Psalm 80

1Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out. 2Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might! Come to save us! 3Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. 4Yahweh God of Armies, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? 5You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure. 6You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves. 7Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. 8You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. 9You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. 10The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. 11It sent out its branches to the sea, its shoots to the River. 12Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? 13The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. 14Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, 15the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. 16It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke. 17Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. 18So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name. 19Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

This psalm is much to the same purport with the foregoing. Some think it was penned upon occasion of the desolation and captivity of the ten tribes, as the foregoing psalm of the two. But many were the distresses of the Israel of God, many perhaps which are not recorded in the sacred history some whereof might give occasion for the drawing up of this psalm, which is proper to be sung in the day of Jacob's trouble, and if, in singing it, we express a true love to the church and a hearty concern for its interest, with a firm confidence in God's power to help it out of its greatest distresses, we make melody with our hearts to the Lord. The psalmist here, I. Begs for the tokens of God's presence with them and favour to them (Psa 80:1-3). II. He complains of the present rebukes they were under (Psa 80:4-7). III. He illustrates the present desolations of the church, by the comparison of a vine and a vineyard, which had flourished, but was now destroyed (Psa 80:8-16). IV. He concludes with prayer to God for the preparing of mercy for them and the preparing of them for mercy (Psa 80:17-19). This, as many psalms before and after, relates to the public interests of God's Israel, which ought to lie nearer to our hearts than any secular interest of our own.

To the chief musician upon Shoshannim, Eduth. A psalm of Asaph.

Cross-references: Ps 80:1 · Ps 80:4 · Ps 80:8 · Ps 80:17

Introduction