Psalms 80:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel O thou who hast undertaken to feed and govern thy people of Israel, as a shepherd doth his flock, now perform thine office, and rescue thy flock from those grievous wolves which devour and destroy them; thou that leadest Or, didst lead, formerly; Joseph That is, the children of Joseph, or of Israel, as he now said. The name of Joseph, the most eminent of the patriarchs, for his dignity and piety, as well as the right of primogeniture, transferred upon him from Reuben, is frequently elsewhere put for all the ten tribes. Thou that dwellest between the cherubim Those two sacred emblematical figures, which were set in the most holy place, upon the mercy-seat, before which the high-priest sprinkled the blood upon the great day of atonement. By this title the psalmist prudently and piously reminds the ten tribes of their revolt from God, and of the vanity of their superstitious addresses to their calves, at Beth-el and Dan, and of the necessity of their returning to the true worship of God before the ark, at Jerusalem, if they desired or expected any relief from him. And by this title it seems more than probable that this Psalm was not written, as some have supposed, upon occasion of the Babylonish captivity, in and after which time there was no ark, nor cherubim; nor does Daniel, or any of the prophets, then address God by that title. Shine forth Out of the clouds, wherein thou seemest to hide thyself. Show forth thy power and goodness to, and for, thy poor oppressed people, in the face of thine and their enemies.