Isaiah 11 promises that God will raise up a shoot from the stump of Jesse on whom the spirit of God will rest. This captures the essence of Davidic promise and messianic hope: sonship and spirit anointing. God’s rule will come through a Son he will raise and anoint with his Spirit.

Psalm 80 cries for the fulfilment of this promise. It is the lament of a nation under God’s judgement. The Vine of God—people who had once known the joy of living under God’s rule—had been cut down. Failure to live under God’s righteous rule inevitably rendered them liable to live under God’s judgement.

The constant appeal in this psalm is “Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” It is an appeal for God to turn back to them and for his presence to be known to them once more. The light of his face acknowledges the perfection of his rule. That it is currently turned away explains the darkness in which they now dwell.

But God’s promise stands. And in his patience, he hears the cries of his people and meets their sin-induced suffering with his heaven-born righteousness. To a wayward and fractious world, God sent his Son, Jesus, to live and die but then be raised from the dead. God’s life-giving spirit anointed, raised, and revealed him to be God’s everlasting king.

History has forever cried for this hope. In Christ, hope is assured. While ever we are grafted to him as the true vine, trusting his promise to us, our future cannot be shaken.