Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - God's Gracious Discipline | The Writings | Psalm 80

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Have you ever encountered a season of God's discipline? Has God ever used events in your life to teach you a lesson? What if that lesson could keep you from destruction? In today's episode, Patrick looks at Psalm 80 which points us to the one man who bore God's discipline so that we might have renewal and restoration. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 80

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Before I had children, I thought I was a patient person. If I made a list of sins when I was 25, I would have never included anger. I mean, not even in the top 10. But then I had my daughter. And before she could even speak, before I could even reason with her, before I had any reasonable reason to even be a tainty-tiny-tiny-bit-angry with her, while my anger, it suddenly came to life. You see, it turned out that I am actually an angry person. I just had such a comfortable life that I had very little to be angry about until I had kids. And now, all of a sudden,

I had an infant who kept me up at night, who wouldn't fall asleep, who wouldn't take her bottle, who in every possible way I could imagine, didn't really care at all about my big adult schedule preferences or comfort. And it turns out that when those things got threatened, my anger flared. By God's grace, I never took out my anger on her in any visible way, but internally, I was seething. Sometimes I'd find myself leaving her room, and I'd throw a toy or a pacifier on the ground in anger. I remember one time I was leaving by myself from her house, and I found myself punching the steering wheel because I was so frustrated. I was angry, and my anger was wrong. It was sinful, because I was angry that my daughter was threatening my idols. Idols, I didn't even realize I was

worshiping, idols like myself, my comfort, and my schedule. And then, a lot of strange things started to happen. Things started to break. In a week, it seemed like everything in my life was falling apart. My iPhone inexplicably just stopped working altogether. My computer went kaput. A deer ran into my car and totaled it out of nowhere. And after the car incident, I felt this strange sense of clarity. Almost as if God was speaking to me, but this thought came into my head. If you can down the path of anger, you will break far more than phones and cars. You'll break relationships. You'll break your life. It was clear that all the strange things going wrong were a form of discipline from God. To wake me up from my own idolatry, my own sinfulness. They were an act of

God's mercy wrapped in a brief moment of God's judgment. Now, I'm not saying that every time things go wrong, it's a sign that you've done something wrong. In fact, much of the time it's not. Don't forget, we just finished the book of Job. And that's the That's precisely the kind of bad advice his friends gave him. But just because that's not always the case doesn't mean it's not never the case. God in His mercy often disciplines us, not to punish us for sin, but to renew us and to sanctify us. Psalm 80 is a Psalm written by Asaph, and in it he laments the ways that the people of Israel

are suffering under God's discipline. And it's clear that they're suffering under his discipline because of their own sin. And so it's a prayer praying that the discipline would come to an end. and that it would be replaced by repentance in renewal. Let's read it together. Hear us, Shepherd of Israel. You who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit enthroned between the cherubim,

shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Awaken your might. Come and save us. Restore us, O God. Make your face shine on us that we may be saved. How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears.

You have made them drink tears by the bullful. You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors and our enemies mock us. Restore us, God Almighty. Make your face shine on us that we might be saved. And now the psalmist is going to break from this cry for God to end his discipline to speak about the past for a moment, back when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and during the Exodus, God set them free. Verse 8.

You transplanted a vine from Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches, and its branches as far as the sea. It shoots as far as the river. Of course, the psalmist is talking about the people of Israel themselves. But then he goes on and he says, why have you broken down its walls? So that all who pass by pick its grapes, bowers from the forest ravage it, the vine, and insects from the field feed on it. return to us God Almighty look down from heaven and see watch over this vine the root your right hand has planted the sun you have raised up for yourself your vine is cut down it is burned with fire at your

rebuke your people perish you see we have to pause here the psalmist is clear this is discipline yes it might be the nations that are oppressing them it might be the nations that are subjugating them but in the end he says it's at your god's rebuke that your people perish he continues let your right hand rest on the man at your right hand. The son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you. Revive us and we will call on your name. Restore us, Lord God Almighty.

Make your face to shine on us that we might be saved. Perhaps you're going through a period of discipline right now. Perhaps God is trying to awaken you to the destructiveness of your anger, your lust, your materialism, your greed, selfishness, pride, or gossip. And perhaps you're exactly where Asaph was. You're crying out to God. How long will this go on? How long will things keep breaking? How long will my job be hard? How long will I keep hurting? How long will I be sick? And I think Asaph tells us that this is an okay prayer to pray, but he also shows us the direction such a prayer needs to go. We should not merely say, God save me. Instead, we should say, God save me. I repent of my sin. I turn back to you, revive and renew me. Or in the words of Asaph, then we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name, restore us, Lord God Almighty, make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. It's interesting that the psalmist believes this can only happen when God's hand rests on the son of man whom

he has raised for himself. That's the exact language that Asaf uses. And in Asaph's day, this son of man figure would have been the king of Israel. But restoration, renewal, and repentance, they didn't come from any ancient king of Israel. Instead, this Psalm is pointing forward to the future king who would be perfectly holy and who would be untainted by idolatry. This Psalm points us forward to Jesus because it's only when God's hand is upon Him and he is raised from the dead that we can repent and be renewed by his grace and mercy. You see, that's the key thing to remember in the midst of discipline. God doesn't cut you to punish you. He's already punished our sins in Christ. God cuts to heal. So if you're in a period of discipline, praise God

because his hand is already on the risen son of man, Jesus. And in Jesus, your repentance leads to renewal.