Psalms 80:2

Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us.

For understanding of this verse we must remember that, when the ark of the covenant rested, or marched, in the wilderness, these three tribes were in the rearward of the host of Israel, or on the west side thereof, as is set down (Numbers 2:18). When the host marched, and the ark set forward, Moses said to the Lord, “Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee”; answerable to this, doth the sixty-eighth psalm begin, when the ark removed, and was carried up to Mount Zion; now, the people of God being in distress here, do call those days to remembrance, and do request the Lord, that as He had in the eyesight of those three tribes here mentioned, manifested Himself many a time to be the leader and defender of His people, so He would now also in this their lamentable condition stir up Himself for their relief and safety. Whence learn

1. The remembrance of the Lord’s humbling Himself to be familiar with His people, and how sweet and glorious communion His people have had with Him, may, and should, encourage believers in Him to seek and expect new experience of the like mercy in their need, as here the Israelites do pray for new proof of that favour, which their ancestors did find sometimes.

2. The posterity of those who have been in fellowship with God should pray for themselves, and be prayed for by the Church, that they may have room in the Lord’s host, and have God their leader, as their godly fathers had before them. (D. Dickson.)