Psalms 80:4

“O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?”

Immediately following on from the previous verse’s request for the return of God’s presence into their life, now the prayer of Psalms 80 launches into it’s main body: a description of the problem facing the petitioner.

‘O LORD God of hosts,’
We have already seen several descriptors of the one to whom the prayer is offered. Now we see His actual name evoked: Jehovah/YHWH, that is to say, the Self Existent One. To pray to God is not enough, you need to know who that God is. The use of the name of God in this verse removes all shadow of doubt as to who is being petitioned for help.
There is another part of the description as well which we will see repeated again and again in this prayer: ‘God of hosts’. The word ‘hosts’ is an old English word, which, when simplified to today’s language simply means ‘armies’ or ‘multitudes’.
He is the God of armies. Some thoughts come to mind in connection with this:
– what armies? angelic armies? angels who destroyed entire armies in one night?
– if He is the God of armies, He is King supreme, for multitudes flock to His banner.
– Elisha standing on the walls of Dothan, declaring to his servant, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them!” (2Ki 6)
– what awesome power is at the command of this God!

“how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?“
There are several things worthy of note in this sentence:
1. The word for ‘angry’ is better translated as ‘smoke’. So it should read literally, “How long will you smoke against the prayer of thy people?” The One being addressed is angry with His people, so angry it’s as it were causing Him to smoke. This imagery is not foreign to Scripture. You can read the exact same word being used in Deu 29:20 where it speaks of the anger and jealousy of Jehovah smoking against the man who breaks the covenant.

There is attached to this, something that much of modern Christianity has missed: the God of the Bible can and does get angry. Very angry. So angry that He will ‘smoke’ with anger.
This characteristic of God by no means detracts from His being love, in fact, it’s closely aligned with His love. Perhaps one day, I will get to dig deeper on God’s anger, but suffice to say for now, God can and does get angry – so angry that it is as He were not hearing the prayers of His very own people. That should give us food for thought: if in the past, God’s people offended Him to the point that He was smoking with anger, is it possible that we can do the same?
And if we can do the same, what are the things that would cause such a reaction, and how do we avoid doing them so that we will learn from the past and not find ourselves in such dire straits because of our sins.

2. In the last verse I noted that while there is no backsliding/offences mentioned explicitly, it is strongly implied throughout the prayer. While the prayer seemingly focuses and implies God has forsaken His people, there is a strong undercurrent to say that what happened was that His people left Him.
This implicit narrative can be gleaned from cross-referencing with Deu 29:20 where similar language is used by God in describing the curse that would come if His people backslid.
For one more verse to back up this idea, see Isa 1:15, where the Lord declares to His people that ‘When you make many prayers, I will not hear.” When we read the rest of that passage, we find the reason: hands full of blood, a sinful nation, burdened with iniquity.
The whole nation has fallen to a place where there is nothing left for God to do but give them up to the path they wish to tread, and thereby, the dreadful consequences of their sin.
If the story ended there, how dark would it be! But thank God that’s not where the story ends. There is one more passage in Scripture that not only implies that it’s the people of God who have fallen away, but moreover, they are now making the hard road back to being right with God!

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2Ch 7:14

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, we find a step-by-step process for the people of God when they find they have backslid.
1. Humble themselves
2. Pray
3. Seek the Lord’s face
4. Turn from their wicked ways

This process is particularly interesting in relation to Psalms 80 because there are two things happening in Psalms 80.
1. The people of God are praying
2. They are seeking His face (note that three times in verses 3,7,&19 an explicit appeal is made for God to cause His face to shine)

What does that tell us? Well, if God’s people have backslid, and now find themselves perishing and despair all around (if you continue reading, the picture is one of utter despair. If they are now pleading for God to cause His face to shine upon them once more with radiant life, that tells us that they are on the path of repentance that will bring life, because the good news is that God had promised His people, when you do these things, I will hear and heal the land!

There is a hint that step 4 is underway as well in verse 19 when the prayer says, ‘So will not we go back from Thee’, implying that they recognize they had gone away from the Lord and now are trying their best to return, to which end is this prayer, that the Lord would intervene because even the best of our efforts fall short of the glory of God. It’s only through His grace and mercy that we can live and be made whole.

So maybe you have fallen. Maybe you’ve fallen so far down that it seems God doesn’t hear. He is so angry that there is smoke coming out of His ears and nostrils. The answer is to humble yourself (He is the shepherd, we are the sheep, Ps 80:1), pray (the entire Ps 80), seek His face (mentioned explicitly in Ps 80:3,7,19), and turn from our sin (Ps 80:19). If you hold up your end in faith, He will answer with healing for He is faithful that promised. (Heb10:23)