Restore Us, God

Log in to take the quiz and save your progress.

1. Observe

   Trace the history of the vine (vv. 8-16). What did God do for it, and what has happened?

   • The vine was never planted
   • God brought a vine out of Egypt, drove out the nations, planted it, cleared ground for it; it took deep root, filled the land, its shadow covered mountains, branches reached sea to river — but now its walls are broken down, passers-by pluck it, the boar ravages it, wild animals feed on it, it is burned with fire and cut down
   • The vine grew without God
   • The vine has flourished without interruption

2. Observe

   The refrain (vv. 3, 7, 19) repeats with variations. What do the variations add?

   • Nothing — they are identical
   • The divine name expands across the refrain: "God" (v. 3), "God of Armies" (v. 7), "Yahweh God of Armies" (v. 19) — the petition intensifies and the title of God becomes more emphatic as the prayer deepens
   • Only one refrain
   • The petition changes each time

3. Interpret

   What does it mean that God himself broke down what he built (v. 12)?

   • That God acts arbitrarily
   • That God doesn't actually protect
   • That divine judgment often takes the form of removing protection rather than direct attack — the wall is taken down; the predators then enter; God doesn't have to strike directly because his withdrawal allows existing threats to do their damage; this is theologically serious: it means apparent disasters with worldly causes can still be divinely permitted/given; it also means restoration requires God to rebuild what only he could remove
   • That walls don't matter

4. Interpret

   What does it mean for God's face to shine on someone, and what does the opposite feel like?

   • Identical experiences
   • A literal physical light
   • God's shining face is the experience of his felt favor, presence, and acceptance — the conscious sense that he is for us; its opposite (hidden face) is the felt absence of God, the experience of his withdrawal, the spiritual deadness in which prayer seems unheard and grace seems removed; the refrain pleads not just for circumstantial rescue but for the restoration of the relational reality of God's smile
   • Only metaphorical, not real

5. Apply

   How can devastation of something once fruitful be brought to God?

   • Hide it from God
   • Pretend nothing changed
   • By honest lament that names the loss, by recognizing God's hand even in the devastation (rather than detaching God from what has happened), by pleading for restoration grounded in God's past planting of the thing destroyed, and by refusing to give up the asking just because the loss is severe; the psalmist models this exactly — naming the past flourishing, the present ruin, and the petition for renewal
   • Cease prayer entirely

6. Apply

   Is the prayer life characterized by asking God to revive, or by assuming self-managed renewal (v. 18)?

   • Self-management is sufficient
   • Revival can be self-produced
   • Biblical revival is divine initiative — the prayer "revive us, and we will call on your name" admits that even the response to God begins with God's prior work; assuming we can renew ourselves spiritually treats the soul as a self-correcting system that Scripture does not present it as; the petition for revival is the prerequisite posture, and any genuine return is the fruit of God's prior reviving work in the heart
   • Renewal is impossible

Your journal

Write your own answers — they save automatically, and only you can see them.

Log in to write and save journal answers.