Truth #185 - Only God can restore our trampled garden - Psalm 78-80

Psalms 80:14-18
Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!

Truth:  Without God's intervention we are nothing but a trampled garden

In the above passage the writer of Psalm 80 is expressing to God and confessing to God what the current state of Israel is in their rebellion and God-imposed discipline.   They had rejected God's truth and had wandered into idolatry.  God had sent an enemy to them to punish them.  That punishment is characterized in the above portion of the psalm.  The writer describes the nation (and people) as an overrun garden.  Israel was God's chosen Vine.   God plucked it from no-where and made it a great nation.  Here is what the writer said, just a few verses earlier:

Psalms 80:8-10
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.

Now, however, due to their idolatry, God had punished them and overrun the garden.  The Vine was now trampled, cut down and burned.   This passage, above, is a confession and acknowledgment of their position and plea for deliverance.  Until we understand out plight and the reason for our plight we can't fully appreciate what God, and ONLY God, can do for us.  They plead with God for deliverance.   When we are in our sin and we continue to repeat our sin, that is when we have to realize that only God can deliver us.  He wants to deliver us.  God does deliver Israel.   God can restore the vine.  In John 15 we are told that He is the Vine and we are His Branches.   God is restoring us, even as we live and breath.   Only God can take the wicked people that we are and makes us flourishing branch for Him!!!!!