THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Psalm 80:1-19
Romans 15:4-6

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

SONG OF THE BURNT VINE

After the glorious reign of Solomon, decay and apostasy set in. As a result the Kingdom was split in two, ten tribes to Jeroboam in the North, and two tribes to Rehoboam (Solomon’s son) in the South. Ephraim and Manasseh were brothers, sons of Joseph, but Ephraim the younger became the chief tribe of the North. Judah had Simeon absorbed under her leadership in the South. Part of Benjamin belonged to the North and part belonged to the South.

Now, the Northern Kingdom was at this time invaded by Assyria, the ancient superpower. In appealing to God for help, the Psalmist composed this song of the burnt vine. The vine and the fig tree are two plants used often to represent Israel. Isaiah uses the same figure in Isaiah 5:1-7. In the concluding verse 7, Isaiah says the vineyard is the home of Israel and the vine the men of Judah. It tells of its luxuriance and filling the land with its branches. Then came the breaking down of the hedges and the destruction of it by wild beasts, and its being burned down to the ground. Hence the plea to God for salvation and the raising of a strong man to lead them back to God.

This song of the burnt vine is applicable to every Christian nation. There was a time when Britannia ruled the waves. The four hundred years after the Reformation saw England become Protestant and blessed with the Gospel, with great men of God who thundered the Word of God against the sins of the people. God blessed Great Britain with a host of illustrious faithful men: Wycliffe, Knox, Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, and Puritans like John Bunyan, Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, William Burns, etc. With the infiltration of liberal and modernist teachings by a new breed of Higher Critics since the nineteenth century, the Empire began also to decline. By the end of World War II, the world leadership that was Britain’s passed on to the United States.

THOUGHT: (Read Psalm 80:6.)
PRAYER: (Use Psalm 80:3.)