Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
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sermon. God bless. 80, but I just want to say
I love the sound of the kids in our church. I
felt like they were saying amen earlier when
we were singing. And Psalm 8 came to my mind,
verse 2, out of the mouths of babies and infants,
you've established strength because of your foes.
That there's something lovely in the sound of
the little ones among us. Praise the Lord for
them. Let me pray. Lord God, we're thankful for
Your Word, even these passages that are lesser
known. and these stories that may be lesser known.
And God, I pray that we would receive it as Your
Word and Your gift to us, or You give us Your
Word because You desire to reveal Yourself to
us, and that we might find life and life in You,
the life that we long for, the life that we desire.
And so Lord, I pray that our ears should be open,
not just to my words, but to Your words. Their
hearts would... be softened to you, and that
we would be desirous having spent this time with
you to live our life with you in faith and belief
and trust and love. And we pray all this for
our good, Lord, but mostly for your glory, for
the glory of your holy name. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. All right, many of you, my guests,
are familiar with the name Arthur Brooks. Maybe
you've listened to his podcast, Office Hours.
Maybe you've heard him as a guest on other podcasts.
He seems familiar to many. Maybe you've read
one of his books. He's written a lot of books.
One of the books is titled Love Your Enemies,
How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture
of Contempt. I mean, isn't that just kind of
an interesting idea that just loving each other
and fighting against contempt? What an important...
sort of subject in our time. Maybe you found
him by just Googling, how can I be happier? And
there's a reason why maybe you'd find him. He's
a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School and Harvard
Business School, but a lot of what his work has
been focused on is happiness. Maybe you've heard
about some of the studies that Harvard has done
over the last decades about human happiness.
But he studies it, like what is it? How do we
get it? How is it acquired? Oh, so what can we
do that we might live happier lives? And he has
come up with what he calls his sort of four pillars
of happiness. Here's what they are. Faith. And
he doesn't necessarily mean the Christian faith,
though he's a devout Catholic, but he is sort
of talking about this guiding faith, this guiding
understanding of where we are, where we're going,
whose are we. What gives us meaning and perspective?
Second one is family, sort of foundational bonds
from which we have a sense of our belonging,
sort of relational security. The third is friendship.
by which he means sort of non -contractual social
relationships outside of family. It's not kind
of like, I'll just scratch your back, you scratch
mine. You go to work and that's a contractual
relationship. I put in these hours, I get paid
this much, but relationships that exist beyond
family and these contracts. The third one is
work. And this has to do with actions that sort
of exercise your talents. that provide an opportunity
maybe for a degree of success. And often actually
he says, most of the time it is tied to the idea
that what you're doing serves something, serves
others. And so he says, work in this kind of
way doesn't have to be work that you're gaining
money from though it often is. It can be volunteer
work. It can be joining the English language
classes this fall. Pastoral plug. that others
might learn English, right? Or, you know, visiting
and volunteering over at pacts and ministries,
or I don't know, all kinds of number of things,
serving at a food bank. But it's creating value
in the world that you kind of move into the world.
You exercise your gifts for the blessing of others
and for the good of the world. And he's saying
that these four things, the happiest people in
the world seem to have these four pillars in
their life. These four pillars. And I think it's
just kind of good just to sit there for a moment
because we tend to, of course, in our world,
that primarily work brings happiness because
work brings money. So you work, work, work. So
you can buy, buy, buy. Maybe you know Chris Jansen's
famous country song from 2015, Buy Me a Boat.
I know this crew doesn't listen to country music
much, but here's how part of it goes. I'm not
going to sing it. Yeah, I know what they say.
Money can't buy everything. Well, maybe so, but
it can buy me a boat. Somebody knows it out there,
right? Buy me a boat. And of course, the idea
of maybe says the boat will make you happy, or
maybe the boat will get you the girlfriend, or
maybe the boat will facilitate time with friends.
And maybe there's some degree of truth that it
can facilitate some of those things. But interestingly,
Another huge part of his sort of theory of happiness
is that it has this bedrock idea of contentment
too. And that contentment is on that first pillar
of faith. Having a sense that there's meaning
beyond us and there's actually something that
you can put your trust in and have meaning in
and a deep sense of belief and trust. So anyway,
we're in Psalm 80. And if you were listening
when I read it, you probably noticed that there
was a chorus. a refrain. Not all the Psalms do
this. Actually, not a lot of Psalms do this.
A lot of Psalms are maybe more like the old hymns
where they go from stanza to stanza to stanza.
Kind of like the first song that we sang today.
But then some have choruses like the last song
that we sang where it goes back to the same idea
to repeat it. And this is the refrain that we
find in 3 and 7 and 19. Restore us, O God. Let
your face shine that we may be saved. Restore
us, O God. Let your face shine and we may be
saved. And that word restore us in Hebrew actually
can also be translated, turn us back. Turn us
back and turn to us, which is to say we've been
going some other direction for life, for meaning,
for happiness. Turn us back, restore us, turn
us back to yourself. the author Asaph or at least
in sort of the lineage of Asaph is asking for
the people to be turned back because the people
have sought happiness, their wellbeing, their
life outside of God. So this cry for restoration,
what I want you to see today, this cry for God's
face to shine upon them is because they've sought
this happiness outside of God. And oddly, I was
sitting with this passage and I thought, you
know, this passage actually kind of can have
these happiness pillars laid on it. So I kinda
want you to see how this passage fits in with
these happiness pillars. So I'm not gonna start
with the first pillar. I'm actually gonna come
back to that. But the first thing I want you
to see is that what we have in this psalm is
a destroyed family. If the second pillar is familial
relations. What we actually find in this Psalm
first is a destroyed family. So here's the first
couple of verses. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who are
enthroned upon the cherubim shine forth before
Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your
might and come and save us. How does that have
to do with the family? That's what you're asking.
Let me tell you. So this Psalm was almost certainly
written in the context of the Assyrian Empire
coming in from the North, the Northeast into
destroy and take over, take away the best and
brightest of the 10 Northern tribes of Israel.
Last week, if you were here, you may remember
that we looked at Psalm... 79, we talked about
the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction
of the temple under the Babylonian exile. That
happened, that destruction happened in 586. Well,
the event of this Psalm was about 140 years earlier,
722, when the Assyrians came in and they destroyed
the 10 Northern tribes. Well, two of the 10 Northern
tribes, in fact, the two of the 10 largest of
the Northern tribes are the tribes of Ephraim
and Manasseh. In fact, sometimes the 10 northern
tribes together can be referred to as Ephraim,
because it was the main one. It was sort of just
north of Judah and Benjamin. So it was sort of
the neighboring tribe to the two southern tribes.
But if you notice, it's not just mentioning these
two dominant tribes of the 10 northern tribes
of Israel. Right between those two tribes, kind
of sandwiched between them is the tribe of Benjamin,
which was not destroyed by the Assyrians. And
it's actually, you know, Judah and Benjamin are
the two Southern tribes of Israel. The 10 Northern
ones are the ones that were taken over by the
Assyrians. So why would Benjamin be mentioned
in the context of this Assyrian conflict sandwiched
right between Ephraim and Manasseh? What it's
saying is that our familial relations are destroyed.
We're being torn apart. They're crying out to
God, give ear, oh shepherd of Israel, you who
lead us, keep your family together. And the family
was destroyed because they did not look to the
shepherd. They didn't look to the leader. They
didn't look to their father in heaven. If you've
been around the Bible a little while, you might
know that shepherding is a... is a metaphor that's
kind of common in the scriptures. And that's
no surprise, of course, they led these pastoral
lives tending to sheep and all that. And they
knew the dynamic of a sheep needing to live under
the care of another. They also knew the dynamic
as Jesus picks up on in John chapter 15 that
we heard that sometimes the sheep want to listen
to another's voice. They hear other shepherd's
voice and they say, maybe I should go over there.
They hear other voices of sort of parental figures
who are to care for them. They say, let's go
there. And that's exactly what they were doing
time and time again. They were saying, you know,
I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear the
voice of the good shepherd, our father who has
led us as his people. I want to listen to other
shepherds or I just want to be my own shepherd.
That's what's been, that's what's going on. And
so they reject the father and the family is destroyed.
Which is to say in some ways that they sought
their happiness, but they sought it outside this
foundational bond. This bond that sort of leads
them out into life with others. They found it
in a foundational bond, which was not God. And
so the happiness which they sought actually destroyed
one of the things that actually would build their
happiness. Their families destroyed. Their family
ties are broken up. breaking up the tribes of
Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh and all their
relationships. But, so interestingly, I think
if you look at the second stanza there, we actually
find another one of these pillars of happiness
that's taken down. And I want to call this destitute
friends, okay, the second, so destroyed families
and destitute friends. Verse four. Oh Lord, God
of hosts, how long will you be angry with your
people's prayers? You fed them with the bread
of tears and given them tears to drink in full
measure. You make us an object of contention
for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among
themselves." Now, you might think that's odd
that I would title this under friendships because
the last thing was enemies. Enemies were mentioned.
But right before that, talking about neighbors.
Not family, right? Not those foundational bonds,
but necessary relationships for our wellbeing
that exists outside of our families, like our
neighbors, these relationships that we have outside
of these immediate family ties. And here it's
saying that they're torn. They've actually become
relationships of contention. And why is that?
One of the reasons is because it says God hasn't
heard their prayers. He's angry with their prayers,
right? Oh, Lord God of hosts, how long will you
be angry with your people's prayers? Does that
seem strange to you that God would be angry with
the prayers of his people? I think that's kind
of maybe an odd passage, odd thing to say. Well,
here's what had happened, right? Again, this
is geared towards the Northern tribes, the tribes
that are sort of set as a whole to be Ephraim
and Manasseh. They had set up places of prayer.
They've set up places of prayer all over throughout
their tribes, but most of those places of prayer
were not places of prayer that God had told them
to set up, either to pray to Him or they were
used actually to pray to other gods. The exile
itself, this Assyrian exile happens because they've
decided to worship other gods to pray to other
idols. They've made other gods and they've offered
up these prayers, but not to Yahweh, not to the
true God. And also what they've done, the other
big reason why the exile happens is because they've
made these alliances with these neighboring countries
when God told them not to. So here's an interesting
thing that's happening. The very thing that they're
going for, which is friendship with their neighbors,
is destroyed because they made their friends
the main thing. So they're setting up these places
of prayer that are the gods of their neighbors.
They're making alliances with their neighbors
in such a way that denies their alliance with
God, which is to say they're making their friends
the main thing. Their neighbors are becoming
the main thing. And what it ultimately ends in
is destroying the friendship that they have with
those about them. Think about this. Have you
ever seen this happen where someone doesn't seem
to exactly have an identity of their own, but
their identity exists almost completely in how
they associate with another. And so they almost
seem to mimic another's speech. They don't have
music that they love. They just love the music
of the other. They don't have jokes that they
make up. They just make up the jokes of another.
It's almost as though they're just saying, I
just wanna be you. And it actually destroys the
relationship because you don't offer yourself.
You just sort of mirror the other person completely.
And the friendship doesn't bring life and fit.
In fact, the friendship often withers and fades
because that kind of relationship that's bending
over backwards just to be whatever the other
person wants kills the relationship. Those friendships
don't work. And this is What's happening, these
10 Northern tribes are saying, we just wanna
be liked by all these people. And so we're gonna
put up these places of prayer. We're gonna pray
to their gods. We're gonna make alliances. And
what happens is that those friendships wither
and fade and actually those very relationships
come in and destroy them. So in some ways, of
course, God wouldn't listen to their prayers.
They weren't offered to Him. Their prayers were
for the sake of them. were for the sake of finding
their identity in their friendships. Again, this
song to another of its pillars of happiness that
was taken away from them. So they lose their
familiar relationships, they lose their friendships,
and they also lose their work. So we have destroyed
families, depleted friendships, and then, sorry,
What did I say? Not depleted. I have depleted
work here. What did I say? Destitute. Thank you,
destitute friends. And depleted work, which is
to say they're a fruitless vine. That's the last
sort of main paragraph. And again, this is a
metaphor that you find in the Bible a lot, the
metaphor of a vine. And this makes sense, right?
Just like the shepherd thing makes sense. You're
like, oh, there's sheep, shepherd, and there's
like vines. And so they use these metaphors to
talk about themselves. Vines were to bear fruit.
As they were tended to, they were to bear fruit.
As they were pruned and trained along trellises,
they were to bear fruit. And if you didn't bear
fruit, what would you do? You'd say, ah, well,
this is a defunct vine. We need to get rid of
it and plant something else here so that it will
bear fruit. And a lot of times Israel as a nation
was actually talked about as the vine of God.
And we find this in a few different places. In
Genesis 49, you can read of Joseph being called
a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches
climb over a wall. It's growing because it's
near the stream of God. Isaiah, we can read this,
my loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside,
which is say Israel was to be planted by the
waters of God and in a fertile hillside by the
Lord. Near the end of Hosea, we can read, he
will blossom like a vine, referring to Israel,
the nation. And his fame will be like the wine
of Lebanon, which is to say that not just as
he's to be planted by the stream and on a fertile
soil, but he's to bear, right? This work is to
actually be sort of the work that Arthur Brooks
talks about. Something that's offered into the
world, the blessing of the world. So come to
this stanza. I'm not gonna read all of it for
us, but starting in verse eight. You brought
a vineyard 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. It sent out its branches to
the sea and its shoots to the river. Why then
have you broken down its walls so that all who
pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar
from the forest ravages it and all that move
in the field feed on it." Now again, maybe kind
of like prayers. I think we get to this and we
do go, wait, why would God do this? Why would
God break down the walls and allow the boar from
the forest to ravage the plant? Well, this is
answered for us in John chapter 15 that we heard,
every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
he takes away. And every branch that does bear
fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
Artie, you're clean because of the word that
I've spoken to you, abide in me and I in you,
as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless
it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. So why are the walls broken
down? Why are the boars from the forest coming
in ravaging the plants? Because they're not bearing
the fruit of abiding in the vine. And Lord says
enough. Lord says enough. So here's what's happening.
Here's what I'm suggesting in this. What this
psalm is doing is saying that you've sought to
find this happiness in these things, but you've
sought to find them outside of me. You know,
in your family relations and your friends and
in your work, these are to be actually places
that you're to grow and to bear fruit and to
have life, but all along they're doing it outside
of the Lord. destroyed family, destitute friendships,
depleted work. So Arthur Brooks has more to say,
of course. He's written all these books. But
he's an economist, and so a lot of times he uses
economic language. And he says that oftentimes
with these four pillars we over -index, or what
we do is we don't diversify. So we put all of
our chips in one pillar. So we're like, oh, happiness
can happen if I just work, work, work, work,
work, or if I just give all of my life to my
family. So Israel was putting their happiness
basket. At this time, a lot of what they were
doing is they were putting their happiness basket
into their friendship relationships, into their
relationships with their neighbors. Like I said,
they put up these high places and they worship
the gods of their neighbors and they made all
these alliances and they said, we're just going
to do whatever we can because we need friends.
That of course happens to us. We'll give up on
a lot of other things if we could just make a
friend. We kind of make that the God. The thing
that will bring us happiness. But for the most
part in our world, we kind of put a lot of our
chips. You know, we kind of over index into our
work We find our meaning in what we can accomplish
Maybe the amount of money we can make how many
people we can serve man that can make us feel
good And of course we need to hear all work and
no play makes Jack a dull boy But also think
about this I think actually within the within
Christian settings a lot of times what we can
do is we can sort of overplay the family card
Like family becomes the main thing, right? What
we want to do is we just want to keep everybody
really, really close. So weekends are meant almost
exclusively for family things. And actually friendships
sometimes can diminish. One of the other pillars
can be swallowed up by another. You can think
about dating and about romance. about how we
put so many chips into that. We put all of our
energy into that that actually work and these
other things diminish. And then when you get
the date, you're like, what do I talk about?
Because this is the main thing I've been thinking
about all the time, which is just say we over
index, we don't diversify. And Brooke says, you've
got to have all four of these pillars. So what's
missing for Israel? Well, what's missing for
Israel? I wonder, maybe it's missing for you.
It's worth asking the question. What's missing
for Israel's faith? Trust. Belief. Commitments
to the Lord. I mean, you think about it, it's
not that Israel didn't want family. They did.
They even wanted sort of a father to look down
upon them and help give them direction like a
shepherd. But they didn't want the great shepherd.
They wanted other voices to care for them and
to tend to them. And it's not that they didn't
want friendship. Obviously they did. They just
made their friends the determining thing of their
life. And so their prayers went up to the gods
of their neighbors. And their friendships became
contentious relationships because they held more
than they were intended to hold. And it's not
that they didn't want to produce or to work.
to bring something into the world. I mean, we
are all made for that, but we're made to do that
in connection with the divine. And so here's
the refrain that we hear, right? In verse three,
verse seven, down in verse 19. Restore us, O
God, let your face shine that we may be saved.
But just say, turn us back. Because we're running
after these other things to give us our meaning
and our happiness and they are good things, but
they are not good things in and of themselves.
If we put all of our chips in these baskets,
they cannot hold it. They're good. They're to
be sought after, but not in and of themselves.
Restore us to your self. Let your face shine
on us that we may be saved. And if you're thinking
that sounds familiar. Well, you should be thinking
that. Of course, that phrase comes from the great
Aaronic blessing that the priests would speak
over the people morning and evening as we so
often do in Christian services at the end of
our services with the great benediction, Lord
bless you and keep you and make his face to shine
upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon
you, give you his peace. What he's saying is
give us faith. Renew us again. Help us to turn
from these other things that we're kind of banking
on to give us life and meaning and happiness
and joy and all the rest and turn us to you.
They're asking for faith that the Lord be gracious
to them. Faith that they will not find their
meaning in what they do or don't do. Faith that
God is the source of their peace. Not these other
things of family and friends and work. So one
of the stories, one of the stories behind this
time period, and maybe actually that was happening
right in the right at the same time of writing
this Psalm, we're not totally sure. But one of
the stories that happens around the time of the
of the Assyrian exile, and actually just sort
of just after the Assyrian exile, we read for
part of part of we had part of it we had read
for us from Second Chronicles 30. that Chuck
read for us. And it's Hezekiah. Hezekiah is this
good king. He's a righteous king. He's the king
of the Southern tribes. He actually lived during
the time of the Assyrian destruction of the 10
Northern tribes in their exile. And so he has
this spiritual renewal and they desire us to
follow the Lord. And what he does is he says,
okay, everybody has got to come and worship the
Lord in Jerusalem. And we need the priests I
don't know if you caught that actually, it says
they had to celebrate the Passover in this month
because there weren't enough priests yet who
had consecrated themselves. They needed the priests
there because they were to lead the people in
worship and lead them in the Passover sacrifices
and meals, but they were also the ones who were
supposed to speak God's blessing, His benediction
that God's face would shine upon them to them.
And so, What Hezekiah does is he established
this and he says, hey, we're going to have this
great feast in Jerusalem. We're going to celebrate
the Passover and the priests are going to speak
the blessing over God's people. And he says,
send out word to everybody. And if you noticed
actually the passage there in the second Chronicles
30, it actually mentions Ephraim and Manasseh,
but this is after the, after the Assyrian exile.
So he's saying, hey, you've seen You've seen
that this sort of life of looking for your happiness
and your family and your friendships and your
work won't bring it to you outside of God. And
so come, come and worship Him and receive His
declaration that His face is shining upon you.
He invites all these people to Jerusalem, all
these 10 tribes of the North and the two tribes
of the South. And He's trying to unite them again
around this idea that outside of God, you cannot
have the happiness and the joy for which you
deeply long. But what did they do? I don't know
if, you know, this is like one of those weird
passages that are not terribly well known. So
I'm sure you probably heard Chuck read it and
you're like, whoop, whoop, you know, that kind
of thing. Well, let me read verse 10 again for
you. Okay. So the couriers, the guys that are
inviting everybody to Jerusalem, the couriers,
the people that are bringing these letters, invitations
out, went from city to city through the country
of Ephraim and Manasseh. And as far as Zebulon,
up in the Northern part, but they laughed them
to scorn and mocked them. They laughed them to
scorn and mocked them. They thought, no, no,
no, no. No, we actually think that happiness
can just be found in our family relationships
that we have or in the work that we produce or
in the friendships that we have. I don't have
any interest in that whole God thing. And of
course, I think part of the question for us is
what would you have done? Actually, what are
you doing? How are you indexing, right? How are
you diversifying? Where does faith fit for you?
So if we turn to the last section there in this
Psalm, Psalm 80, verse 14 down, it says, turn
again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven
and see, have regard for this vine, this rock
that your right hand planted, and for the son
whom you made strong for yourself. They've burned
it with fire, they've 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. And
we shall turn back from you, give us life and
we'll call upon your name." And of course, as
Christians, we read that and we say, this is
talking about our Lord Jesus. It's looking forward
to the fact that God will restore His wayward
people. He's going to have grace. He's going
to make quite literally His face to shine upon
them. the image of the invisible God for the
world to see. And think about it, when we look
to Jesus, when we look to the Gospels, specifically
the Gospel of John, almost every single thing
that we have mentioned to us here in this text
is found in Christ. So in John chapter six, Jesus
says that He and the Father are one and all whom
the Father has given Him, He will not cast out.
There's this familial reality. You're in a part
of a new family with Jesus. He offers a lasting
family, the new foundational relationship from
which you can go out into the world. John chapter
15, Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants.
The servant does not know what his master's doing,
but I've called you friends, which is to say
a servant is a contractual kind of thing in a
way. He's saying that's not our relationship.
We're friends. Jesus is offering that pillar
of friendship to us. John chapter 15, he says,
I am the vine, you're the branches, whoever abides
in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit. Offering something out into the world
as you abide in Christ. But all of this, all
of this in the gospels, and I think what this
text here in Psalm 80 is getting at. This thing
for which we desire, right? Family bonds, which
unite us in a way that help us to go out into
the world and in life. Non -contractual friendships.
Work that offers something out into the world
that is productive and a blessing. What I think
this Psalm is telling us, and I think what we
see as we put these things together in these
texts in John, is those only will take root.
Those only will actually give meaning if you
have that first pillar in place first, faith.
You cannot bear fruit apart from the Lord. Your
family and your friendships will be places of
control and of domineering. with outside of the
Lord. It's true, seek first his kingdom, his
righteousness. All the other things will be added
unto you. Look to Christ, the shining face of
God, who offers you a new family, a greater friendship.
greater fruit bearing life in the world. Apart
from Him, we can do nothing. And yet with Him
is lasting happiness and joy. Let me pray for
us. Lord, think of these stories and this Psalm,
the occasion of the writing of this Psalm, and
it's distant from us. And they're stories that
are not terribly well known, stories of Hezekiah.
the Assyrians, and we're talking about stuff
that is long ago, and yet how much it really
does speak to our dynamics, God. I pray that
you would shine your blessing upon us, that we
have people that know joy, a deep happiness,
and that we would that we'd be fruitful in our
work, that we desire to live productive, meaningful
lives, serving others, producing in your world.
God, that you'd give us friendships. Maybe new
friendships would be birthed today at our picnic.
That would truly increase our happiness, our
sense of wellbeing and life. God, that you would
bless our families. God, but I pray that each
of these things that we desire, good desires,
we would place them upon the foundation of faith,
of belief, of trust in you, of looking to you,
looking to your face, looking to the work of
Christ for us. God, that we would be those who
seek first the kingdom. and your righteousness,
and then know that the other things would be
added. That we wouldn't seek those things as
the kingdom, but the fruit of the kingdom. God,
please do this. What a passage that seems so
old, is so applicable to us. Apply it to our
lives, we pray, by the work of your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening
to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this
sermon has encouraged you to worship God and
to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please consider
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God bless.