To speak of Salvation is to speak of the greatest gift given by the Creator to humanity, in brief I want to share that with you my beloved reader.
Psalm 80:3 New International Version
Restore us, O God;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
This psalm is a groan that touches the heart. The psalmist refers to the deportation of the northern tribes, known as the kingdom of Israel after the division in the days of King Rehoboam. The people of Israel went to Assyria, and pleaded on God's behalf for restoration, favor and salvation:"Turn to us, O Almighty God! Come see us from heaven and take care of this vine! That's the root you planted with your right hand! It's the vastago you raised for yourself!
What poetic words to express to God that his people, his special treasure, were suffering the consequences of his disobedience in foreign and cruel hands! But move even more that the psalmist repeats three times the same phrase:" Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us and save us".
How many times have we needed to be restored? The word restore comes from the Hebrew root which implies "to return" rather than a physical return, it refers to an earlier moment where the person lived better. In the computers there is a command that restores the system a previous point. if you download a program that only affects your system, you ask to give that order and mark back, that is, as if nothing had happened.
Christ's salvation "erases" the sin programs that we bring down into our system and leaves it clean before God. How wonderful!
The phrase " Make your face shine on us" brings us to the kingdoms of the past, where the king was so powerful that he decided the death or life of a person. We can think of Caesar who, with a gracious hand, sent a slave to death or granted him forgiveness.
There is a verse in Proverbs that confirms this idea:
Proverbs 16:14-15 New International Version
By grace though we merited death, God made his face shine upon us and gave us life.14 A king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
but the wise will appease it.
15 When a king’s face brightens, it means life;
his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.
Finally the word salvation speaks to us of ransom. "the Christian's life," said Martin Luther." It is characterized by the use of possessive pronouns. He's right." It is one thing to say Jesus saves me, or Jesus is the Savior" and a very different thing to say:" Jesus saves me or Jesus is my Savior".
Many can say the first thing. Only the true Christian can say the latter because he has been rescued from sin. Imagine a woman falling off a cliff, but someone with a rope rescues her. So were you and I, but Jesus' pierced hand stretched out to offer us the ransom. What a great salvation!
