So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.
Parallel Translations
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So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.
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So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
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(80-19) So shall we not turn back from Thee; quicken Thou us, and we will call upon Thy name.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Psalms 80:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 119:25 My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
- Psalms 119:40 Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness.
- Psalms 119:107 I am afflicted very much. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your word.
- Psalms 119:154 Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to your promise.
- John 6:66-69 At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
- Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
- Song of Solomon 1:4 Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you.
- Hebrews 10:38-39 But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
- Psalms 79:13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.
- Psalms 85:6 Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
- Psalms 119:37 Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.
- Ephesians 2:1-5 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- Psalms 71:20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Psalms 119:156 Great are your tender mercies, Yahweh. Revive me according to your ordinances.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain In the 18th verse, the faithful engage, upon God’s…
In the 18th verse, the faithful engage, upon God’s hearing them, gratefully to acknowledge his goodness, not only by rendering to him the sacrifice of praise, but also by their whole life. Calling upon God’s name, is here to be understood of “the calves of the lips,” (Hosea 45:3;) but when it is said, We will not go back from thee, this means the uniform and continued course of the whole life. The verse, however, may be interpreted thus: O Lord! we will continue in our obedience to thee, even when our circumstances, so far as we can perceive, are hopeless; never shall the sharpness of our calamities have the effect of driving us to apostasy from thee: and when we are restored by thy grace and power, we will magnify thy name. It would be superfluous to make any farther observations on the last verse, which is repeated for the third time.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For none can call upon God but such as…
For none can call upon God but such as are raised up as it were from death to life, and regenerate by the holy Spirit.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 80:18 So will not we go back from…
Psa 80:18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
Ver. 18. So will not we go back] A promise of gratitude, which is usually annexed to prayers for deliverance.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This glorious favour of thine shall oblige us to…
This glorious favour of thine shall oblige us to love and serve thee, and trust in thee so long as we have a being, and no more to revolt from thee to idolatry or wickedness, as we have too oft done.
Quicken us; revive and restore us to our former tranquillity and happiness.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts,.... This…
Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts,.... This is a repetition of Psa 80:3, in which may be observed an increase of the names or titles of the Divine Being: in Psa 80:3, it is only "O God"; in Psa 80:7 "O God of hosts"; and here, "Lord God of hosts"; some have thought that the doctrine of the Trinity is here suggested; which is a better thought than that of Jarchi's, who supposes that three captivities of Israel are pointed at: but as it follows,
cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved; it appears that this was the burden of their song, being in darkness and distress, that they might have the light of God's countenance, and therefore repeat it again and again.
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Next: Psalms Chapter 81
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Go back - Revolt from thee to idolatry or…
Go back - Revolt from thee to idolatry or wickedness. Quicken - Revive and restore us to our tranquility.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 18. So will not we go back from…
Verse 18. So will not we go back from thee] We shall no more become idolaters: and it is allowed on all hands that the Jews were never guilty of idolatry after their return from the Babylonish captivity.
Quicken us] Make us alive, for we are nearly as good as dead.
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We will call upon thy name.] We will invoke thee. Thou shalt be for ever the object of our adoration, and the centre of all our hopes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain So will not we go back from thee -…
So will not we go back from thee - That is, if thou wilt thus interpose; if thou wilt deliver the nation; if thou wilt help him whom thou hast placed over it, giving him wisdom and valor, we will hereafter be obedient to thy law; we will not apostatize from thee. It is a solemn promise or pledge of future obedience made by the psalmist as expressing the purpose of the people if God would be merciful and would withdraw his judgments; a pledge proper in itself, and often made by the Hebrew people only to be disregarded; a pledge proper for all who are in affliction, and often made in such circumstances, but, as in the case of the Hebrews, often made only to be forgotten.
Quicken us - literally, Give us life. See the notes at Eph 2:1. Restore life to us as a people; save us from ruin, and reanimate us with thy presence.
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And we will call upon thy name - We will worship thee; we will be faithful in serving thee.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 18. So will not we go back—With these earnest…
18. So will not we go back—With these earnest petitions graciously answered we shall no more backslide.
Quicken us—Cause us to live; equal to, “Preserve alive thy work.” Hab_3:2
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18. So shall we not go back from thee…
18. So shall we not go back from thee (R.V.), bound to Thee by a fresh tie of allegiance. quicken us] The restoration of our national life (Hos_6:2) will evoke a fresh response of grateful praise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain So will not we go back from thee; i.e.…
So will not we go back from thee; i.e. "we shall not go hack from thee any more." Gratitude for our deliverance will hind us fast to thy service. Quicken us. (comp. Hos_6:2) The prayer is for national rather than spiritual life for a recovery from the destruction which has almost come upon them (ver. 16). And we will call upon thy Name; i.e. we will be faithful to thee henceforth; we will not go after other gods, but "call upon" thee, and thee only. The poet makes himself the spokesman of the whole nation.
Going back from God.
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This psalm, this verse, is a penitent confession that Israel had been guilty of this sin, and it is a prayer for pardon and restoration. But such backsliding did not cease with Israel. We have here
I A CONFESSION OF THE SIN. Israel needed to make such confession. But so do others now.
1. Apostates, like Demas, Judas, etc.
2. Those who know God has called them, but from fear of man refuse to confess him.
3. Those who have confessed him, but live inconsistent lives.
4. Those who, after special seasons of nearness to God, go back to indulge their old sins. These, and yet others, need this confession.
II A PORTRAYAL OF ITS MISERY. (See vers. 5, 6, 12, 13, 16) The backslider is the most miserable man on the face of the earth. He can never forget that he has known the better way, and has chosen the worse.
III AN ASSURANCE OF ITS PREVENTION.
1. Such prevention needed; for going back is so easy, so secret, so perilous, so shameful, so condemned of God.
2. And is sure, by the grace of God turning us again, leading us into the possession and retainment of the fulness of his grace, and giving us the joy of his salvation. S.C.
God"s grace our best safeguard.
"So will not we go back from thee." This assurance implies that the people, in whose name the psalmist speaks, had fully learned the lesson which God designed to teach them by the withdrawal, which was chastisement, and involved bitter distress and humiliation. They had turned to God, and God had turned, in mercy and in restoring grace, to them. The issue of bitter experience was, that the people desired to be steadfast servants of God henceforth. Compare the psalmist"s personal exclamation, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now will I keep thy word." But there is a yet deeper sign of their return to right mindedness. They do not merely make a promise, "So will not we go back from thee;" they acknowledge that they need Divine help in the endeavour to keep their promise. They go on to say, "Quicken us, and we will call upon thy Name." That is the supreme lesson which the discipline and the chastisement of life are to teach us our entire dependence on the Divine grace and upholding.
I THE PROMISE MADE BY THE DISCIPLINED. A promise of steadfastness. The disciples of Christ went back, and walked no more with him, because his higher, spiritual truth was beyond their reach; and, as they could not apprehend it, they were offended by it. But these Israelites had wavered in their allegiance to Jehovah, because they wanted to "follow the devices and desires of their own hearts." So the result of their discipline was that most hopefully humiliating thing, the abating of self-confidence. They felt their need of God, their dependence on God, and made their resolves that henceforth they would cleave closely to him. So far good. Resolves are good; but everything depends on the spirit in which they are made. Trust in the resolve soon ends in worse failure.
II THE HOPE OF KEEPING THEIR PROMISE, WHICH THE DISCIPLINED MIGHT CHERISH. The hope that God"s grace would be their inspiration and support. They pray, "Quicken us," which not only means, "Give us life," but, "Renew to us life;" "Ever keep up the energizing, the vitalizing, and the controlling." Life expresses exactly that which we need, to change barren resolve into constant, active, and holy endeavour. We need never fear "going back," if God will graciously quicken us. That grace is our sure defence from our weak selves. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 18. So will not we, etc. How are…
Ver. 18. So will not we, etc. How are we to understand the connection between this and the preceding words? It may be understood two ways.
1. As it would oblige them to the yielding of steadfast obedience; it would lay them under a special engagement never to revolt any more, as they had done; if God would grant this request, it would be a most eminent tie and bond upon them to the most constant and faithful service.
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2. As it would enable them to yield such obedience. And this I conceive to be chiefly aimed at; if God would lay such help upon Christ for them, they should receive power by that means to discharge their duty to him better than ever heretofore; though they were very feeble and wavering, false and treacherous of themselves, yet here would be a successful remedy. Timothy Cruso.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain So will not we go back from Thee.
Psa_80:18
So will not we go back from Thee.
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Apostasy from God
I. Wherein lies the true nature of apostasy from God.
1. Every failure and defect in the exercise of grace is not to be reckoned as an apostasy. The soul may faint and flag in the pursuit of God, and yet not be carried off so far as to steer a contrary course.
2. Every positive discovery of corruption in the actual commission of sin is not apostasy. A man may halt and slip, yea, he may stumble, and fall, and yet not go back.
3. Apostasy from God includes not only a deviation in the life, but an alienation of the heart (Psa_95:10; Act_3:32; Psa_44:18).
4. Apostasy from God is really an undoing of all the good which we have done. It is ending in the flesh, after we have begun in the Spirit; when our faces have been towards Zion, and our doings framed to turn to God; this is a revoking and disannulling of all, and driving towards hell.
II. Of what concernment and importance it is to believers to re secured against such apostasy.
1. How much they are in danger of it, viz. if left alone, and abandoned to themselves.
(1) Grace in us is very weak.
(2) Corruption in us is very active (Jam_1:14). There is folly enough remaining in the wisest and best of men to prevent and mislead them.
(3) The temptations which come upon us are very numerous. Every place, every condition, every employment, every relation is full of them.
2. How much danger they incur by apostasy, if they should be left to be guilty of it.
(1) They must needs at the present lose all comfortable communion with God.
(2) They can never see the kingdom of God, unless they remember from whence they are gone back, and return and do their first works.
(3) If they come back to God again, it must be by very bitter and sorrowful repentance.
III. How is the strength of Christ our security in this case?
1. Omnipotence belongs to Christ, on the account of His Godhead, and this shall be exerted on the behalf of them that believe, as there is occasion.
2. Christ was anointed with power, as Mediator, the improvement whereof is not to His own advantage, but the advantage of those that believe in Him (Isa_63:1; Luk_1:69).
3. Christ hath destroyed the power of the devil by a power superior to him. This is meant by His dividing the spoil with the strong (Isa_53:12).
4. Christ, by the matchless efficacy and merit of His blood, hath purchased for us confirming grace, and the perpetual presence of the Spirit with us.
5. Christs prevailing intercession secures to us the needful, actual succours of grace, while we are here in this world.
IV. Why hath God ordered it so, that believers should be secured against apostasy by the strength of Christ?
1. This agrees with Gods general design of heaping all the glory possible upon Jesus Christ.
2. This suits with Gods design of grace in our eternal election; for we are chosen in Christ (Eph_1:4). Therefore it is fit that we should be also preserved in Christ (Jud_1:1).
3. It is necessary that we should be secured against apostasy by the strength of Christ, because He is the First and the Last in our sanctification.
4. It is necessary that Christ should secure us in our way to glory, because it is His business to receive us into the possession of that glory at the close of all (Joh_14:3).
5. The wisdom of God is hereby seen in a most shameful baffling of the devil.
6. Believers could not have a better security than that whereof there hath been a visible experiment in the Person of Christ Himself.
V. Uses.
1. This lays open the ground of the devils enmity against Christ, which hath been always most extreme and implacable.
2. It is inexcusable folly for any one in the world to lean to his own arm.
3. Make no promises of perseverance in your own strength.
4. Look to your faith as the principal grace, which contributes to your establishment (Isa_7:9).
5. Do not arrogate the honour of your standing in Christ, and abiding with Christ, in the least measure to yourselves. Let Christ have all the glory of your setting out, and holding out; let Him have it now, and let Him have it at the last. (T. Cruse.)
Backsliders and their guilt
I. Point out those who may be justly charged with going back from God.
1. Those who, having been once instructed in the Gospel, and having enjoyed the benefits of its means of grace, and continued for some time professors of Christianity, have afterwards renounced the faith through an evil heart of unbelief. The religion of Jesus presents insurmountable objections to fraud, deceit, or dishonesty--to the indulgence of sinful passions or of unlawful pleasures; yet they are attached to their worldly enjoyments, and, desirous of shaking off the restraints of religion, they begin by impugning particular doctrines, and imagine that the precepts of Christianity are not so strict, or its denunciations against sin so very positive as they seem, and fancy that they shall find some way of escaping punishment not commonly understood, some easier way than passing through the strait gate which Christ has pointed out By degrees they go on to deny religion altogether, and to magnify for themselves difficulties into serious objections.
2. Those who shrink from an open and fair avowal and confession of their faith. They are afraid lest they be accounted puritanical, singular, narrow-minded or superstitious; they dread the laugh, the ridicule, the contempt of weak and worthless mortals whom they cannot possibly esteem, more than the reproofs of a disapproving conscience, more than the awful displeasure of God.
3. There are many who, from pure fickleness and love of change, are carried about with every wind of doctrine; many have no root in themselves, and therefore become the deluded followers of every new instructor, of every arrogant pretender to superior knowledge or holiness.
4. There are also not a few who, influenced by worldly attachments and connections, accompany and follow their companions and friends, and separate themselves from others with whom they have had some trifling quarrel, or conceived something wrong. Those who thus act go in direct opposition to Christs admonition. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
5. Those who act habitually inconsistent with their religious profession. A licentious and immoral Christian, a profane and ungodly believer, a false and deceitful follower of Jesus, a lover of God who is cruel or unjust to men, are characters which, by the very words of which they are expressed, involve a contradiction, and cannot by possibility have any existence.
6. They may be more especially charged with going back, who return to the wilful commission of sin, after having been engaged in the ordinances of devotion, namely, those professing Christians who have made public and solemn declaration of love, obedience, and attachment, to Jesus, and of a determination to act faithfully as Christians.
II. Let me entreat you to avoid following their example, because--
1. It is weak and contemptible. In the most ordinary affairs of life can you ever have confidence, can you ever have esteem for the fickle, changeable, and irresolute?
2. It is very sinful to go back from God; for dishonesty and unfaithfulness to engagements are uniformly regarded as criminal, and are generally punished. Shall he, then, who vows, escape the vows he has made before heaven?
III. Let me entreat you, then, to form the resolution here expressed by the psalmist, that you will not go back from God. Whatever your difficulties or trials, whether pleasures allure or dangers intimidate, it is yours to follow unmoved the great Captain of your salvation. Think of the recompense set before you--the crown of life set before him who shall be faithful unto death. (D. Macfarlan, D. D.)
Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name.
The quickening necessary to prayer
Man requires spiritual quickening before he can pray. He must be quickened--
I. With the sense of the Divine presence. Who can pray without the vivid realization of the Divine personality, the Divine presence, and the Divine entreatability?
II. With the sense of moral obligation. Who will pray without feeling the strongest convictions of duty to love, serve, and honour the great God?
III. With the sense of spiritual needs. Sense of dependence underlies all prayer, all religion, all worship. This sense which, alas! is deadened within us, must be quickened before we can pray. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.