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Reflections on The Psalms |
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Psalm 80
(NKJV) Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
{2} Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
Stir up Your strength, And come and save us!
{3} Restore us, O God;
Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
The prayer seems to come from the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin, with the two sons of Joseph being Ephraim and Manasseh. The Psalm sounds like it may have come from the time of the Assyrian invasion that took virtually all of the house of Israel and much of Judah.
{4} O LORD God of hosts,
How long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?
{5} You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.
{6} You have made us a strife to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.
{7} Restore us, O God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!
What comes to mind in this prayer is that there comes a time when repentance is beyond our reach. The call goes out, “Turn us again,” reminiscent of the old hymn, “Revive us again.” Also, like the Lord’s Prayer, this is a prayer from “us,” rather than “me.” And since no one of us can repent for another, we have to pray that God will turn us. It is a prayer that might well fit our own country, here and now.
{8} You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
{9} You prepared room for it,
And caused it to take deep root,
And it filled the land.
{10} The hills were covered with its shadow,
And the mighty cedars with its boughs.
{11} She sent out her boughs to the Sea,
And her branches to the River.
The sea would be the Mediterranean, the river, the Euphrates.
This was the sphere of influence granted to Israel.
{12} Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
{13} The boar out of the woods uproots it,
And the wild beast of the field devours it.
Let us not ask why God has broken down the hedges that protect us. The responsibility of maintaining the hedges was ours. This is a prayer from a people in extreme distress, and as man is often wont to do, they blame God when they have no one to blame but themselves. A little later in time, Ezekiel addresses the same problem from God’s point of view.
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD (Ezekiel 13:2-5).
The prophets of that age were the preachers. Like jackals in the desert, all they can do is bark. They have not maintained the moral hedges around God’s people. Neither have we, I am sorry to say.
{14} Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see,
And visit this vine
{15} And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted,
And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
{16} It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
{17} Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
{18} Then we will not turn back from You;
Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.
{19} Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
Cause Your face to shine,
And we shall be saved!
It is painful to think about the implications of this Psalm. Isaiah pens what might have been a response to it:
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. (Isaiah 5:1-7 NKJV)