Turn Us Again

Reading through the Psalms this morning I came across Psalm 80. In this song, Asaph three times uses the phrase "Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!" My ESV has a footnote that the words "restore us" can be translated "turn us again." I love that imagery. Our problem is that we turn away from God, which naturally results in thoughts and actions that are contrary to God's character and His desire for us as His children. The result of being turned back to God will, of course, cause us to be restored to fellowship. But for the me the phrase, "turn us again" makes clear that the restoration comes not by God looking the other way, pretending we didn't sin or calling "All the other outs in free." Restoration comes by us turning in (returning to) the right direction. God's direction.

It reminds me of what John writes in his first letter. "If we confess our sins..." Confession is saying the same about our sin that God says about it. It's wrong. It is contrary to what God desires for us. We must acknowledge that our sin is sin. We must turn again to God. Then we can enjoy our fellowship with Him because we will both be walking in the same direction. Our sin doesn't cause God to change directions. It causes us to change directions. What we need is to turn around. What earlier generations of Christians referred to as repentance.

Whether its an obvious sin (by our standards) or a subtle drift away from God's revealed will, we need to pray daily, "Turn us again, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!"