Psalms 80
Big idea: Three times, at rising intensity, the same sentence: turn us again, God; cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. Between the refrains is one sustained image — a vine brought out of Egypt, planted in cleared ground, filling the land, its branches reaching the sea — and then a question that stops the poem: why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by pluck it? The wall is the grievance. Someone took the fence down, and the psalm knows who.
Psalm 80 asks God to turn back to his vine. Psalm 81 has God answer: my people didn't listen to my voice.
80:1–7 — Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved
A refrain psalm, and the refrain is doing the arguing: 'turn US again' — the request is not that circumstances change but that the people be turned, which puts the repentance itself on God's side of the ledger. And the complaint in verse 4 is unusually precise: the anger is not against their sin but 'against the PRAYER of your people'. The channel is what has closed.
1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph. Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out. 2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might! Come to save us! 3 Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. 4 Yahweh God of Armies, 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 large measure. 6 You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
80:8–13 — You brought a vine out of Egypt
The vine allegory, and the first four verses are a success story told in agricultural detail: transplanted out of Egypt, the ground CLEARED for it, deep roots, boughs like cedars, branches reaching from the sea to the River. Then one word — 'why' — and everything reverses. The walls come down, and the psalm's complaint is precise: nobody attacked the vine, its FENCE was removed.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. 11 It sent out its branches to the sea, its shoots to the River. 12 Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? 13 The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it.
80:14–19 — The man of your right hand
The last movement asks God to come and LOOK, which is the request of someone who thinks the damage has gone unnoticed. Its strangest sentence is verse 16 — burned and cut down, and 'they perish at YOUR rebuke' — so the vine's destroyers are themselves under judgment in the same breath. Then the refrain a third time, with the fullest name yet.
14 Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, 15 the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. 16 It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke. 17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. 18 So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name. 19 Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).