really why we need to be saved because God's face has been turned from us and that's seen in all of our horizontal experiences and circumstances. So in other words, here's what they are doing. They are looking at the contentions they have with other nations as being evidence of their need to be saved. God's salvation consists in God's face shining upon us because the fact of thistles and thorns in our relationships is evidence that the face of the Almighty has been turned. All of the difficulties that we experience in our horizontal experiences are evidence of our souls' condition as being alienated from God because sometimes we forget, we forget just what our condition is. So we get up in the morning and we feel pretty good better than we did yesterday and we feel all energized and we haven't thanked God and we haven't prayed for salvation. And because our health is good and then we look in and we see that our stock paid off last night and so we got, they say, oh man, I'm good. And then we go to the doctor and the doctor says, boy, you are as fit as a fiddle and say, oh man, I'm good. And we will say that God's favor is upon us and here's what the Psalmist declares that the face of the Lord is away from us. That's what our condition is. We need to be restored to a state where God's face is turned towards us in favor because brothers and sisters, don't let your bank account lie to you. Don't let your good doctor's report lie to you. If you die in the state in which you are, you'll wake up in misery. Here's the problem, the face of the Lord is turned from you. And you might not think, why do you have locks on your door? Why do we have to have locks on our doors and windows? Because the face of the Lord has turned away. And so notice what the way that the Psalmist declares our fallen state. Our fallen state is a condition in which God's face of favor is turned away from us. So notice three times, three times in the Psalm. He says, restore, restore us again and cause your face to shine upon us. Verse three, verse seven, verse 19. The same refrain, the same refrain in each place. Here is what salvation consists of. Restore us, O God of hosts, and let your face shine that we may be saved. This reference to God's shining face is it can actually go back to the benediction, the priestly benediction. And this was the intent of that benediction in Numbers 6, verses 22 through 27. The Lord says to Moses, it says the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, thus you shall bless the people of Israel, you shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you and the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And the Lord says, so shall they put my name on the people, on the people of Israel and I will bless them. That's what God promises. I call that the gospel benediction. And that's exactly what it is. It's God promising. Here's what your problem is. Your problem is not the traffic jam. Your problem is not the thorns. Your problem is not your neighborhood. Your problem is that the one who is enthroned between the cherubum has turned his face from you. And he alone has the power to restore you. And brothers and sisters were not restored to the state in which God created us for in Adam were not restored until the face of the Lord and the things upon us. And we are received by Him. You see, that's the way this psalm declares what salvation consists of. I love the fact it doesn't talk about our moral status. Now, here's what it comes down to. All of these problems, look at all of those situations we mentioned. All of those situations is evidence of the favor of God turned away from his people and so the requests has restored us. By restoring us, that means look upon us. Look upon us and let us look upon you. But here's the third thing about salvation that's reflected here in this song. It seems clear that these individuals understand that salvation from God would be accomplished by a man. They never thought that they were the ones. We've seen that they have turned to God's power. They've asked, we've got to be the one to save us. Stir up your might to save us so that we could be saved. They never thought they were saved by offering animal sacrifices. They never thought they had the power to save themselves. They always understood. As they understood through the means of God as appointed, they understood that the salvation from God would be accomplished by an individual. Look at the way it reads in verses 17 and 18. It says, but let your hand be upon or be on the man of your right hand, the son of man, whom you have made strong for yourself. Now brothers and sisters, that speaks of one who is yet to come. Let all of your favor, let all of your power, let your right hand rest upon him because he is the one that will be able to accomplish everything that you've required of us. But then look at the fruit of this. It says, let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself, and then verse 18, then we shall not turn back from you. Give us life and we will call upon your name. Brothers and sisters, this is another way of looking at what we looked at last week in Hebrews chapter 10, where we are told that through him, through the one who was given a body by the Father, who is Jesus Christ when he entered into the world, and he says that sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have given me to do your will, oh God, by the doing of that will. He has sanctified forever those who are being saved. Brothers and sisters, those who are being perfected, we are being perfected, we have been sanctified. And so here's what these people understand through the means that God has appointed. They understand that the salvation, salvation, is a matter of God exerting his power. They understand that salvation is a matter of God saying, this and God doing that. They understand the reason we need to be saved is because God's faces turned away from us and they understand that God's salvation, or salvation from God, will be accomplished by a man. I like what David says, and I think it's the 63rd Psalm. He says, blessed is the man that you allow to stand in your presence. Blessed is the man that you allow to stand in your presence. Brothers and sisters, don't we have a right anticipation and a right attitude towards the coming of the Savior to recognize that you are the sovereign God, king of all things. The shepherd of Israel who is also gracious and Lord because you are gracious and we are reminded of your grace by the blood on the mercy seed and the part that we receive and the benediction that we can go in peace. Because here's what you're telling us and what you are going to give us in the gift of salvation is the man of your right hand in whom all of your strength is manifest and all of your purposes will be accomplished. So that brings me to the third thing that this Psalm points us to the coming of Jesus because Jesus is that man in verse 17 that the hand of the Lord is upon. He is the man of God's right hand. He is the son of man in whom the power of God will be manifest. And brothers and sisters, it is because of him that we are able to say, again, according to verse 18, we are able to say for assurance that then we will not turn back because brothers and sisters, every effort that we make to try to do that which is pleasing to God, we're up one day and down the next. Our growth in Christ, our growth in holiness is not a staircase that continuously goes up. I know that's the way we think, but we know. If you really want to look at your chart, if you really want to look at your chart, if you really want to look at the EKG of your righteousness, it ain't like that. No brothers and sisters is here, there, there. And you say, well, but I'm older, yeah, you still got some down. You still acting like you're not. But here's how we know that we will forever be accepted, that the one who dwells between the wings of the cherubum will send the man from his right hand who will accomplish everything that he has required of us and the power of the Lord will be upon him. And brothers and sisters, here's what we see in him, the face of God will be turned towards us. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6. He says, for God who said, let light shine in darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Yes, Christmas is about God's face being turned towards us and his grace being poured out for us on the blood of the mercy seat so that we with unfanged gaze may be able to look upon the glory of his son and know that his favor is forever towards us. Yes, save oh God, restore us, restore us, and cause your face to shine upon us. And when Jesus was born, the face of God was turned towards us. I pray that you would know that joy and see that light and that your comfort and knowledge would be that he who was the shepherd of Israel shall never turn his face from you because your faith is in his son. Amen.