The superscription offers directions To the Leader: on Lilies shoshannim) , a Covenant. Of Asaph. Other pastoral imagery, such as here in verse 1, is found in other Asaph psalms, such as 74:1, 78:52, and 79:13. It describes it as A Psalm.
It begins with an invocation and petition. 1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! It affirms You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, in the plural, referring to carved representations of scary winged beings that, in covering the Ark of the Covenant, formed a throne for the glorious presence of the Lord with the people of Israel. It opens wanting the Shepherd of Israel to listen and to shine forth or appear2 before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, with Ephraim and Manasseh the two principal tribes of the north. These are sons of Rachel and the grandsons of Joseph. In Numbers 2:18-24 Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin were under one banner. The difficulty this presents in dating the psalm are these. Benjamin joined Judah when the northern and southern kingdoms divided. Does Benjamin represent the southern kingdom? Does it mean the origin of the psalm is before the division of the two kingdoms? The tribes in trouble have a bond with those not yet exposed because of their common salvation history. It then invites the Shepherd of Israel to stir up might and come to save them.
Psalm 80:8-14a shift the pastoral imagery to relate the parable of the vine, with verses 8-13 relating the history of Israel and the questions this history raises. We find the image of Israel as the planting of the Lord elsewhere in the OT (e.g., Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 15:1-8; etc.). The image conveys the sense of Israel’s dependence on the Lord for its creation, preservation, guidance, and nurture. 8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. The poet binds together the image and interpretation. The point is to give an allegory of the saving history. In verses 9-11, the reciting of saving history brings God nearby. 9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; 11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. God has delivered them from Egypt, allowed them to govern Canaan, and allowed the expansion of their empire. The poet describes the ideal extent of the rule of Solomon, from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Euphrates. In verses 12-13, we have the provocative question behind this psalm. Will God destroy those whom God has acted to save in the past? 12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it. God in anger has allowed the protecting wall to be breached and the vine destroyed by human and animal forces. The writer pleads for the restoration of Israel. He flatters God, and then complains about God’s mishandling of the vineyard which once used to be glorious. Considering what has happened in the history of Israel, we find the short petition of the community is: 14 Turn again, O God of hosts.
In Psalm 80: 14b-19 we have the supplication. The community asks the God of hosts to look down from heaven, and see. The notion of God dwelling in heaven is part of the important theological notion of the infinity of God, a sphere of the eternal presence of God inaccessible to human beings. If God hides from us by dwelling in heaven, God also looks down from heaven on what takes place on earth and sees hidden things. The point is that this thought is significant because it implies the distinction of heaven from earth and therefore of God giving creatures on earth room to live their own lives in their present, but alongside God. Such spatial images express differentiation between God and the space of earthly creation.[1] If the God of hosts looks and sees, their prayer is simple: have regard for this vine, 15 the stock that your right hand planted. Clearly, the people experience distance from God. We then have the lament, for the historical situation threatens the very existence of that which God has planted: 16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. Obviously, they want those who have done this to perish.
We turn to Psalm 80:17-19. The lament closes with a request for the restoration of a divinely sanctioned leader. 17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Even though God has threatened them, God is their only help. If God helps them, the divinely sanctioned leader will help them re-establish both the political entity and the sacred commonwealth of Israel. The imagery suggests the Davidic king, which would suggest a date of around 701 BC for this part of the psalm. 18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. We then have the third and final statement of the refrain. (1) 19 Restore us, for which see above. (2) O Lord (YHWH) God of hosts, expanding the divine name as it calls upon the Lord God for help. The expansion conveys the escalation of the psalm-singer’s inner groaning and heartfelt plea to God, who alone can restore what they have lost. (3) Let the face of the Lord God of hosts shine, for which see above. (4) That we may be saved, for which see above. For us as readers, if we have properly understood the historical context, the end is painful. In the way the psalmist wished, the Lord God of hosts does not restore them. The face of the Lord God of hosts does not shine upon them. They do not have victory.
Will God buy or sell these promises? Note that nowhere in this psalm, as in Psalm 85, is there any remorse, repentance, confession, or regret. Israel’s plight is all God’s fault. Confession, repentance and restitution — in other words, a conversion — must come before reconciliation. Psalm 80 is a communal lament for the ravages Israel has suffered at the hands of its enemies. The psalm is unusual in its use of the extended metaphor of a forsaken vine to articulate the psalmist’s sense of his nation’s abandonment and helplessness. It conveys the sense of Israel’s dependence on the Lord for its creation, preservation, guidance, and nurture
God does not answer this prayer in the way the writer wished. Assyria continues its devastating trek through Israel. If the wish of this prayer does not find an answer, the hope contained in it will find an answer. Although the word “hope” does not occur in Psalm 80, one can see it present in this prayer. Eugene Peterson points out that what a lot of people call hope is wishing. All of us wish. We want something. We think we need something. We project our wish into the future. Wishing extends our ego into the future. We can imagine a wish as a line coming out from us with an arrow on the end, pointing into the future, pointing toward the thing for which we wish. Wishing orients itself toward what we are doing. He contrasts our wish, regardless of how holy our wish might be, with a hope that arises out of our faith. Hope orients itself to what God is doing. We can imagine hope as a line that comes from God out of the future, with its arrow pointing toward us. Hope opens us up to surprise, for we do not know what is best for us or how our lives are going to find completion. If we are going to cultivate hope, we need to put aside our wish. Rather than fantasizing about what we want, we live in anticipation of what God is going to do next.[2] Along the surprising path of defeat by Assyria and Babylon, and arising out of the devastation of exile, comes the fulfillment of the hope for restoration and renewal.
[1]
[2] (Living the Message: Daily Help for Living the God-Centered Life)
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