Please read Psalm 80 in your favorite Bible. I used the NIV to research these remarks.
Jesus is our light and our salvation.
The Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking trail in the US. It winds up and down the rugged Appalachian mountains and is 2,200 miles long. Imagine! It runs from Georgia to Maine.
Most people only tackle part of the trail, but if you’re really ambitious, the whole thing takes an average of 165 days to complete. It is just putting one foot in front of the other, right? Do that about 5 million times and suddenly you’re all done!
I mention this because it takes 365 days to hike through the average year. As the average American takes just 5,900 steps a day, the year is a journey of just over 2 million steps. That’s not half the distance down the Appalachian Trail.
This data helped me put into perspective what a “hike” a year of living can be. I am grateful that Christmas comes at the end of the year. Imagine how tedious life would be if we trudged through another year without anything more to celebrate than another one starting up? Depressing.
Nobody really thinks Jesus was born on Dec. 25, but I say, who cares? We need Christmas most at the end of the year and God bless it!
Similarly, the birth of Jesus Christ was the culmination of God’s plan for world salvation. We celebrate His birth because in that one baby God kept the promises He had made to His people. This Advent season we are going to uncover and explain some of the delightful promises of God in an unlikely place; the Psalms. In these worship songs we see the footprints that led to the Messiah whom God had promised to His people. It’s amazing to consider that the first part of this journey to salvation was literally taken in baby steps!
- Jesus is our Shepherd.
In Psalm 80:1-2 God promised He would send a Shepherd for His people. Although shepherding was a major occupation at the time, in their culture, being a shepherd wasn’t a glamorous/desirable vocation. In that respect I wonder why did God choose to represent Himself as a shepherd (PSS 23:1; ISH 40:11; JMH 23:1-3; 31:9; EKL 34)? He had at least two reasons.
One, because we are all like sheep. In Isaiah 53:6 it is written; We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; & t Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Sheep need a shepherd to survive. If the flock is to be successful, the shepherd must guide, protect, and care for them. Like sheep, we tend to wander off to do our own thing and get ourselves in calamity.
Two, because God is our leader. Shepherds need a protective and sacrificial attitude; God has demonstrated that spirit time after time. A shepherd leads from among the flock, not from a distance.
In this Psalm the nearness of God is implied in the phrase, ENTHRONED BETWEEN THE CHERUBIM. This refers to the statuary atop the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. These heavenly creatures faced away from one another with their wingtips pointing backward. They did not quite touch and the space between was considered to be the dwelling-place of God. All of this is meant to reassure us that He is in the midst of His people; He is intimately related to us.
JOSEPH is chosen to represent the people of God because, according to 1 Chronicles 5:1-2, the rights of the firstborn were taken from Reuben and awarded to Joseph instead. Also, Joseph is one of the holiest men in the Bible.
The psalmist calls on the SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL to AWAKEN to their plight and to SAVE them.
Anticipating the chorus (vs. 3, 7 & 19) in v. 1, the FLOCK asks the SHEPHERD to SHINE FORTH. When God appeared to His people, He appeared in His glory, in actual light.
We find the fulfillment of this problem in John 10:11-15, where Jesus called Himself THE GOOD SHEPHERD and told us what that meant. The Greek word translated as GOOD is kalos, which includes perfect competence and moral purity. Jesus is the Ultimate Shepherd.
Most importantly, it meant the GOOD SHEPHERD sacrificed Himself to save his sheep (11). Jesus gave His life on the cross to save us. For, unlike a hired hand, the GOOD SHEPHERD cares about the sheep (12-13). This “hired hand” was intended by Jesus to be a symbol of the Jewish religious leaders and an indictment of their leadership of the people of God.
The GOOD SHEPHERD knows His sheep and He knows God the Father (14-15). The Greek word for KNOW is ginosko, which implies a knowledge based on something more substantial than facts; it is also knowledge based on personal experience.
- Jesus is our Light.
A plea is made three times in this Psalm (vs. 3, 7, 19), a plea that becomes a promise of light to shine on God’s people. Three times the psalmist plead with God, RESTORE US, O GOD; MAKE YOUR FACE SHINE UPON US, THAT WE MAY BE SAVED. (See Numbers 6:24-26; Psalms 31:16; 67:1 for similar language.) If it helps, think of these verses as the chorus or refrain of the song.
To have God’s FACE SHINE UPON you meant to have God’s attention, experience His presence, and receive His blessing. When we endure trials it’s easy to feel lonely and wonder where God is. The purpose of His attention – as far as the psalmist was concerned – was to RESTORE and SAVE them. This is a plea for deliverance from their enemies and further, to bring them back to a place of favor.
According to v. 17, the FACE is that of God’s appointed representative; THE MAN AT YOUR RIGHT HAND, THE SON OF MAN YOU HAVE RAISED UP FOR YOURSELF (also in v. 15). At the time this prophecy was made, the readers would’ve understood that the MAN referred to here was the king and/or the whole nation of Israel. However, with the benefit of the New Testament, we have perspective to see that Jesus is this MAN. That is the prophecy God intended to convey. We see this cycle of prediction and fulfillment in the following details:
First, AT YOUR RIGHT HAND: the right hand being the position of power and influence in their culture as well as ours. Matthew 26:64; Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31; 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; and Hebrews 1:3 testify that in heaven, Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father.
Second, THE SON OF MAN is the title Jesus preferred to use for Himself, as we see often in the Gospels.
Third, God the Father RAISED UP Jesus in two senses; from birth to maturity He raised Jesus in a human body and also He raised Jesus from the dead.
We look to a couple of places in the Gospels as examples of the fulfillment of God’s promise in the chorus of Psalm 80.
In Matthew 17:1-2 it is written, After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. (See 2 Peter 1:16-18 for Peter’s account of this event.) This is the literal fulfillment of Psalm 80. The face of Jesus literally shone brightly on three of His disciples.
This supernatural event was accompanied by a voice from heaven identifying Jesus as God’s Son, the Father was pleased with Him, and they were to LISTEN TO HIM. This is called the “Transfiguration” because of the supernatural change in Jesus’ appearance. Its purpose was to fulfill prophecy and confirm Jesus’ claims He was God’s Son.
In John 8:12 we read, When Jesus spoke to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Here Jesus used LIGHT more as a figure of speech than a literal luminescence. The LIGHT is a symbol of the goodness, truth, and glory of God. In Jesus, God the Father was present and the truth was revealed in His teachings.
DARKNESS symbolizes the evil and falsehood of this world where it is ruined by sin. It is the opposite of the character of God and the righteous standards to which He calls us.
Jesus is our light and our salvation.
Not everyone embraces the rapidly-changing world of social media. I, for one, will not surrender my 90’s vintage flip phone for a smart phone and only accepted the flip phone under duress. But even I can see a couple positives in social media.
First, of all the technologies that could have experienced this unprecedented change rate of change, I’m encouraged that the one people chose the kind of technology that empowers our communication. We could’ve been crazy about solar-powered vehicles or sunk a lot of research into robots or space travel, but the market chose phones. This is proof to me that people want companionship. We need and want to be heard and to listen.
Second, it has enlarged our definition of “neighbor.” The Internet and all forms of social media have given us access to one another that defies geography. “Neighbor” no longer means just the people who live near us or our co-workers or family. We can access one another around the world literally at the speed of light. Deeds of darkness can be exposed to the entire planet in minutes.
Obviously, as a human invention, social media is capable of grave sins and presents serious dangers. It needs to be handled carefully and we’re still learning and feeling out the ethics of this kind of instantaneous and virtually unlimited access to each other.
The challenge social media presents to believers is to set an example in using it in the most God-honoring way possible. Though the media has changed, the message remains the same. We must let the world know that Baby Jesus became the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World so the world may be saved. During Advent, make full use of your Contacts list. Pray for them daily and contact them to proclaim Jesus as Savior.
wouldbbest 