January 08, 2025
Seeking God’s Blessing #
Psalm 80:1-3
Introduction
We have a Psalm, where the Psalmist is clearly seeking the Lord’s Blessing in his life! We should desire the Lord’s Blessing in our life! Without the Lord’s Blessing, you are wandering blindfolded in a barren desert land. Without the Lord’s blessing, you are standing on Satan’s street corner, begging for a handout. What I’m trying to say, is without God’s blessing, you are in dire need in your life, and no one is going to meet that need!
We need the LORD!
Is it not the LORD that provides our daily food?
Matthew 6:11 “11 Give us this day our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:31–34 “31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
I. The Summons (1-3) #
A. The Person “O Shepherd” (1) #
1. Shepherd Provides #
Psalm 23:2 “2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
2. Shepherd Precedes (leads) “leadeth me” #
3. Shepherd Protects #
John 10:11 “11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
B. Place “between the cherubims” (1) #
Exodus 25:22 “22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”
C. Past “before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh” #
II. The Sadness (4-7) #
James 1:2–3 “2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
A. Time (4) #
B. Tears (5) #
C. Trouble (6) #
1. Strife! – fighting with neighbors (countries) #
2. Mockery – those without mocking their hardships. #
III. The Story (8-18) #
A. Blessings and growth (8-11) #
1. Rescue from slavery! (8) #
2. Planting & Growth (9-11) #
B. Broken (12-13) #
1. Defeated (12) #
2. Devouring (13) #
C. Beseeching (14-18) #
1. God’s return starts with you seeking (14) #
2. God’s return acknowledges he got you to where you were (15) #
3. God’s return acknowledges the rebuke (16) #
IV. The Supplication (3, 7, 19) #
A. Intensity #
Psalm 80:3 “3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Psalm 80:7 “7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Psalm 80:19 “19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”