“Restore us, oh Lord God of hosts. Let Your face shine that we may be saved.”
– Psalm 80:19
Now, Psalm 80:19 repeats multiple times in Psalm, chapter 80. Verse 3 says, “Restore us, oh God. Let Your face shine that we may be saved.” Verse 7, “Restore us, oh God of hosts. Let Your face shine that we may receive salvation.”
Though we do not deserve salvation, God has graciously delivered and saved us from our sins.
Verse 14, not the exact same language, but very similar. “Turn again, oh God of hosts. Look down from heaven and see,” and then what I read at the beginning. The last verse in the Psalm, “Restore us, oh Lord God of hosts. Let Your face shine so that we may receive salvation.” Obviously, whenever we are reading through scripture, and we see a phrase or a word or a verse, even like we see here repeated multiple times, we’re getting a pretty clear clue from the Holy Spirit as to the theme of this chapter of what God is saying in His word at this point. And the whole picture here in Psalm, chapter 80 is a picture of our need for God’s face to shine upon us. Just think about that imagery in this psalm. “For the face of God to shine upon us.” What does that mean?
This Verse is a Picture of Salvation
Well, obviously, based on the context of this passage, the fact that it says, “Let Your face shine that we may be saved, that we may receive salvation. Let Your face shine, that we may be saved,” it’s a picture of God saving His people. Of God providing for His people, of God delivering His people, of God leading His people, of God helping His people. And all of these things are a picture of God’s face shining upon His people.
And the thought when you see, “Oh Lord God of hosts,” in Psalm 80, verse 19, the thought of the Lord Yahweh, the God of hosts. The God who created everything in the world, the omnipotent ruler of the universe. The creator and sustainer of all. Who commands a heavenly army, the Lord of hosts, the Lord God of hosts. Don’t you want His face shining upon you today, especially knowing that in our sin, we deserve the exact opposite? We don’t deserve salvation. We deserve judgment from the Lord, God of hosts. So to pray, this, in a sense, is what happens at the moment of our salvation.
We Need God’s Face to Shine upon Us
We turn, and we say, “God, please shine Your face upon me. Please save me from my sin,” and then we live every single day. When we wake up in the morning, our greatest need is for the face of the Lord God of hosts to shine upon us. So God, we pray for that today and all that that entails. We pray for Your face to shine upon us. God, I pray this in my own life. I pray this over every single person listening right now, who’s trusted in You for Your salvation.
Psalm 80:19: Asking God to Help Us
God, I pray that Your face would shine upon them today. If I could just intercede for them right now, God, I pray that Your favor would be theirs, Your strength would be theirs, Your help would be theirs. Oh God shine upon them with Your mercy, with Your comfort. Shine upon them with Your wisdom. Shine upon them with Your power. Oh God, shine upon them with everything they need today.
May they live in the fullness of Your face, shining upon them and may they know that this reality is theirs through Jesus, that they don’t have to earn Your face shining upon them, that this is a reality based on faith in Jesus, in Your salvation, that You have made this possible, Lord Jesus, for us. So may Your face shine upon them, me, us today and
God, we pray this. We pray this for more and more people, for people all around us, God, for people around the world. May Your face shine among the Burmese in Thailand, hundreds of thousands of Burmese in Thailand. God, we pray that these refugees who’ve been driven from their land. God, that they would know Your shining face, Your salvation. Lord, we pray that for them. We pray that for more and more people around us, that you would use us to share the gospel with them, even as we praise You, for the reality of Your face shining upon us today. Help us to live today in light of that reality, knowing this is our greatest need for Your face to shine upon us.
Jesus’ name, we pray the name of the One who makes this possible by Your grace, in His name we pray Psalm 80:19. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
