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Psalms 80

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Invocation and Plea for Restoration 1–3

1
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannimeduth, A Psalm of Asaph. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. ​
2
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. ​
3
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. ​

Lamenting God's Anger and People's Suffering 4–7

4
O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? ​
5
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. ​
6
Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7
Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Israel as the Uprooted Vine 8–13

8
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. ​
9
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10
The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
12
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? ​
13
The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

Renewed Appeal for Divine Intervention 14–19

14
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
15
And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16
It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. ​
18
So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19
Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalm 80

Verse 1

Shepherd of Israel — This exact title is found only here in the KJV. The shepherd ‘leadest’ (nahag, drives or guides) ‘Joseph like a flock’, and Joseph, the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, stands for the whole people. He ‘dwellest between the cherubims’ of the ark (1 Sam 4:4), and ‘shine forth’ is yapha, the verb of ‘he shined forth from mount Paran’ (Deut 33:2).

Verse 2

Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh — Rachel’s descendants camped together on the west side of the tabernacle and went forward together in the third rank (Num 2:18–24; 10:22–24). The prayer asks the LORD to ‘stir up’ (ur, awake) his ‘strength’ (gevurah) before them and ‘come and save us’.

Verse 3

Turn us again — Shub is to turn back. This is the refrain of the psalm, repeated in vv.7 and 19 with the address growing: ‘O God’, ‘O God of hosts’, ‘O LORD God of hosts’. ‘Cause thy face to shine’ takes up the priestly blessing, ‘The LORD make his face shine upon thee’ (Num 6:25). Lam 5:21 prays, ‘Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned.’

Verse 4

how long wilt thou be angry — ‘LORD God of hosts’ names him as head of the armies (tsaba). ‘Be angry’ is literally ‘smoke’ (ashan), the verb of Ps 74:1, ‘why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?’ The anger is ‘against the prayer of thy people’ (tephillah), so the prayers themselves have gone unanswered.

Verse 5

the bread of tears — The people eat tears as their food: ‘My tears have been my meat day and night’ (Ps 42:3). ‘In great measure’ is shalish, a measure (the ‘measure’ of Isa 40:12).

Verse 8

a vine out of Egypt — Gephen, vine. ‘Brought’ is nasa, to pull up, as stakes are pulled in breaking camp; he ‘cast out’ (garash) the nations and ‘planted’ it, as Ps 44:2 says, ‘thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them’. Isaiah names the same vineyard: ‘the house of Israel’ (Isa 5:7).

Verse 12

broken down her hedges — Parats is to break through. In Isaiah’s song the LORD says of the vineyard, ‘I will take away the hedge thereof… and break down the wall thereof’ (Isa 5:5). The people who ‘pass by the way’ pluck (arah) the fruit freely. Ps 89:40–41 uses the same two images of David’s line, ‘all that pass by the way spoil him’.

Verse 17

the son of man whom thou madest strong — ‘Madest strong’ is amats, the verb of v.15, ‘the branch that thou madest strong for thyself’, the vine’s own ‘branch’. The ‘Son of man’ of Dan 7:13–14 receives ‘dominion, and glory, and a kingdom’, and Christ says of himself, ‘the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power’ (Matt 26:64).

Verse 19

Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts — The last refrain brings in the divine name, ‘LORD’, with ‘God of hosts’; the first had only ‘God’ (v.3). The prayer for turning is answered in Jer 3:22: ‘Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.’ ‘Saved’ is yasha, as in vv.3 and 7, and the shining face is the one asked in Ps 31:16.