Psalms 80:8-13

If we read this in allusion, first, to the old church dispensation, and then again spiritually to the new, and the Holy Ghost condescends to be our teacher, we shall find rich instruction in the beautiful similitude here adopted, of the church represented by a vine. Christ is the Vine, so he himself hath said; and that as the head of his body, the church; John 15:1, etc. God the Holy Ghost calls the church by the same, Isaiah 5:1, etc. Now the Lord Jehovah's glory is celebrated in that Christ, the great Shepherd, first formed his people into a church, a flock, and brought them out of Egypt. To make room for it in Canaan, the Lord drove out the natural inhabitants, seven nations, from thence. There the church was settled: it spread abroad: the hills were covered with the branches of it, and the sea of the neighboring states found Israel flourishing. But when the enemy came in, like the boar of the wood, and sin and corruption brought forth wild grapes, then, though the Lord had planted a choice root, it became a degenerate plant; Jeremiah 2:21. All this is literally the case respecting the history of the old church. But with what increasing strength of allusion is the similitude made in reference to the new! for here Christ, as the true Vine, and his church as his branches, are brought out of the spiritual Egypt of sin and death. When they have taken root in Jesus, the branches of his grace and the fruits of his Spirit go forth in every direction, to his praise and glory. And, agreeably to Jehovah's promise, the dominion of Jesus is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Psalms 72:8. Are those branches broken off? Hath the enemy, like the boar, directed his malice against the Vine? Yes, in the person of the elder branch, the Jew, we find sad devastations. The Holy Ghost hath explained this by his servant the apostle, Romans 11:1.