Bible Studies

The Burgeoning Refrain

by Terry Barlow
09/23/15
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  Notice the refrain  recurring for us in the text of the 80th psalm, how it seems to swell to greater and greater proportions, if that were possible,  and to gather momentum.   First in verse 3: “Restore us, O God, cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! ” (NKJ)  Then in the 7th verse it begins, ” Restore us, O God of Hosts, and cause your shine and we shall be saved!” So we see that God has now been joined by His Hosts.  I like to think of God as smiling when He causes His face to shine, since that is what our human faces often  do when we genuinely smile, and we are made in His image!  Then at last in verse 19 this blossoming burgeoning, gathering refrain begins, “Restore (or turn us.) us O LORD God of hosts: Cause Your face to shine….”  Now the refrain grows to include the personal covenant name of Yahweh which in many translations is  represented by LORD in capital letters.  So it or shall we say He went in the mind of the psalmist in verse 3 from being God to God of Hosts to the personal, faithful covenant keeping Yahweh God of hosts, and it doesn’t get any better than that for him or for us!

  I watched an athletic contest recently when in the final quarter the home team seemed to have the game won and all the momentum flowing its way, until a very costly fumble occurred due to a blow delivered from the blind side which suddenly shifted the momentum, and that home team could never regain it.  They lost a game they essentially had in their pockets as it was ripped away and stolen from them at the end.  We must be careful in these times when the hour is late, but if we as a people are being restored and turned by Yahweh God of hosts to whom we cry, the momentum and the victory that belong to Him will also belong to us and, as the end draws near, He will not ever permit it to be stolen.  Hallelujah!   "For you have died ( If we're reborn, we died with Christ! My parentheses) and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."  (Colossians 3 v3-4)