Restoring What is Broken (Daily Encouragement)
Restore our fortunes, O LORD – Psalm 126:4
I suppose some lessons are better learned through experience than just reading about or even teaching to others. After preaching Sunday on an unwavering joy through trusting that God promises to restore what is broken. I was in a “is this really happening” moment yesterday – I had three active text threads:
- The car was broken and wouldn’t start
- The dishwasher was broken and not starting
- And worst of all, Corrina was at the doctor with Weston who broke his finger
We had a great plan for the evening – picking up Bebe and Pappa L from the airport, baseball practice and dinner with the family – but those quickly went out the window when things began to “break”.
In a Psalm with such an emphasis on joy, it was surprising to me to study it further and see it was a Psalm of Lament, a Psalm crying out in trouble. At the core of Psalm 126 is a prayer for “God to restore” (v/4) what was lost or broken.
This is the story of the Bible and the character of the God of the Bible. God created a world of beauty and flourishing but rebellion against God led to brokenness and fracturing all of creation. But the good news of the gospel is that God didn’t leave things broken, he came on a rescue mission to restore what was broken. To set right all that was wrong through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
And like the doctor who helped Weston’s finger get restored, the mechanic who got the car running and the appliance repairman who is fixing the dishwasher – when we pray for God to “restore our fortune” like the Psalmist, we can be assured he will.
Sometimes it’s quick like a stream through a desert (and like the car this time) and things are restored quickly and dramatically. Like “a flood of God’s Spirit comes down powerfully and suddenly, like the streams from distant mountain rainstorms, and the community is restored dramatically” (Keller on v/4)
Sometimes it’s slower, like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow (or Weston’s finger over the next 6 weeks). It’s like “in actual farming, sowing does not show immediate fruit. But faithful prayer and service will eventually bear fruit. The desert will become a garden.” (Keller on v/5-6)
Regardless if it’s fast or slow, we can trust that God is restoring all things and we can go to him with whatever our trouble or brokenness is, and he is faithful to restore.