Singing Psalm 80 it’s worth the wait
Updated: 6 days ago
Singing Psalm 80 it’s worth the wait wading through the wrongs
The triune God gave you a life where wrongs are on their way to being redeemed even as they happen. Knowing this, you can look ahead to the transformation convinced it’s worth the wait. It’s like a child who can wade through the peas knowing that the dessert is worth the wait.
When in a conflict, picture catching the words from the other person like a ball thrown toward you and immediately casting it onto the Lord who pours down just the right blessing in just the right measure for both of you according to the needs.
He is the God of armies who fights for his people to win his favor by turning their hearts to himself instilling meekness where combativeness was. Jesus takes hearts of stone and remakes them into hearts of flesh and promises that anyone born of water and the Spirit will enter the kingdom of God.
Singing Psalm 80 it’s worth the wait enduring through the sufferings
When you think of water, you might think you have a sense of control over its use. Sometimes you feel rejuvenated after a shower energized to get to the day’s activities. Your thirst might be quenched or you might use it to play in, to swim in, or to get clean.
You might be pelted with hard rain as conflicts continuously barrage your soul. Like in flood waters rising, you might be drowning in sorrows and sufferings of one kind or another. Jesus promises that in this life you will have trouble. Things won’t necessarily go as you would like them to. You might not yet be the person you hoped to become. Knowing this, you can prepare yourself to be alright with it when your will is crossed.
But whether the trouble is from outside of you or from within, you can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world both inside and out. Submitting to Jesus, he frees you to ride in a boat without holes on a river ultimately leading you to a place without suffering.
Trials are bearable if you remember that they aren’t static but part of a moving continuum. The Lord is moving you to a glorious destination on the river of life that is worth the wait with peaks and valleys along the way. He enables you to enjoy the ride even through a river of tears.
Singing Psalm 80 it’s worth the wait landing home where all is right
Walking in the Spirit of Jesus, you can perceive that he has been with you wherever you have gone. He has led you to where you are now. He is leading you to wherever you will go. You don’t know exactly where the next steps are taking you. He settles you to be fine with the unknowns. It’s worth the wait knowing that your good shepherd knows. He is leading his sheep to green pastures and still waters even through the valley of the shadows of death.
Those who are seeking riches or fame might or might not get them in this life, but those who seek the Lord will surely find him. You don’t have to fear anything that is frightening because you can trust that he will reward you for seeking him with himself. And he is the very greatest reward turning everything on its head.
Those rich in material things might just be poor if that is their only treasure. Those who are poor in stuff might be rich if their treasure is in things above. Search the names of those preaching “the prosperity gospel.” You can avoid wolves in sheep’s clothing by following the Lord Jesus who did not go after gaining worldly wealth but in losing his life, he found it not only for himself but for all who would follow him.
Finding and having the triune God as your God is your success, your riches, your only hope.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” ~ Romans 12:2
Singing Psalm 80 you are reminded three times that when God shines his face upon you, you will be saved. Saved from yourself, the penalty of your sins is marked ‘paid-in-full’ by the Lord Jesus. When he brings you out of darkness into his wonderful light, nothing is the same. No matter how long and twisted a journey you have had, it will have been worth the wait.
It’s worth the wait that the vinedresser has great plans for his vine, spiritual Israel, his church, as he plants, prunes, and uproots it for replanting in the best soil where it can grow and live perfectly right. He turns his people from evil to do good with no dead branches.
The Father designated that Jesus become the vine who makes it so his branches won’t wander from him but instead live in him.
When Jesus speaks of living water that he would give his people so that they would never thirst, he is speaking of the Holy Spirit. Ask him for this living water and expect that nothing will be the same as the triune God so completely satisfies you.
Jesus is directing his people, his church, his bride, to their forever home with him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit that is more than you could ask or imagine and well worth the wait.
“Lay Your hand on him You favored,
Son of man that You raised in strength.
Then from you we will not wander;
Make us live; we will call Your name.
O Lord God of Armies, turn us back;
Shine Your face on us, we’ll be saved!” ~ Psalm 80:17-19
October 22-28, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
April 3, 2025
“The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the LORD had prospered his journey or not.” ~ Genesis 24:21
And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” ~ Genesis 26:22
“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” ~ Galatians 6:8-9
Question: How can I keep from being blindsided?
Heart reflection: Jesus will turn you back to seek his face whenever you hide, mask, or look away from him, whenever you rely on your own hand to save you. Thinking you know more than your maker what’s best for you places you unwittingly in the enemy’s direct line of fire. Overprocessing, overthinking, and trusting your own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and desires can be likened to wearing blinders through life. Like a sheep without a shepherd, like one groping around in the dark, you are prone to go astray. You therefore need to be led. You need a Lord. Jesus is your Lord, your commander-in-chief in the fight to know him, follow him, and stay close to him. Like Abraham and Isaac, you can’t ever save yourself or anyone else. You therefore need a Savior. Jesus is your Savior who paid-in-full the penalty for your sin. He seeks no repayment from you yet he requires that your whole heart be his. Give your attention to the fact that what he requires is what makes you superlatively happy, like a child who obeys his loving mother and father. After you cry out to the Lord casting your anxieties upon him, wait on him. Don’t take them back upon yourself after a time. They will always be too much for you. Leave every worry with your Lord, the only one who saves! God waits for you. He is worth whatever time it takes to learn of him and wait for him. Until he makes clear what to do, hold your peace in silence. Cling to Jesus. Eagerly trust his word. The Holy Spirit is prospering your way to keep you alive thus far. The Father is preparing and making room for you in the life to come. So don’t give up seeking his ways. Sheep need a good shepherd to lead them. Trusting you can save yourself is the blind spot to address. When you are tempted to go your own way or to follow anyone that opposes God’s ways, cry out to Jesus, the good shepherd. He is the light of the world who will show you himself and keep you from being blindsided. He will lead you out of darkness and into green pastures. He will lead you home.
“Lay Your hand on him You favored,
Son of man that You raised in strength.
Then from you we will not wander;
Make us live; we will call Your name.
O Lord God of Armies, turn us back;
Shine Your face on us, we’ll be saved!” ~ Psalm 80:17-19
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The Psalms—Q&A
“O how long, LORD God of Armies
Burns Your wrath at Your people’s prayer?” ~ Psalm 80:4
How does the Lord Jesus leading me to sing Psalm 80 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
Singing Psalm 80 places you on a bridge to the hope of connection to God when there would otherwise be no possibility of it.
“Why have you torn down its fences?”~ Psalm 80:12a
“Turn again, O God of Armies,
Look from heav’n, visit this Your vine.” ~ Psalm 80:14
God restored the protection he once withdrew by sending his Son, Jesus, who gives you life:
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” ~ John 15:4
You don’t pray for wisdom?
Yes, but wisdom is a person, not a thing that you can boast about. You live in Jesus as a bird navigates in the air or a fish in the ocean. You can’t even breathe without Jesus!
Walls provide separation and prevent connection. Fences provide structure and prevent chaos.
Have you attempted to rip control from God your Shepherd by taking the reins and rushing headlong into pigheaded supremacy, sexual immortality, or the debaucherous flavor of your choosing? Have you taken your eyes off what God has done in his creation and live to serve idols? Or if a man or a woman doesn’t desire to sin as the worst men and women do, they’d be badly mistaken to assume that because they don’t identify with a particular flavor of evil that they were born into the wrong body! If male, becoming female (if that were possible) wouldn’t make you better. If female, becoming male (if that were possible) wouldn’t make you better. Why think on and be distracted by the sins of men and women? What good is it to make vain attempts to trade the sins of one for the sins of the other!
Instead, praise God for the gift of understanding, that you would trust him in the dark, that you would let go of attempts to control who God made you to be but rather embrace it! You will transform not from one evil to another but from one level of glory to another as your identity rests in Jesus who redeems your life from the pit! Do you think God has made a mistake in how he made you and what he’s had you go through such that you endeavor to tear down the fences of who he has made you to be in his goodness?
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” ~ Acts 4:11-12
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.” ~ Genesis 1:27
And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” ~ Mark 14:60-62
In his goodness, singing Psalm 80 transports your mind connecting spaces from earthly places to transcending thoughts of care. As a soldier tuned in to the voice of his commanding officer who knows who he is and stands firm in the face of false accusations and opposition, Jesus leads you from fierce battle to peace at home.
“God, we pray, O turn us, bring us back;
Shine Your face on us, we’ll be saved!
God of Armies, turn us, bring us back;
Shine Your face on us, we’ll be saved!
Lay your hand on him You favored,
Son of man that You raised in strength.
Then from You we will not wander;
Make us live; we will call Your name.
O LORD God of Armies, turn us back;
Shine Your face on us, we’ll be saved!” ~ Psalm 80:3,7,17-19
In your union with Jesus, do you remain worldly and perverse, an evildoer living in idolatry, an object of God’s wrath?
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ~ Romans 8:37
Does not God’s perfect justice and mercy enrapture you with awe and adoration, with wonder and worship?
Ask Anna, the prophetess, a widow who worshipped night and day, fasting and praying: How did having to wait for God’s deliverance teach you to trust him?
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
October 9, 2026
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