Sometimes You Need a Guide.

In some places, hiking trails aren’t so easy to follow.

I don’t hike as much as I once did. 

There was a time before Seminary, and marriage, and the birth of my son, and pastoral ministry, and grey hair (yes, I have grey hair in my goatee…), when I would go hiking on more challenging trails

Some trails are easy to follow; they are well marked and well worn.

Other trails aren’t so easy to follow, you should probably bring a map and a compass.

There are, however, a few trails that I have been on that a map and compass are still insufficient.

What you need is a guide, someone who knows the trail so well that they can direct your path.

Psalm 80 is one of those Psalms that ask for help.

The first part of the Psalm asks for restoration from the Lord and recounts Israel’s history from the time of the Exodus until, very likely, the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrian Empire.

Then the Psalmist cries to the Lord with this phrase:

“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!”

(Psalm 80:17–18 ESV)

Israel is lost.  The people need a shepherd; they need a guide.

So the Psalmist asks for God to place His hand on the Man of His right hand.

This person may have been a mystery at the time of the writing of the Psalm, but it is not a mystery to us.

We know the man who is the right hand of the Lord to be His Son, Jesus the Messiah.

God’s hand was upon Him during His earthly ministry, and now He sits eternally at the right hand of the Father.

When the Son of God gives us life, through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, we have the guide that we need when we lose the trail. His voice guides us, therefore we will not turn back.

Keep safe, be well, and stay encouraged.

Brian