W. Robert Godfrey

You turned from your hot anger.

So that's looking back.

There was an up.

There was a down.

Now there's an up.

And now the prayer is, restore us again, O Lord.

There's another down.

Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.

Will you be angry with us forever?

Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?

Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

So here's sort of the pattern, you know, spiritually up, spiritually down, spiritually up, spiritually down, praying that they might go up again or according to God's steadfast love, according to his covenant love.

Remember us, O Lord.

Don't abandon us in our sin.

Deliver us.

And so we see this up and down in Israel.

And one of the important questions, I think, for us as New Testament readers of the Old Testament, does that up and down apply to us?

Or is the life of the church of Jesus Christ just always up, up, up?

Well, if you're tempted to think that the life of the church of Jesus Christ is always up, up, up, I have a series on church history to come in to you.