Weekly Lectionary Spotlight

Her Interpretation: Welcome, beloved friends and family, to the Fourth Sunday of Advent with me, Dr. Shively Smith, in our series, “Reading the Bible with African American Women.” This series is sponsored by the Calvin Institute. Each week, we invite you to let the wisdom of Black women interpreters meet the ancient words of Advent. Each Monday, a new episode drops so you can carry these voices into your study, your planning, and your own prayers. If you haven’t already, share the link or this episode and the ones before it with someone else.

Light the final candle and the longing in Psalm 80 leaps off the page. Here is a people daring to cry, “Restore us, let your face shine.” This is not polished poetry that brings comfort after everything has been resolved. These words are born out of exile, spoken in a season when promise looked trampled under empire and hope hovered on the very edge of loss. This hope is not passive. Psalm 80 is a communal lament, a public and collective prayer calling on God for real change, rooted in both responsibility and praise. 

Scholars tell us the psalm likely comes from Israel’s darkest hour, probably during the Assyrian crisis of the eighth century BCE when the northern kingdom was shattered and exiled. The psalm’s repeated calls—“restore us,” “let your face shine”—are more than poetry. They reach deep into the old covenant promise, where the shining face of God meant divine favor and protection. 

By the time of Second Temple Judaism, the vine and shepherd images in Psalm 80 came to symbolize hope for national restoration and the coming Messiah, hopes that early Christian writers saw fulfilled in Jesus. The vine became a living image for generations of Jews and Christians, calling us to trust that God brings new life and protection even when everything appears lost.

The other lectionary texts for this week intensify the longing. Isaiah 7 brings the promise of Emmanuel into a world racked with anxiety and deep uncertainty. God’s sign is given not in easy times but precisely in the midst of fear and challenge. Matthew 1 tells the story of a child born when family lines are fragile and faith must find its footing in daily struggle. These stories are woven together to show that hope comes alive in courageous communities who refuse to give up longing or action, trusting God to work through both ordinary struggle and prophetic resilience.

Maria W. Stewart stands in this tradition. Born free in 1803, widowed young, then defrauded of her inheritance by white executors, Stewart transformed her sorrow into a public call. In 1832 and 1833, she broke new ground as the first American woman—Black or white—to address audiences of men and women, Black and white, on political and moral issues. She did this a decade before Sojourner Truth’s public career. Her anchor was Psalm 80: “Return again unto us, O Lord God... Cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.”