“Turn Us Again, O God”
The ten tribes were in captivity, and the hearts of their brethren, still living at Jerusalem under the reign of David's line, seem to have turned with great longing toward them. This psalm is full of intercession on their behalf. Three times, at the turning-points of the psalm, the refrain is repeated that God would turn them again and cause them to be saved, Psalms 80:3; Psalms 80:7; Psalms 80:19. Note the ascending climax: God; God of Hosts; Jehovah, God of Hosts.
In Jacob's blessing of Joseph, God is appealed to as Shepherd, Genesis 48:15; Genesis 49:24. To sit enthroned above the cherubim is an emblem of omnipotence. Notice how the gentleness of the Shepherd blends with His almightiness. In the Wilderness march the three great tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh immediately followed the Ark, which was borne by the priests. This ancient litany surely befits the present condition of the Church, when she is rent by internal divisions, or infected with a spirit of skepticism and unable to exorcise the demons that possess society. Let us plead with God to enlighten us by His face and quicken us by His Spirit.' God must defend His cause, else there is no help for it.