Psalms 80:1-19
1 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 comea and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
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.
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 goodlyb 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.
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.
Though we know not the occasion on which this song was composed, yet as the tribes still inhabited the land, it probably was written on the same occasion as the preseding, and prays for the same salvation.
Psalms 80:1. Thou that dwellest between the cherubims. In allusion to the shekinah, or visible glory, which dwelt upon the mercy seat, above the ark, and was overshadowed by the cherubim.
Psalms 80:2. Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh. The twelve tribes in the wilderness encamped about the ark, forming a square whose sides were each twelve miles. The above three are mentioned here, because, according to the order of the march, these immediately followed the ark.
Psalms 80:7. Turn us, oh God and we shall be saved. This is a prayer of confidence, that God would revive Judah and her allies after the double stroke of Shishak and Jeroboam's most bloody wars.
Psalms 80:15. And the branch. This is a frequent emblem of the Messiah. Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12. But the Hebrew here is אל בן al ben, upon the SON. The LXX and the Vulgate have “the Son of man;” and the Chaldee, “upon the King Messiah, whom thou madest strong for thyself.” It is rendered literally at Psalms 80:17, the man of thy right hand the Son of man, that is Christ Jesus. Psalms 110:1; Hebrews 1:13.
REFLECTIONS.
This, in some few copies, is not divided from the preseding psalm. The substance of the prayer is twofold. The first part of it pleads for restoring grace, under the idea that Messiah was the compassionate shepherd of Israel. The second, by the beautiful and well-supported allegory of the vine, moves the Lord to pity his once favourite vineyard. The late C. Wesley has admirably preserved the spirit of the original.
Surely, oh Lord, we once were thine, Thou hast for us thy wonders wrought, A generous and right noble vine, When newly out of Egypt brought. Thou didst the heathen stock expel, The hardened race received their doom, Druids and all the brood of hell, And monks of antichristian Rome.
Planted by thy Almighty hand, Watered with blood, the vine took root, And spread throughout the happy land, And filled the earth with golden fruit.
The hills were covered with her shade, Her branchy arms extended wide, Her fair luxuriant honours spread, And rivalled all the cedar's pride.
Why hast thou then abhorred thine own, And cast thy pleasant plant away, Broke down her mounds, her fence o'erthrown, And left her to the beasts a prey.
All that go by pluck off her grapes, Our Zion of her children spoil, While error in ten thousand shapes, Assays the simple to beguile.
The boar out of the German wood, Tears up her roots with ruthless power, The lion roaring for his food, And all the forest beasts devour.
Look on them with thy flaming eyes, The sin-consuming virtue dart; And bid our fallen church arise, And make us after thy own heart.