-
Psalms 80:1-19 open_in_new
Psalms 80:1-3. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
To whom could Israel go, in times of distress, but unto her God? It was well that her psalmists should teach her thus to pray. Notice the form of this prayer: «Come and save us. Turn us again, O God.» We cannot be saved except by being turned from the ways of sin into the path of holiness.
But who shall turn us? What power can reverse the current of the human soul? As well might Niagara begin to ascend of its own accord as for man to turn to God except as God turns him.
Psalms 80:4-7. O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Israel was evidently in very deep distress, yet still God's own. It is no evidence of our having ceased to be God's people that we are made to drink deep draughts of tears. We are not to imagine that God has cast us off because he chastens us; nay, rather are we to argue the other way, «for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.»
Psalms 80:8-15. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
Notice how a soul, in deep distress, usually gets to God. Under some aspect or other, by some way or another, the heart gropes its way till it finds him out. If poor Israel be as a vineyard given up to the wild boar of the wood, there is still hope through that «righteous Branch» of whom the Lord said to Jeremiah, «In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.»
Psalms 80:16-17. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
«If thou wilt not hear us, yet hear him. If thou wilt put no honour upon us, we will ask thee to put the highest honours upon him. Save us for his sake. Deliver thy vineyard from the wild boar and restore the hedges that have been broken down, for is not this the vineyard of red wine which all belongs to him?»
Psalms 80:18-19. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 80:1; and Matthew 9:36-38; Matthew 10:1.