Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, and the wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted. (Psalm 80:12-15)

In Isaiah, the Lord referred to His people as a vine He planted in His vineyard. However, when He came looking for good grapes, instead He found wild grapes. Consequently, He vowed to “take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down; I will lay it waste” (Isaiah 5:5-6). This is essentially what the psalmist refers to when he laments the fact that God has allowed others to devour and destroy the vineyard. And if the story were to end there, we could presume that the vineyard would never recover and the land would return to its raw and more natural state.

As we know however, the vineyard did not die away entirely; there was still life in the vine even though it had been burned and trampled down. Somewhere deep within the root stock, life still lingered. Knowing this, the psalmist appealed to Heaven to “visit this vine” and the vineyard He had planted. He realized that all it would take was a touch from the Master’s Hand and what appeared to be dead would spring to life.

Many of us have suffered loss and lack through the years, and perhaps some of us have felt as if we were the vineyard that had been trampled down and laid waste. Maybe some of that was the result of our own bad decisions and we were compelled to live with the consequences. Nevertheless, as long as there is breath in our lungs there is potential and hope for recovery. God is famous for not giving up on anyone who shows a desire to return to Him and equally famous for reviving what seemed to be lost. And so we pray — for ourselves, our family and our country — “We beseech You, O God; look down from heaven and visit this vine and the vineyard You have planted; Revive us O Lord.”

Blessings and Shalom,  

Bill 

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