Psalm 80:7-15 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 80:7-15 on biblegateway.com
Verse 7Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Verse 8You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
Verse 9You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
Verse 10The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
Verse 11it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
Verse 12Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
Verse 13The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
Verse 14Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
Verse 15the stock that your right hand planted.
Devotion
Last week the United States’ financial system swirled with chaos. Fingers pointed everywhere – at greed, corporate corruption, misguided economics. But what was notably absent from the rhetoric and accusations was someone willing to say, “We have created this problem ourselves. This mess is our own doing. And we are sorry.”
That sense of humility and apology seems to be missing from the Psalmist’s plea. Israel is in trouble. It’s their own doing; they’ve wandered away from God. Yet they lay the blame for their suffering at God’s feet. God must have abandoned us. It’s God’s fault that our country is in ruins, that our lives are a mess. There’s no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, no hint that the people might bear even a little responsibility for what’s happened to them.
Why is it so hard to admit when we’ve made a mistake? Does sin make us blind?
At least the Psalmist gets one thing right: if they people are looking to be saved, God is their only hope.
Prayer
Lord, when I make mistakes, when I wrong you or your people, help me to bear the responsibility for what I have done. Amen.