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Psalm 80:3,7,19 —
“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!”
“Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!”
“Restore us, O YHWH God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!”
First, the phrase translated “restore us,” can also be translated, “turn us again.” I think that’s significant because “restore us,” could be any number of things (give us our land back, return us to a place of blessing, bring us back from exile etc.) while “turn us again” implies a return to the Lord, a return to fellowship. Of course, the two ideas overlap because the true restoration from exile will be a turning again from the heart to the Lord.
The other thing to note is that the restoration / return is achieved by the shining of the Lord’s face, which is to say, by the manifest revelation of His personal glory. I say His “personal glory” because the address to the Lord become increasingly specific to the covenant God of Israel, ending with an appeal to His personal, covenant name (“YHWH God of Hosts”). The request for His face to shine is a request—a plea—for Him to manifest before the eyes of all the world the unique and supreme glory of His personal identity. Reveal yourself! Show yourself! Manifest your glory! Let your face shine! And for the people fo God, that revelation, manifestation, radiance IS their salvation. The salvation of the people of God is the exaltation of His glory, the appearing of His beauty, the revelation of His personal identity. When His face shines—when He is revealed in His glory—then His people are saved. We might say this in reverse as well, when He acts to save His people, then His glory is revealed.
And note also that, for the enemies of the Lord, the appearing of His glory is destruction (80:16). This is a pattern all throughout scripture. The Beauty that saves God’s people slays His enemies. John draws this point out in His gospel when He makes the person of Christ Himself the judgment on the world. Christ is the shining of God’s face—the radiance of His glory—the light of the world. And when this light shines, judgment takes place (John 3:19ff). When this light shines, some recoil back in hatred, some are drawn out in love, some refuse, some receive. That is the judgment….that refusal or reception is the seed of hell or heaven respectively.
Is this prayer answered? Does YHWH rise up and turn His people back to Himself by the shining of His face so that they might be saved? Yes, He does—and He does it through the incarnation of the Son. We are all dead, all in exile, all turned away…and how are we saved? How are we turned back? It happens when:
“God, who said let light shine out of darkness, [shines] in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” — 2 Corinthians 4:6
Glory to God! How does He cause His face to shine on us that we might be saved? He does it in the face of Jesus Christ! The face of Jesus Christ, the face marred beyond human semblance by the bearing of our sins and swallowing of our wrath (Is.52:13-53:6), the face of the crucified and risen Lord, this is the face of YHWH that shines the light of His glory into the world, the face by whose radiance His people are turned, restored, and saved while His enemies are destroyed (2 Thess.1:6-10). Hallowed be His Name!
