The Book of Psalms, often called The Psalter, has been the source of prayer and meditation for millions of Jews and Christians, not least Anglican Christians for centuries.
For Episcopalians and Anglicans The Psalms are printed in The Book of Common Prayer and are there directed to be used daily in Morning and Evening Prayer. This is because they are, for those within the new covenant, an important part of what they say and think as they come daily before God the Father through Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus himself seems to have known many Psalms off by heart and regularly to have prayed them or used parts of their contents as his own prayers, even on the Cross. His disciples followed him in this practice; and so did the early Church. It is most important to recognize that they prayed these ancient prayers not as Jews belonging to the old or Mosaic covenant, but rather as baptized believers who came to the Father as within the Body of Christ. They prayed the psalms knowing and believing that the Law and Prophets, not to mention the Psalter, were brought to fulfillment by Jesus Christ the Messiah.
Thus all prayer – praise, thanksgiving, petition, intercession, confession and lament – was offered from the position of an intimate relation to Christ Jesus and to his atoning death, his glorious resurrection and ascension, his session at the right hand of the Father and the sending from there of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church on earth. Thus prayer composed by the old Israel became prayer for and by the new Israel, and the context of the new replaced that of the old covenant.
There are within the collection of one hundred and fifty psalms several which are gripping and moving prayers to the LORD for the renewal, restoration and revival of the status and fortunes of the people of Israel or Judah. When the Psalter is prayed by the people of the new covenant in union with Christ Jesus, then these prayers for renewal become prayers for the revival of genuine Christian devotion, consecration, commitment, faith, hope and love in the Christian Church. And, further, they are prayers which the heavenly High Priest, Jesus the Lord, actually prays, for the Psalter, being the Word of God, is still his prayer book!
Let us look at a couple of them, using the RSV. As we do the comment of St Augustine of Hippo made centuries ago concerning Christ in the Psalter will inspire and help us. He wrote:
It is the one Savior of his Body, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who both prays for us and prays in us, and is prayed to by us. He prays for us, as our Priest: he prays in us as our Head. He is prayed to by us, as our God.
Psalm 85
LORD, thou wast favorable to thy land;
Thou didst restore the fortunes of Judah.
Though didst forgive the iniquity of thy people,
Thou didst pardon all their sins.
Thou didst withdraw all thy wrath,
Thou didst turn from thy hot anger.
Here, in verses 1-3 the lament of the people assembled in the Temple or some other holy place begins with an act of recalling that which is solidly in the past. The people remember specific time(s) when their covenant God, the LORD [I AM WHO I AM – Exodus 3], had shown delight in his people and their [his] land. He had restored their fortunes as a people in relation to possession of the land and freedom from enemy interference, as well as from pestilence, drought, plague and the like. Further, he had forgiven their sins and withdrawn from them his wrath/anger so that they were restored to a right relation with him and thus were in receipt of his promised protection and blessings as their covenant God.
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
And put away thy indignation toward us!
Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
Wilt thou prolong thy anger to all generations?
Wilt thou not revive us again,
That they people may rejoice in thee?
Memory provided good news of God’s restoration of Israel’s fortunes, but present observation provided a different situation. Now the Presence of the LORD is obviously not with them and they are experiencing not only the results of that holy absence but the positive reality of his chastisement and righteous anger at their sins. Here in verses 4-6 are a series of petitions wherein the people plead for the return of the Presence of the LORD as their covenant God, with all the blessings that his Presence provides and brings.
Show us thy steadfast love, O LORD,
And grant us thy salvation.
The final plea of the people (verse 7) is that the LORD will make known to them practically and really his unchanging Love and deliver them from their present trouble and adversity (whatever they be). They desire to be restored to a right relation to their covenant God, to live with his Presence and under both his laws and his blessing.
Having poured out their hearts to the LORD, they await his response. And this comes through a prophetic oracle, delivered by a prophet, who first hears (verse 8) and then announces (verses 9ff.) what the LORD has to say:
Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
For he will speak peace to his people,
To his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
In verses 9-13, the message from the Lord as received by the prophet is reported by him in his own words:
Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him.
That glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
And righteousness will look down from the sky.
Yea, the LORD will give what is good,
And our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him,
And make his footsteps a way.
Deliverance at last from oppression, adversity, plague or other calamity is near as the LORD looks to his people first to recover their fear (reverence. awe and humility) before him. His Presence will then dwell in the land (which is his and theirs – “our”). In fact, so amazing will be the Presence that it will be as if heaven and earth come together in holy embrace. God’s transcendent Love from heaven will be met by human faithfulness to him and his covenant on earth. God’s righteousness (his activity in placing his people in a right relation with him) from heaven and human peace with God and each other on earth will meet as it were in mid-air. And faithfulness to God’s covenant will spring up and grow towards heaven to be met by the descending righteousness of God. Through and by all this divine action, the land will certainly prosper to bring forth good crops and fruit.
In the restored conditions, God will make himself known as the Righteousness LORD and covenant righteousness will show the people the way into his Presence.
Application
Reading this psalm as Christians, and as Anglican Christians in North America, we pray within the Body of Christ and thus in and with the Head of the Body, even the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read verses 1-3 we engage in recalling times and periods of revival in the Church of God, especially those described in the Acts of the Apostles. From the Word of God written and from our knowledge of Church History, we recall God’s descent upon and into his Church in order first of all to forgive the sins and cleanse the hearts of his people, and then to revive it, to restore its fortunes, to reveal his Presence and to manifest his glory.
Then, knowing what a pitiful and terrible state the Anglican churches of the West are in at this time, we humble ourselves before God our Father, and we bow low before him in petition in the name of the Lord Jesus. We pray for his Presence, for forgiveness, cleansing, renewal, regeneration, guidance, and restoration of power and glory through the Gospel of the Father concerning his Son. Our prayer is still:
Show us thy steadfast love, O LORD,
And grant us thy salvation.
In fact, at this stage we can profitably turn to the Litany found in The Book of Common Prayer and pray to the Lord Jesus Christ slowly and deliberately in its hallowed petitions.
Since our condition as Anglican Christians is in such a bad state both before the righteous Lord and towards each other, this period of calling upon the Name of the Lord for him to show us his LOVE and to visit us with his deliverance will necessarily be long and sometimes painful – not that God is lacking in mercy and revival power, but that we are lacking in readiness to repent fully and wholly and trust him maturely.
It is possible in our prayerful fellowship that we shall hear a word of prophecy from a godly member of the congregation [in this case spiritual discernment is most necessary for excited affections can sometimes speak what is desired rather than what is heard]; or it is possible that we shall be led to sure promises in the New Testament of the Lord’s desire to revive us, but only, and really only, when we have learned to fear him – and thus do actually fear him can we expect him to descend in reviving, regenerating and restoring power. [Note “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge” according to Proverbs and the Psalter; and, regrettably, it is a godly virtue significant more by its absence than its presence today. Thus we have at whatever cost to recover it.]
Perhaps the fullness of the portrayal and promises of harmony between heaven and earth, God, the LORD, and his covenant people, provided here, must wait for the “latter-day glory” immediately before the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the present evil age. However, before that final stupendous revelation of the Presence of God with his people, God is surely and certainly ready to revive and restore his people at the local level where they have prepared for his coming. And we can expect such in our congregation and parish and even in deanery, diocese or other basic unit, if God so chooses and if we are prepared and ready for his visitation.
“If my people, who are called by my name. humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal the land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
[Note: what may be called the corporate apostasy from the covenant of grace, and the rebellion against the Holy Trinity within The Episcopal Church, as an institution, has been very marked, even severe, in recent decades. All Episcopalians, radical and conservative, are mixed up in this, and thus have both much from which to turn away and much to embrace as God’s gracious gifts. See for a description of some of the primary rejections of God’s order in this Church in: Episcopal Innovations 1960-2004, by Peter Toon from www.anglicanmarketplace.com or from 1 800 727 1928.]
Psalm 126
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
And our tongue with shouts of joy;
As the people recall a previous point in their history, they are filled with nearly uncontrollable joy and holy laughter. They remember vividly a time when Zion, the city of God and their focal point as a people, was delivered from adversity and restored to its true place and experience as the place where God, the LORD dwelt among his covenant people and showered on them his blessings and protection. We do not know the precise time and event to which reference is being made; but; it is not likely to be the Return from Exile in Babylon, for the Psalm seems to belong to a period before the Exile.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
We are glad.
Indeed, so great and so widely known was the deliverance of his city and people by the LORD, that neighboring countries heard or it and marveled at the power of the God of Israel. And this made the covenant people even more exultant.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
Like the water courses in the Negeb!
Regrettably, new conditions are in place and laughter has turned to lament and rejoicing to sadness. Zion is now in trouble (from drought or pestilence or oppressors or ? ) and the happy experience of the past prompts the people to plead with their covenant God. To make their point as clear as possible they use the picture of the dry, arid desert in the south of the land, on which there falls a tremendous deluge of rain and the parched and dried-up waterways become streams of living water. Obviously they earnestly desire renewal, regeneration, revival and restoration and know that only the LORD can provide.
As in Psalm 85, so here, the earnest, humble plea to the LORD of the people of God, brings a response from him, sent through one of his servants in the form of a proverb.
May those who sow in tears
Weep with shouts of joy.
Then this divine proverb is elaborated with a picture of the individual farmer (in penitence and humbly before God) with his bag of seeds walking up and down his field scattering the seed on it, praying that they will grow and bear fruit.
He that goes forth weeping
Bearing the seed for sowing,
The divine proverb is then completed with the picture of the harvest being reaped, and the farmer returning home with his sheaves of corn and filled with joy because of the provision of the LORD, his covenant God.
Shall come with shouts of joy,
Bringing his sheaves with him.
Here God is seen as answering the earnest prayers of his people by promising to bless their faithful work and endeavor done according to his holy laws in his name. A seemingly impossible reversal will not come by God alone intervening as the people stand and stare in amazement, but rather by God inspiring, strengthening and guiding his people to do what is right and good in his sight, and then in his sovereign mercy blessing them as his faithful covenant people even as they do his will as his servants.
Application
In this Psalm we encounter two forms of revival by God of his people and of their fortunes in his service. These we need prayerfully to consider and meditate upon so that we approach the need for renewal as informed, mature believers.
The first is described as having happened in the past in the first three verses, as the covenant people re-live and thoroughly enjoy what the LORD did for them in days now gone. This form of restoration is the way of immediate divine intervention, when God acts in a decisive way on behalf of his people, for all to behold his power and glory.
The second is described in the last three verses through a picture taken from farming, and it is revival and restoration that is just as much from the power and mercy of the LORD but this time it takes a lot longer and it involves the practical cooperation and trustful faithfulness and obedience of the people of God.
Obviously, the people of the old covenant were not in a position to make a deal with God, the LORD, as to how and when he would be pleased to revive and restore their fortunes. Likewise, the members of the Body of Christ, the people of the new covenant, cannot tell God the Father in their prayers and petitions just how he should actually cause there to be renewal of his Church. They can wait upon him and in so doing can learn his will but this involves prostrating at the feet of his Majesty not sitting across the table in negotiation, claiming rights! After all he is the Sovereign Lord as well as the God of all grace. [One of the very pernicious effects of the talk of “the baptismal covenant” in The Episcopal Church in recent decades has been to give the impression, in an American culture of rights, that the baptized make a contract with God and are his partners rather than his humble servants.]
Let us we think of how this psalm addresses us by noting what the apostle Paul wrote, also using farming metaphors:
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6).
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows that will he also reap… (Gal. 6:7-10)
And what St James wrote is also worth pondering:
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You, also, be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand (5:7-8)
God our Father may be calling us to a long period, in which to display our genuine faithfulness to him and to the new covenant of his Son, before he sends the revival that the Anglican way desperately needs and for which mature believers pray earnestly; but, perhaps, as yet we (as a whole) are not ready to experience the shouts of joy as we carry the sheaves to the barn. We need to be tested and matured more by the chastisement and mercy of God, our Father.
END
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
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