Let's take up our Bibles and read from Psalm 80. The Word of God, Psalm 80, to the chief musician set to the lilies, a testimony of Asaph, the psalm. Not much is known of the inscription set to the lilies. Certainly sounds beautiful. It's a testimony of some lilies of God, some beauties of the gospel of God. Of that we can be assured. This is the Word of God here. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Stir up your strength and come and save us. Restore us, O God, cause your faiths to shine and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? You fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in great measure. You have made us a strife to our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. You have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the nations and planted it. You prepared room for it and caused it to take deep root and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow and the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the sea and her branches to the river. Why have you broken down her hedges so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it and the wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech you, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven and sea and visit this vine and the vineyard which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made strong for yourself. It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your countenance. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will not turn back from you. Revive us, and we will call upon your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts. Cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. Thus far we read from the word of God, which speaks here of both blessedness and distressedness for the people of God. It's striking how many of the Psalms do that. They speak of the blessing of the people of God, to remind the people of God that they are so blessed, but then they speak of the distresses of the people of God. And it's so bad that according to the psalmist, this is need or the call for revival. Israel at this point, we're not sure the setting. It could have been a record of the reflection upon the northern tribes being brought into captivity. And so in 722 BC, there was the Assyrian horde that ravaged the vine of God, and especially the northern 10 tribes that had rebelled from the house of David. But we don't know. But it's a case of being blessed, realizing that Jehovah is still the shepherd of the sheep. being greatly distressed. And so we want to consider this psalm along those lines of the duality of blessedness and distressedness as we consider also that at this time in Psalm 80 is recorded a response to the blessing and a response to the stressing of the people of God in a threefold way, a threefold prayer. In fact, united by this common theme, it's a prayer for revival. So you look at verse 3, restore us, O God, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. That's the first prayer for this. And then 7, restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. And then the last of the intense prayers that are made, that is verse 17 and 19, which is our text. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will not turn back from you. Revive us. That's what these prayers are all about. Revive us and we will call upon your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts. Cause your face to shine and we shall be saved. We want to consider here what I would call the revival of the Church. You could say it's more specifically a prayer for the revival of the Church. But here we want to consider that subject and, of course, the prayer, but in the context of the great subject of the revival of the Church. First of all, we want to consider those two dual truths that pertain to every child in Church of God, blessedness and distressedness, and then how we're led in these last prayers of verse 17 and following to remember, to pray, and to remember and to pray that God would remember his right hand, his right hand man. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand. That's what he says. That's how he prays. And then finally, the response of the revived, which he assures God will be that we will not turn back from you. We shall serve you and no other God. So may God bless us as we consider the revival of the Church, our revival, the revival of the Church of all ages, and for such a time as this. The Church is blessed. Let me count the ways. We are blessed. In fact, the psalmist here once got himself to recall the days of old when they were blessed, and he speaks of the shepherd of Israel and having ears. And so in the midst of the distress, the psalmist hasn't forgotten the blessedness, and that's so very important. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, he says, reminding God, reminding himself, stirring up his own soul to remember God is still the shepherd of Israel. No matter if we've been led down certain dark paths or circuitous paths that don't seem the straight way to heaven, but maybe even the way to hell, God is still the leader and He's still the shepherd and the shepherd of this people Israel. In fact, the psalmist recalls different ways that God had blessed the people, you who led Joseph like a flock. Joseph remembered the wonderful eldest son of the beloved Rachel. And so that God used Joseph and his being sold into Egypt to care for the people of God in the distress of the famine of the whole world at that time. and to lead them down into Egypt. And so God was leading Joseph, and he's now here, he's the name used for the whole people of God, but he's certainly a leader. God used Joseph, and there was a flock that was gathered and preserved in Goshen for some 400 years, even though they suffered terrible injustices and persecution at the hands of the Egyptian. And then it seems that the psalmist here, it doesn't seem it's true. He recalls another way that God had blessed Israel, not only in their formation, but in their institution as a people with a place of worship. If you look at the second half of verse 1, God now is said to dwell between the cherubim, and he's as to shine forth and to shine forth his own presence and favor on the people of God as he had in the past. No little benefit is the people of God's knowing the presence of God in this Tabernacle, that's a reference to the tabernacle blessing of God, the cherubim being on either side of the mercy seat, God showing himself to be there in the holy place as with Israel and no one else. And so it seems he's recalling as well the time of the wilderness. Now in the distress, they're fed the bread of tears and given tears to drink and so on. But remember, in the wilderness, they were given manna, and they were given the water from the rock. And now it's contrasted with the bread of tears and the tears to drink in great measure. But then especially the blessedness of God's being with the people in the land of promise. Verse 8 and following, metaphor shifts from shepherd and sheep to God being a vine dresser. The husbandmen of this thing called the vine, Israel is the vine, of his own planting. You brought that vine out of Egypt, he says in verse 8, and you've cast out the nations. And there's a reference to the conquest of Canaan. God taking the land and making a place for this vine to grow, planting the vine there, preparing the soil, causing it to take root, deep root, and filling the land and flourishing so that it covered the hills with its shadow and mighty cedars with its bows, and then to the sea and to the branches of the river. So there's this flourishing of the people of God, the blessedness of the people of God. Now that's something we've been seeing in our psalm series that we need to take to heart. And the psalmist is taking heart in this. In the midst of distress, there's blessedness still. Well, maybe not experiencing it, but look what God has done to this, has done to the people to be their people, the God of Israel. And now, of course, we think of that and how God has blessed us. And again, now I count the ways in the light of the New Testament. God has blessed us in Jesus, beloved, with the forgiveness of sins. and that which the people of God knew, but only in part. And when the promise was not yet fulfilled, so now we know in fullness, the fullness of God with us, the fullness of God who's the good shepherd, who's Jesus the good shepherd, as he says in the gospel according to John. And so you have Jehovah God revealed in Jesus, and the church of all ages, and now of the New Testament especially, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. forgiven all our sins, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, made still like a vine to prosper, to be planted as churches, as the church spiritual that we believe in, but as instituted churches, planting our roots deep in the truth of the Word of God. giving us the preaching of the gospel, giving us the sacraments, giving us office bearers to rule over us in power and in mercy on behalf of Jesus. And then there's, well, nothing less than the glory of Jesus that is something we partake in because he is delivered for our sins risen for our justification, and is ever at the right hand of God, praying for us and blessing us as he would seek to apply the benefits of the cross. So we're blessed, and the church of all ages is blessed. And remember, we've been seeing, this is a very important thing to understand about reading your Old Testament, these blessings of this people Israel are the blessings in the bud of the Church of Christ of all nations. And the blessings that they have promised are the blessings that we have realized in Christ Jesus. The beginning here of heaven, now the blossoming of everything that God promised in type and shadow, in persons and places like cherubim, mercy seats, holy places, wildernesses, and the land of the promise in Palestine. So here it is, a lesson. Now ponder that, beloved, anew, what the Almighty has done and can do because he's the blesser of Israel. And you'll note, even though the situation of Israel has changed, And apparently, it seems that these blessings are coming, and it's a mixed thing to be the people of God. Yet still, the psalmist says, to God, oh great shepherd of Israel, remember us. Because the fact is that God is leading this people into distress. And again, we don't know the situation of this, but you think, for example, of the fact that they are the vine. Well, the vine now is, being rooted out, and God is said to be behind the rooting out of this vine from the land. Verse 12, why have you broken down her hedges? All the protections from the foxes and so on, God has broken them all down and the vine is being exposed to the enemy. And all who pass by the way pluck her fruit. And the boar out of the woods, the wild beast uproots it. The wild beast of the field devours it. And so on. And it's even burned with fire, verse 16. It's burned with fire. It's cut down. And God's in the midst, even though there's people he's using, that's the reference, the wild beast and the boars, the male pigs, they are a reference to maybe the Assyrians, but all of the enemies of God. Was it where they take the land over, and now they're fighting among themselves? They're striving among themselves. Who's going to get the spoil? Who's going to get this land? Who's going to get this people to serve them, to be their slaves and so on? Of the people of God, the sheep are turned into slaves once again, and God, it seems, has forgotten to be kind. Just to remind you that this is situation terrible so that now the people were drinking in like water their own tears. This wasn't just the tears of a cursed creation that we work by the sweat of our brow. These are tears of the providence of God into which he leads his people. Distress, distress. And that's the other thing to remember about the people of God and ourselves as well. We're blessed and distressed. And it's always the case, always the case. God blesses his church and distresses his church. There are reasons of which we'll speak presently, but it's true, isn't it? It's true according to the Word of God. Jesus Himself says that even in the New Testament, in this world you will have much tribulation, much tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Jesus says as well in that whole picture in John 15 of the people of God being the branches of the vine, he speaks of the fact that this people of God, because they're branches of the vine, they're connected to Jesus, who's the true planting of God, they will suffer persecution and hatred So Jesus says, they hated me, they're going to hate you. You're connected with me. You're not drawing back from the front lines when the going gets tough to be a Christian. You're saying I believe in glory in the cross. Well then, distress for you. Opposition. All who are not for me are against me. and there will be division in families, there will be division in churches, there will be division between church and world and so on, and there will be this antagonism, and that's the battle of the ages. So the Old and New Testament testify together that this will always be the case. Always be the case. In fact, if it's not, The church should be reflective and wonder why. It's amazing to me how much of Christendom or Christianity, evangelicals, whatever, they think to be blessed is the only lot of the church with no distress. That, to me, is the result of a carnal gospel. Health and wealth. It's going to grow exponentially even. Heard the other day of a church down south, North Carolina, its budget for last year was over $108 million. Not its budget, that was the collections that were taken. $108 million, some 27,000 people a week at the worship services. Can you even imagine that? Anyway, not to question that megachurch's existence, but so often it's the case. A church like that will preach a gospel like that, that brings in the crowds and the numbers. And Jesus, long ago, went out the back door. This thing that God offers is offered to people and to their carnal desires, something easy, something distress-free, good esteem of yourself. But Christianity is not like that. The one requirement, Jesus says, to being a disciple other than following Him is to follow Him bearing your cross. suffering for righteousness' sake. That's why the Beatitudes are bookended almost with this, blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake. Blessed are those who in this world, even though they suffer the common ravages of a fallen world, not necessarily persecution, but who see this, however, as a chastisement of God, History long, it's been the way of the church. And whenever it's been just blessed without distressed, then the church has been led to see and to examine itself and say, should I beware lest all men speak well of me? Should I beware when it's going too good for me? Now, not to be suspicious when the church grows in outward ways. It's a great thing for a church. But may the gospel lead us wherever God will go. And that's the point. That's the point. God's the shepherd. In fact, God is the shepherd of Israel, and God now is feeding the people bread of tears, as the text says, and giving them tears to drink in great measure. God is making the people a strife to the neighbors. The God of blessing is the God of distressing. Now, why is that? Well, your fathers ought to know, and your mothers, you raise your children. You know that your children need a little distressing once in a while, don't they? It's called chastisement. It's called love with a rod, sparing not the rod, so that the children learn this, to believe in God. That's our calling. Lead them to the blessing which will be in the way of distressing, in the way of repenting and calling on self to deny self, and calling on self and stirring up the loins of faith in order to follow not where the flesh goes, but where Jesus says you go. That's the blessing and distressing of the Church of Jesus Christ. It's been that way history long. And it ought to be, because history long there's conflict until the very end of time when God takes us home. Then you rest. Then there's blessing and resting without distressing. Well, in the midst of it, the church prays for revival. Yes. Three times in our text, there's something like the word revival that's used. Three times in the psalm, restore us, O God, cause your face to shine, we shall be saved. Restore us, O God of hosts. Now he expands on the name of God, not just God, but God of hosts, referring perhaps to as being the creator God and also the provider God. Both things, God is the God of all these hosts, boars and wild beasts, and enemies of the church, and as well, friends of the Lord Jesus. Cause your face to shine, we shall be saved, and then our text. Restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine, we shall be saved. Revive us, we will call upon your name. All those ways. The psalmist is saying, you know what, we've been nigh unto death, O God, nigh unto death. We need you. We need you. Make us live again. Resuscitate us. We're being oppressed and pressed upon. The devil himself seems to be right on our chest. Something stifling are growing, and this prayer itself, it seems as if the psalmist is saying, is made, and I'm sighing as I pray, and I'm dying as I pray, and I need you desperately, oh God. We need you desperately. Restore us, Lord God of hosts. Revive us, and we will call upon your name. And there's one thing. that makes this prayer unique among all of the other prayers for revival, like Psalm 85, there's other ones. And it has to do with the psalmist remembering the right hand of God. Look at that, verse 17. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you've made strong for yourself. Couple of things about that. First of all, we know, and we usually say this, to be right hand of God or at the right hand of God is to be the strength of God. It's a symbol of strength. God by his mighty arm and by his right hand slays the enemies. He's almighty, powerful, and when God is aroused in His anger, look out, enemies. He's got this right hand and this man of His right hand. Now, it's striking that that could be a reference to the leaders of Israel. For example, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, who are mentioned here in verse two. Benjamin itself means son of the right hand. Could be a reference to this one, this fond one of Jacob, this one who was so important to Jacob, the child of his old age, Rachel, that he said, if he dies, I die. Jacob's life was so wrapped up in Benjamin's life, and when he'd heard that he died, it was like he died. And when he found that there was this recovery, then he would live. Be that as it may, we know who the son of God's right hand is, don't we? That's Jesus, and that's what The response is, first of all, to those who are knowing the blessing and the distressing of God. There's this right hand that God has, secret weapon. You know about that, children, secret weapons? And you bring them out, the video games, whatever, and the secret weapon is something that will be used to conquer the opponent. It's been real life, too. Secret weapons, stealth bombers, all kinds of things brought out, the latest of technology to vindicate the cause of those who have the weapon and to triumph over the enemy. Well, God has a secret weapon. It's called his right hand. It seems for a while that he holds his hand behind his back. This right hand, whose son of his, whose man He's had, as it were, behind his back something hidden in his counsel, but something that is so very important in his will, his counsel, his decree for all the nations to show that he's the God of Israel, to bless them even in the way of distressing them, to bless them, let's say it gospel terms, through this God who will come to be a man and take on himself the stress of the wrath of God because he becomes sin for the people Israel. This is Jesus. Somehow the psalmist is led in this amazing prophetic psalm of revival to the one in whom there will be revival if he's there, if he's real, and without whom there will not be revival if he's not there. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. Beloved, this is the wonderful truth of Jesus, who, like Benjamin, was beloved of God, of all the other sons. The eternal Son of God takes upon Him the human nature, the sin of the human nature, the wrath of God upon the sinful Israel. but is made strong in the humiliation. The son in whom God delights, the real Benjamin, the son of his right hand, the savior, is on the mind of God. He will make him strong even at the cross, even in hell, because God himself will be glorified in that son. and He will hold Him as it were behind His back no more, but exalt His own name in the exaltation of that Son, the Son of His right hand. Exalted to the right hand of God after this cross and after this humiliation, the hands of men and bearing the wrath of God for sinners, made strong. So now at the right hand of God, He prays for us. and he's over this whole world and his almighty power and over his church in grace and he's gonna apply by his spirit and truth all of the benefits of the cross and so this one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one on the internet listening in and hopefully coming to church one of these days because this is a part of the privilege of being a child of God is saved. And blessing shines through the distressing. And saved even so that there is revival. All because of the right-hand man. The one on the right hand of God who is the right hand of God. Revival, meaning new life. This people was alive. Revival is not regeneration. Revival is the fanning of regeneration. Revival really in the Scripture is the daily conversion, but in a big time and expressly needed because there's been a time when it seems as if the distresses of life and sins have taken over and we perish unless we have God blow on the embers of our fire. Blow on the sails of our boat that seems in the doldrums, the place where the winds go this way and that way, so that we go no way but nowhere. We're lost at sea. You ever feel like that, beloved? There are times in our life we really need a prayer just like this one. Revive us, Lord. times in congregational life, times in family life, times in personal life, times when you realize the life of God in Christ is all but out of me. And yes, you look at the boars and the wild beasts, but you realize you can't blame them. God sends them to chastise you. and me, and us. And gives us a season where, yes, it's like we are oppressed, and the wind is out of us, and the truth has no reality for us. There's no vibrancy anymore. And who wants to come by a fire that's that low? There's no warmth there. It's cold. Situation like the Church of Ephesus had. Revelation 2, I believe. Church there, remember, lost its first love. Danger of the candlestick being taken away. Whatever fire was left would be taken away from the Church of Ephesus. Somehow they'd compromised and they'd We're discussing more politics than the gospel or the weather or whatever we like to do than whatever God has liked to do and likes to do, loves to do. You see? Are we in a season like that? Are you? Yes, indeed, there's a way, and we have to remember this, that every day is a day for a need of revival. And every day is a need for this working of God and His Spirit to keep us from the killers, the killers. There's killers all around you, no? The spirits of the age may be floating around in this church hall. Spirits of the age are hovering over your work, they're hovering over your play, they're in your house, they're in your bedroom, they're in your car, they're in the store, all of these worldly things that would fill you so you're empty, empty of true spirituality. Lackluster is what we become, for sure, every day. We are prone to do this in times so prone that we give ourselves over to it, and it looks like the Church of Jesus Christ is all but no more. And the enemies are in glee, wondering how to divide up our garments. Have the spoils of the death of Jesus or the death of a church. or the death of a marriage. Yes, every day we need to pray, revive us, Lord, and we'll call upon your name every day, but in the name of Jesus, Remembering the right hand of God, so very important. This is the distinction really between true revival and false. Did you know there's lots of false revivals? I studied revivals in preparation for this sermon. I promised my wife, I promised myself I wouldn't be too negative. That revival is wrong, that revival, yeah, I would say that is certainly the fruit of my labors here, and we need to know that. If your revival would be a true revival, yours, ours together, may it be true. People even say that there's all kinds of revivals in the Bible, like Pentecost. Not really a revival, beloved. That's the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, after all. For God's sake, remember that. unique era in the time of the Church of Christ when the whole church was made to, yes, be revived, but this was another dispensation, another era when God would give the Holy Spirit and fan the flame of devotion and discover anew to a Peter and a John and the first disciples, and now to the church that's led by the Spirit, the truth as it is in Jesus. That's not just revival, that's gospel. So was there revival in the Azusa Street in the 20th century, which spawned the Pentecostal church? Well, what do you think? Was the so-called businessman's revival of 1857 and 58 Were 10,000 businessmen prayed during lunchtime for a while? Was that a revival? Was the recent one a couple years ago at some college that lasted for two, three weeks, was that a revival? Is a revival where people roll on the floors and talk like dogs a revival? Well, no. How about this, the Second Great Awakening in the United States, the 1820s to the 1850s, something like that. Well, beloved, be careful. Be careful. There's all kinds of carnal revivals, and there's what's called professional revivals, like by Charles Finney, Second Great Awakening. where he developed the anxious bench, and where he would call people at these tents and whatever through emotional tactics, anything to get a decision for Christ. And he was a heretic. Remembering the right hand of man, you see, was substituted in that time and in many other times when people were trying to get some kind of hype going and maybe collect 108 million dollars. What I say is substituted for the right hand man, simply man. Notice the psalmist doesn't say, Let your hand be upon man, or let man's hand be upon man, something like that. Whatever, that's different than the right-hand man of God's choosing. I mean, we remember Jesus, and how will that be? Well, I think maybe something like the First Great Awakening of the United States, 1730, 1740, and not the whole thing, and whatever. And I'm not really into revivals for special movements that God is going to do this and that at certain times. It's more this constant thing. But there was a man there, Jonathan Edwards, who had it right when he preached something like, there are sinners in the hands of an angry God. And that, in fact, I think, is remembering the right-hand man. You remember that sermon? You ought to read it. If you can get through it, it's dense, very thick stuff, Jonathan Edwards. Brilliant, but, and this sermon was effective. You know what he likened you all to and me all to? Spiders. Spiders dangling over a fire. And warning! was his sermon and exhortations, you spiders, you're going to burn in hell, unless you repent, unless you say enough of the half-hearted Christianity, enough of Christ and, and come clean with all the fakery your own. You're in danger of perishing. That's what the preacher said then. Now, that, beloved, is something preciously good and is the kind of sermons that makes for true revival. Now, are you called to repent here? Of course. You holding on to anything? You spider you? Anything of sin? Stop it. Stop it. Don't, don't, don't go on in that way. You're living, but you're as dead. You're praying, but you're as a powerless person Because you're just hesitating, you're not believing, you're not remembering the right-hand man, Jesus Christ, who's the God of salvation with us, the God of the cherubims, the God of Joseph, the God who's the true Benjamin. See that? Why do you hesitate to progress in faith? even if it means renouncing this or that or the other thing or person in your life and being just a Christian, just a Christian church. Remember the right hand man. That means remembering all of His Word, all of the doctrines, living by the doctrines. When's the last time you lived according to the doctrine of the atonement? as one forgiven. And so you show that by forgiving others? That's being revived by the right-hand man, by the right-hand man's teaching, by the word of the Bible. When's the last time You lived according to predestination, according to the doctrines of grace, according to the doctrines of sin, and really were repentant. How about the doctrine of prayer? This man, he's being oppressed. The boars, the beasts are having his way in the vine, in the vineyard of God. And he can't hardly take it anymore, but he's praying. And he's remembering the whole truth of God, and that's what he's gonna live by. And so he's confident he's gonna be revived, and this is my final point, beloved. He prays to God, let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself, then we will not turn back from you. Turn back to us, we won't turn back from you. Revive us, we will call upon your name. That will be the first. By the way, the first fruit of a revived church, you pray. You pray. All of us pray. That's life with God. It's the breath of the child of God, the breath of a marriage that needs revival, the breath of a revived consistory, council, minister, all of us, young and old, pray. And believe that God will answer because you're praying in the name of Jesus. And we will then pray in the name of Jesus. We will even call upon your name for Jesus' sake. Only God, as he says three times here, cause your face to shine upon us. We shall be saved and we shall be revived. Beloved congregation, shall there be the revival of the church Every day and for such a time as this, amidst the blessing and distressing, may God revive us, renew us in faith and confidence. God is the God of His vineyard. He's faithful. Amen. We pray, Father, that you would bless. Make your face to shine upon us. Restore us. to a vitality of spirituality that will not be missed by us, but rejoiced in by us. It will not be missed by the world. It knows a people whose God is the Lord, knows a people who are the apple of the eye of God. Lord, we pray, have pity upon us. Restore us to your favor. Draw us closer to you. Bless us together. As we walk out of this place, may it be with a lively step, a lively faith, a lively hope, and confidence in you. For Christ's sake, amen.