Psalm 80 reached out to me this week, and today I am using it as I fast for two families who have suffered immense loss.  

The first family lost a member after a long and  complicated hospital stay.  He was a son, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a community leader, and it is a powerful loss.  

The second has been in the midst of spiritual warfare for months now.  They have endured two car wrecks, a dog bite, a broken foot, countless mishaps and then the loss of a pregnancy.  

Throughout it all we know God is good, but we know there is pain and grief and anger for these losses.  

Here is Psalm 80, from the English Standard Version.  Listen to the chorus, pray it for you and for the people you pray for:  Restore us, O God.  Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Restore Us, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.

1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
2Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!

3Restore us,^a O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

4O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.

7Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

8You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.^b12Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.

14Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
16They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
17But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!

19Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Amen.