Restore us, God Almighty;
    make your face shine on us,
    that we may be saved.

Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
    the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
Then we will not turn away from you;
    revive us, and we will call on your name.

Restore us, Lord God Almighty;
    make your face shine on us,
    that we may be saved.

Each time we recite the Apostles’ Creed in worship, we repeat the affirmation that Jesus Christ “sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Stripping away the antiquated language, that’s an affirmation that Jesus, the savior, now sits at the right hand of God. From there he will come to judge both those who are living at his return, and those who have died before that time.

Our understanding of Jesus, and the recognition of Jesus as the promised Messiah, are both shaped by Old Testament teachings like this passage from the 80th psalm.

In pleading for salvation, the writer of the psalm asks God to “Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.”

As Christians, we recognize this as a description of Jesus, who was described as a “son of man” who sits at God’s right hand.

The psalmist continues, “Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.” The writer speaks in confidence that the witness of the son of man who sits at God’s right hand will restore God’s people to obedience; once they have seen him, they will no longer turn away.

When Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, he relates a conversation between Lazarus and Abraham in which Lazarus tells Abraham that if the people hear the message of salvation from someone from the dead, they will repent. Abraham replies, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Jesus, as we might expect, was right.

Even though he was raised from the dead, many still do not believe and have not repented.

God still has work to do to return the world to himself, and he still needs willing workers to use for that task.