Biblion Bible Commentary
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Restore Us, God
Psalms 80:1-19
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. · WEB
A vine brought out of Egypt, planted, grown, and then left with its walls broken down for anyone to pick.
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out Psalms 80:1.
Two images in one verse and they are deliberately mismatched. A shepherd walks ahead of animals in open country; the one enthroned above the cherubim is in the inner room of the sanctuary, behind a veil. The psalm asks the second to behave like the first.
Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved Psalms 80:3.
The refrain, and it returns at verses seven and nineteen with the divine title growing longer each time — God, then God of Armies, then Yahweh God of Armies. The prayer intensifies by expanding the name it is addressed to.
And the grammar of it matters. Turn us again — the restoration asked for is of the people, not of their circumstances, and it is something God is asked to do to them rather than something they undertake.
You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure Psalms 80:5.
Grief as the whole diet, food and drink both, and served in quantity. The phrase is literally tears by the third — a measure, as though it were being poured out by the bowl.
You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land Psalms 80:8–9.
The great image of the psalm, and it retells the whole national history as horticulture. Four verbs of careful work: brought, planted, cleared, and then the growth. The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God's cedars Psalms 80:10.
Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? Psalms 80:12.
The question is the psalm's whole complaint. A vineyard's wall is what makes it a vineyard rather than scrub; without it, the fruit belongs to whoever is walking past. And the psalm does not ask who broke it down. It asks God why he did.
The boar out of the wood ravages it Psalms 80:13. A wild pig in a vineyard destroys far more than it eats, rooting up the stock itself.
Isaiah takes up the same figure and turns it into a case at law, where the vineyard is judged for producing bad fruit Isaiah 5:1–7; Jesus takes it further and says I am the true vine John 15:1 — the vine that does what this one failed to do.
Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself Psalms 80:17.
The psalm's request narrows to one figure. Whatever the writer meant by it, the phrase son of man placed beside a vine is the vocabulary the Gospels later use, and the request is that God's hand be on him rather than against him.
Revive us, and we will call on your name Psalms 80:18. The order is the psalm's theology: revival first, then calling.
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