Plea for Presence (Psalm 80)

On March 5, 1994, in the Salt Lake City Library an embittered man named Clifford Lynn Draper pulled out a .45 caliber semi-automatic weapon and a bomb, and proceeded to take several hostages into one of the library's rooms. Once there, he demanded cash, gold, platinum, back pay for prior military service, and a full presidential pardon. He then announced the order in which he would murder the hostages at specific intervals until his demands were met. Can you imagine the fear of those hostages, huddled in room together at the mercy of a madman? Can you imagine what desperate prayers were offered up to God in those tense moments?

Well, the prayers were answered. For in that room, was someone else, a man named Lloyd Prescott who had voluntarily offered to exchange himself with one of the hostages just as the gunman was herding them all into the room. And Lloyd Prescott was no ordinary citizen, he was a lieutenant in the Sheriff's department who had been teaching a class in the library that day. His identity was concealed by the fact that he was not in uniform, but in civilian clothes. His identity was not the only thing he concealed: under his clothes was his gun. After six tense hours, Lt. Prescott saw his chance, brandished his weapon, and shot the gunman five times, fatally wounding him. All the hostages went free, unscathed. Lt. Prescott was a hero that day in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation. He moved among the men and women he saved, he was there with them voluntarily. While there was a SWAT team assembled and waiting outside the room, Lt. Prescott, by his presence there with the hostages in their distress. As a trained, skilled, official of the sheriff's department, he became the most effective means for rescue.

Today's Psalm, which we read just a few moments ago, Psalm 80, is a cry, a plea which ascends to the throne of God as incense from the altar of the Temple, and was, no doubt, used liturgically in the Temple worship. It was chanted by the choir of Levites on the stairs which led up to the court of the priests before the House of God, many centuries before the coming of our Lord. The Psalm is a supplication to God for salvation, for rescue. It is a petition for restoration, restoration of the people of God who find themselves in a degraded condition. It is a prayer to God in the midst of troubling times when the enemies of God were strong and the people of God were helpless. And what exactly is the Psalmist requesting? How does he want God to intervene? How does the Psalmist want the rescue to be conducted? Well, simply put, the Psalm is a plea for presence. In his prayer the Psalmist begs for God to save by intervening personally; by visiting His people. He asks God to rescue and to restore, by coming Himself.

We can discern five movements in this prayer and plea. The opening section of the Psalm, verses 1-3 contains the first statement of the plea which is the burden of the entire Psalm. Its opening lines are rich and beautiful. The writer addresses God as the Shepherd of Israel, the God Who has guided His flock and tended to their every need in the long sojourn from the bondage-house of Egypt to the pleasant pastures of the Promised Land. And then the Psalmist calls upon God — referring to Him as the God Who sits enthroned above the Cherubim — to shine forth upon the darkened condition of His people.

The reference to the Cherubim is, of course, a reference to the Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest that sat in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and the Temple which was flanked on either side by carved images of Cherubim, those strange and mystical creatures of the angelic order that stand closest to the throne and presence of God. Time and time again, when God revealed Himself in His glory to His prophets and Apostles in Holy Scripture, He revealed Himself as the Almighty King Whose throne is attended by the Cherubim. When Isaiah, in the midst of the worship being conducted at the Temple saw God's glory, he witnessed these angelic beings surrounding God's throne of blazing glory as they chanted the Sanctus — which we ourselves will sing this morning as we draw near to the Presence of the Almighty — "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of Thy glory" (Is. 6:3). When Ezekiel was caught up in the Spirit before the throne of God, he saw its flaming Cherubim. When St. John the Apostle and Evangelist was taken up into Heaven itself, He too saw the throne of God, and the four creatures around the throne chanting the praise of the thrice holy God. So the Ark of the Covenant with the Cherubim on its lid of pure gold was a three-dimensional icon, a sacrament and pledge that the throne and presence of Almighty God dwelt among His people.

The opening section of our Psalm ends with a direct entreaty for the presence of God "Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved" (v. 3). There it is: the plea for presence. Using the physicality of the Hebrew language the Psalmist begs for God's face, God's presence to shine with mercy once again upon Israel.

In section two, verses 4-7, the Psalmist laments that God is angry with the prayer of His people. God is not listening to their entreaties. He has caused them to drink tears in large measure, and to be an object of ridicule and scorn to their enemies.

In the third section of the Psalm, verses 8-11, the composer remembers, He recalls how things were previously, he reminds the Lord of past mercies He had shown Using the metaphor of the vine, the Psalmist compares Israel to a vine, a vine which God took from Egypt and planted in the land of promise. The vine took deep root and sent out its branches in every direction, until its boughs, as large as the branches of an exalted cedar tree, cast its shadows across the land.

Then in the fourth division of our Psalm, verses 12-13, he reverts back to the sorry state of affairs that prevails in Israel in his day: God has broken down the hedges of His vineyard; any passer-by can walk in and pluck its fruit; the wild boar from the wilderness tramples its fruit underfoot.

And so we come to the fifth, and final section of the Psalm, verses 14-19, the last great plea for restoration by the presence of God. "Return," cries the Psalmist, "Return O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine" (v. 14). There it is again, the plea for presence. Oh God! Visit this vineyard! Come among us. Turn us back to you. Restore the broken hedges! Re-plant the vine, establish it and make it strong again!

And it is in this final portion of the Psalm, this concluding entreaty for God's visitation, that we have the most mysterious and marvelous petition to be found in the entire prayer. It's one sentence, verse 17: "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself." That is how God will visit. That is the method God will use to come face to face with His people. That is how God rescue and restore. He will do it through the "Son of Man." What does it mean?

If you were to begin looking for the phrase "Son of Man" in the Bible you would initially discover that it is a Hebrew way of saying "man". In Psalm 8, for instance, "What is man that You are mindful of Him or the Son of man that you visit Him?" (Ps. 8:4) It's a parallelism: "man" and "son of man" are interchangeable. "Son of man" is just another way of saying "man". But then, at a later stage in the unfolding drama of God's relationship with His people, we find the phrase taking on the characteristic of an official title. For instance, time and time again the prophet and priest Ezekiel, who ministered during the time of exile, was addressed by God as "son of man". On the one hand Ezekiel stands face to face with God; he knows God more intimately than any other person in Israel. On the other hand he goes forth armed with the word of God for Israel; He is commissioned as God's messenger because he has been before God's face. He is God's "Son of man". He is God's messenger to men because He has been close to the Throne of God.

If we continue to make our way through the Old Testament, we learn that Ezekiel was only playing a part. For to another prophet, also ministering in the time of Israel's exile, a captive in a foreign land — the prophet Daniel — was revealed the coming of the ultimate Son of Man. In the night visions in Babylon, Daniel was given an overview of the succession of human kingdoms which would arise in human history. Vicious and violent they appeared in succession before him in the symbolism of devouring beasts, each one rising to power through brutal means, and each one passing away, destroyed by the new world power which comes on the scene. But then, as Daniel kept looking he saw something else:

And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

The Son of Man inherits the world. The Son of Man receives a universal dominion, a kingdom that is permanent.

We continue to trace the drama of God's relationship with His people until the climax of that process of Divine intervention and visitation in the ultimate Visitation, the coming of the Son of God into this world. And in the records of our Lord's life and ministry, we find that He takes up this title "Son of Man" and refers it to Himself. In the four Gospels, the title is used some 80 times, and in every single occurrence, it is used, not by others in reference to Jesus, but by Jesus in reference to Himself. When, to the shock and horror of the Pharisees and scribes of the law, Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, He called Himself "Son of Man" (Matt. 9:6). When He claimed sovereignty over the Sabbath day in response to their legalistic scrupulosity, He did so as "Son of Man" (Matt. 12:8). When pressed to work a miracle, to offer a sign as proof of His identity He retorted that the only true sign would be the Son of Man lying in the earth for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40). When Jesus asked His disciples concerning the opinion of the multitudes as to His identity, He identified Himself as "Son of Man" (Matt. 16:13). The title was on His lips when He spoke of His suffering (Matt. 17:12), His being lifted up on the cross for the salvation of the world (Jn. 3:14), of His giving of His own life as a ransom for sinners (Matt. 20:28) and His rising from the dead (Matt. 17:9). And He took the title to Himself when He said that the regeneration of all things is to come through Him (Matt. 19:28), that He will send His angels to eradicate all that offends (Matt. 13:41), that He will come again, not in agony and humility, but in power and in glory to judge all flesh (Matt. 16:17; 25:13). Jesus was saying that He is the One spoken of in Daniel to whom the universal and permanent kingdom is given.

So in short, Jesus employed the title Son of Man, and applied it to Himself at every stage of His ministry: declaring forgiveness of sins, proclaiming His position, prophesying of His suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and His promised return with the regeneration of heaven and earth. His whole life, and all that He came to do, is framed by the title "Son of Man."

In our Psalm, this morning, the author cries out to God for restoration and salvation; he pleads for God to come Himself personally, to visit His people, to cause His face, His presence, to shine upon His people. In a moment when the people of God had turned away from their Lord, the man who wrote Psalm 80 asked that the God of glory flanked by Cherubim who never cease to chant the praises of the Almighty-the God Whose throne dwelt among them-to come in grace and strength. This week, we shall celebrate the moment in history when God answered the Psalmists' plea for presence; we shall celebrate the great festival of the Incarnation, when the Son of God came as Son of Man, when God visited us in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The Psalmist prays for God to come among His people by the means of the man of His right hand, by the Son of Man endued with power to turn us back to God, to save us. And Jesus said, "the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Lk. 19:10).

What is the very last sentence of our Psalm, the last prayer of the Psalmist? "cause your face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved (v. 19)." And God's presence did come, in the very human face of Jesus. In the words of the Apostle Paul, "the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness . . . has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

The Church did well to put a feast day on the calendar, a day to re-call that God has answered the prayer of our Psalmist, that God has responded to the human predicament of sin with all of its ugly ramifications, that God Himself came. For we find it astonishingly easy to become numb to the mind-boggling reality that God has come among us. The Bible translator and Anglican priest J.B. Phillips, reminds us in these words:

If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited planet. . . . the staggering truth must be accepted afresh — that in this vast, mysterious universe, of which we are an almost infinitesimal part . . . God, has visited our planet in Person. It is from this conviction that there springs unconquerable certainty and unquenchable faith and hope. . . . The modern intelligent mind, which has had its horizons widened in dozens of different ways, has got to be shocked afresh by the audacious central Fact — that, as a sober matter of history, God became one of us.¹

The writer of the eightieth Psalm cried for the God Who lives in glory enthroned above the Cherubim to come. And in that dark cave which served as a stable in the squalid hamlet of Bethlehem, the Son of God was born of a woman; born as Son of Man to restore us.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Let us come, let us join with ox and ass, with shepherd and wise man, with holy men like our Psalmist who entreated God so long ago, with Cherubim and Seraphim, "with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven" — let us adore Him, the Son of Man, the Face of God with us. Amen.

¹ NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY by J. B. Phillips; Hodder & Stoughton, London, First Published in February 1956; Web Copy - paragraph 3 of GOD MAKES NEWS with thanks to the Christian Classics Library et al
 
The Rev'd Jonathan Trebilco, a guest preacher this morning, is a deacon in the Diocese of Mid-America currently assigned to St. Francis' Reformed Episcopal Church in the Woodlands, Texas.