Turn Us, Return to Us, O God
Chad Johnson
October 29, 2010

"Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." Psalms 80:3 KJV

"Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: Look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine." Psalms 80:14

This Psalm was written by Asaph. Israel had come to a sad place in their national life. They had turned from God and were judged by God turning from them. They were in captivity to their enemies. America and the Lord's true church are in captivity to sin and spiritual deadness. The tragedy of it all is that we don't even seem to know how far we are from the God of scripture.

First, I want to look at Asaph's plea to be turned back to God. He did not say turn us from captivity, but turn to us, We will not be delivered from judgment until we turn from the sin that brought the judgment.

A true turning from sin is what must first happen. We cannot turn ourselves, but must be turned by God. When the Lord turns His people will soon turn their condition. The Lord must turn us. Our conversion is as divine as our creation.

Our second verse is a prayer and plea for God to return back to them with His visitation. Job says that the visitation from the Lord would preserve us. Israel is compared to a vine that had been delivered from Egypt. The Lord had planted them and their root ran deep and they filled the land. Israel was truly blessed by God. However, their departure was their downfall. Oh how we need God to visit His vine, the people of His vineyard. The branch here represents the coming Messiah. Though the vine is weak, Lord have mercy on us for the strong branches sake. Since the church is Christ's, we pray, Oh God, help us, turn us, return to us for Jesus sake. Amen.