Psalm 80:18
Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.
How competent do you feel today? How able are you to do the things that you want or need to do? I imagine that some of us feel totally UNable today. We may be ill or tired or struggling with difficult circumstances, either temporary or permanent, that make us really aware of our
own weaknesses and inabilities. Perhaps we find it hard to see others apparently 'succeeding' - those who seem able to just get on and achieve what they set their minds to without the obstacles that we face. Others of us might be feeling more capable ... Right now we seem to have all the resources we need for life. We may not even understand why others are struggling. Whichever group we fall into, today's verse is a great leveller. Here is something that NONE of us can do for ourselves!
God’s people's greatest problem - at the time of this psalm and today - is their unfaithfulness to God. They just can't seem to consistently trust and obey him. They know that being his people is a great privilege yet they turn away and behave like the nations around them,
worshipping things that are not God. They know that they need to return to God, and live as his people, but they just can't do it. They can't even call on his name without help. They, and we, are utterly helpless when it comes to restoring and remaining in relationship with God. And that really matters. Succeeding in life does us no good at all if we can't maintain a relationship with him. Their only hope lies in the Son of Man at the Father's right hand. If God blesses them through Jesus, THEN they will be able to remain faithful. If God revives them by his Holy Spirit, then they will depend on him in prayer, calling on God's name instead of the names of their idols. The same is true for us. None of us can live in relationship with God unless God makes it possible. So, there is no room for self-sufficiency or pride ... If I am a Christian today, asking God for his help to trust and obey him, all the credit for that belongs to him. And there is no room for despair either ... however
badly everything else in life may be going, God is able to keep me trusting and obeying him today.
Let's thank him for that and pray with the psalmist that God would revive and sustain us so that we would call on his name today and every day of our lives.
