When the Shepherd Turned His Face Toward Herrnhut

In the summer of 1727, the small community of Herrnhut in Saxony was tearing itself apart. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf had welcomed Moravian refugees onto his estate, but the settlers fractured into bitter factions — Lutherans against Reformed, old guard against newcomers. For months, accusations and resentments multiplied like weeds. Zinzendorf later described a people who had been fed on nothing but the bread of their own tears.

Then on August 13, during a communion service at the village church in nearby Berthelsdorf, something shifted. As they shared the bread and cup together, the entire congregation was overwhelmed by God's presence so powerfully that many wept openly — not from grief this time, but from the unmistakable awareness that the Shepherd of Israel had turned His face toward them again.

The transformation was immediate and lasting. Former enemies embraced. Grudges that had festered for months dissolved in a single afternoon. And from that moment of restoration, the Moravians launched a continuous prayer watch — twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week — that would continue unbroken for over one hundred years.

Psalm 80 is the cry of a people who have known God's face turned away, who have eaten tears like daily bread. Three times the psalmist pleads, "Restore us, O God; make Your face shine on us, that we may be saved." It is the prayer of every community and every soul that has tasted estrangement from the Almighty — and dares to believe that the Shepherd still listens, still turns, still shines.