Psalm LXXX
To the chief Musician. Upon Shoshannim-Eduth. A rsalm of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock! Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth!
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
Stir up thy strength and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall he 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.
I’KAI„M f,XXX, — /KUAFJ/k fl.V.AH FO(!. UKKTOf! ATtON. 2’’/.t
it Thou mnkcBf. uft n strife unto our riciKlil”»iirs: nnrl our rnf;rfiif;s ln.ti(/li among themselves.
7 Turn ns again, O (iod of hosts, anl ranse thy (lua to shine; and we shfill
bo saved.
8 TbotJ hast brought n vine ont of Kgypt: thon ha.st mai ont the heathen,
and planted it.
9 Thfpn prcjmrcdst room before it,
And didst can.sc it Uj take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it,
And the boughs there/>f were like the goodly cedars,
11 She sent out her boughs miUy ‘Hie Hca, and her branches untoTlic Jiiver.
12 Why hast thon then brokf.n down her hedges,
Ho that all they whirh pnss by the way do fdrirk her?
13 The boar ont of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of rh»; h’ld
doth dcTonr it.
14 Ketum, we beseech thee, O God of hosts I
Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine: 16 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, And the branch that thon ma/lest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut don: they pfnish at the rebuke of thy
cofuntenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand.
Upon the iS on of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 8o will we not go back from thee: (jnicken us, and we will call opori thy
name.
19 Turn us again, O Lord (iod of hosts, cause thy face to shine! and we shall
be saved.
Thk sun in the firmament ghonc chnuWem on the field fA Aii.«*- t.eTlitz, where a conqueror of earth was gaining hi« renown; and that bright Kun was recogni.«<ed by the victors a« a fit accompaniment of what they reckonwl a day «o gicmcma in its triumphs. It may have >>ef!m on this principle of .suiting the external symlxpl to the, nature of tpie theme on hanrl, that the temple mu-Siicians HfAf-x^AA for this P.ViJm an in.Htnimmt callel “Bh//fih/mnmi-e(hMh.” In Psalm xlv. we have mention of “ShxfsfMnrma,” and in Psalm Ix, we have the “ShMafi/Wr cxj/uth’’ referring, as H^nnn fancy, to the ‘jf/ij or the, l{l,y-hU;f/m, that shall overspread! the land, when the nation that alone jkpssessed Go<rs “Tefdi/rnxmy” .should receive the answer of these prayer.s. But more than this we cannot say.*
* It i» ft conceit of the Jews to mark the p in verse 1.?, TJTD the miMU letter of the Psalter, by suspending it above the line of the other letters.
240 PSALM Lxxx. — Israel’s pleas for restoration.
It is an Asaph-prayer again, full of pleas in Israel’s behalf. It is as if they had before them Isa. lxiii. 31, “Then he remembered the days of old.” They call to his mind the days of Joseph, when (Gen. xlix. 24) the Lord miraculously fed them in Egypt. And then the tabernacle- days, when first, since the days of Eden, the Lord was known to dwell between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat. They call to his mind wildernesstimes (ver. 2), when their march was gladdened by his presence, “Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh” lookiig on the Pillar of Glory as it rose before them, the guide and partner of their way (see Num. x. 22-24). “O God, bring us back again! Cause thy face to shine! and all shall be well again!”
They appeal to his power, verse 4, “0 God of Hosts” (ver. 4 and 7), and to his love for his people (ver. 4). Why smokes thine anger, rejecting the smoke of incense that speaks of favour? Instead of joyful feasts (ver. 5), we weep sore, and foes divide our substance for spoil, instead of the safety our fathers enjoyed in serving thee (Exodus xxxiv. 24). “O God of Hosts, bring us back again! Cause thy face to shine! and all shall be well!”
Again the harp sounds to a melancholy reminiscence of the past. Memory recalls the time when Israel was the Lord’s Vine — an emblem of him who is the True Vine. Taken out of Egypt, and made to spread (Isa. v. 2), it filled the land. The hills of Judah on the south, the cedar region of Lebanon on the north (ver. 1 1), the great Mediterranean sea on the west, and the Euphrates on the far eastern border, were all witnesses of the Vine’s luxuriance. How desolate now! “O God of Hosts, come back, we pray! Look down from heaven, and see! Visit this vine.”
Some think that in verse 17 they are acknowledging Messiah, calling him by the name, “Man of thy right hand,” “Branch made strong for thyself.” The Chaldee Targum says, this is “King Messiah.” «Othersclaim these names for Israel; for Israel is God’s Benjamin, and God’s strong rod wherewith to rule the nations. -The words are in the original such as surely point to Messiah; for they are not, “son of thy right hand,” but “?|J^D^ MJ^^.” Man of thy right hand,” and “son of
I’SALM Lxxx. — Israel’s pleas for fill RESTORAiiOiV. 241
maw whom thou hast made strong for thyself,” Dli ]2,; in this resembling Psalm viii. 6. Even if the terms were appropriate to Israel as God’s favoured people, still there would be here simply an allusion to that fact, while the real possessor of the name is Messiah, God’s true Israel. And if so, then verse 1 7 is Israel, in the Latter Day, crying “Hosanna!” to Christ, and so entitled to what his words implicitly promised in Matt. XX. 39 — “Thou shalt not see me henceforth till thou shalt say. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They pray, “Appoint Him our captain — let thy hand be upon him, designating him to his office, as Moses did Joshua,” (Num. xxvii. 23). And so they may claim to be gathered and blest with a fuller blessing than their fathers, who, by the hand of God upon them, were led up by Ezra (vii. 9), and Nehemiah (ii. 18); for they claim as their leader Messiah, the true Ezra, “Helper,” and true Nehemiah, “the Lord’s consolation.” Is not Psalm ex. 1 of itself sufficient to justify the name, “The man of thy Right Hand?”
“Jehovah, God of Hosts, bring us back! Cause thy countenance to shine on us! And we shall be saved,” (jn^WM response to “Hosanna!”
May we not sympathise in these appeals? May we not put in our own case with theirs? Appoint, Lord, Messiah to be our captain, our soul’s leader, and we individually shall be saved! We cry, “Hosanna!” i<i H^ltin, and thou wilt give a response that shall make us shout back nfyttlj. Yes, thy Church in all the earth, Lord God of Hosts, with one consent joins in presenting to thee,
Israel’s pleas for full restoration.