“Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” The end of the prayer is now here. And for the third time, this request is uttered: Turn us again, O God, cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved!’ Needless to say, as a…
“So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.” The word for ‘So will we not go back’ is ‘sug’ meaning properly, to flinch, that is, to go back, retreat. In this we see an important aspect of the heart of the Psalmist. He understands that if…
“Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.” We are now approaching the end of the prayer. It is here we find the final plea of the Psalmist to the God of Israel. “Let thy hand“The hand of God is referenced…
“It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.” After the recollection of the days of old, of the wondrous works God did to establish the nation, now the Psalmist brings us back to the current state: the nation, the vine, is burnt with fire and cut…
“And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,” The reference to Israel as a vine continues. They are like a vineyard, planted by the right hand of the Lord. The right hand is often used throughout the Old Testament as a reference to power. So in simplified form: “And the vineyard which through your…
“Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;” The recurring theme of the prayer of Psalms 80 is once again at the front as the Psalmist asks again, “Return!” As we have previously noted, while one could perhaps see the questioning of why God allowed…
“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.” After the call to remembrance of God’s past deeds, the current plight of the nation is brought…
“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…
“Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” We come now to the repeating request of the prayer of Psalms 80: Turn us again! I’ve already covered this passage on the commentary on Psalms 80:3. Today let’s look at the expanding portion of this request which…
“Thou feedest them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink in great measure.” Bread was considered a staple of life, hence Jesus’ calling himself the bread. If we consider bread to be the every day needs of life, then we can better understand the Psalmist when he declares, we are being…
