Psalms 80

This is a prayer of a broken people asking God to bring them back. The refrain, ‘Restore us… cause Your face to shine upon us,’ returns three times, each time with a fuller name for God. The center of the psalm is the picture of Israel as a vine that God planted and then seemed to abandon, and the prayer ends by asking God to strengthen the one at His right hand.

Psalms 80:1

The psalmist calls God the Shepherd who guides His people like sheep. He also pictures Him enthroned above the cherubim, the winged figures over the ark. A shepherd who is also a king is asked to listen and to let His glory shine out again.

BSA: Shepherd (“Leader, Guide”): God is not only a caretaker but the One who goes ahead and directs His people’s path. shine forth (“let your glory be seen, radiate your presence”): The prayer asks that God’s hidden presence become plainly visible to His people again.

See also: Psalm 23:1; Exodus 25:22.

Psalms 80:2

Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh were tribes that camped together behind the ark in the wilderness. The prayer asks God to stir Himself and come as Savior. It is an appeal for God to act, not for the people to be strong.

BSA: Rally (“stir up, awaken”): The people speak as though God were asleep and ask Him to rouse His strength on their behalf.

See also: Numbers 2:17-24.

Psalms 80:3

This is the first of three refrains. ‘Restore’ means to turn us back, so the people ask to be returned to God and to His favor. The shining face means a look of kindness. Salvation here begins with God turning toward them.

BSA: Restore (“turn us again, take us back”): The request is to be brought back to God, not only to have circumstances mended. shine (“be kind to us, let us see the shining of Your face”): A shining face is a picture of God’s smiling favor.

Hebrew: הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ (hashivenu, H7725) — “turn us back, bring us back.” The Hebrew word is about turning around. The people ask God to turn them back to Himself, and the same word can also mean repent.

See also: Numbers 6:25; Lamentations 5:21.

Psalms 80:4

God’s anger seems to burn like smoke even while His people are praying. ‘How long?’ is the honest cry of faith under pressure. The psalmist is puzzled that prayers get no answer, yet he keeps praying to the covenant God.

BSA: smolder (“continue, abide”): The anger seems not to flare and pass but to stay on and on. LORD (“Yehovah, the covenant God”): He is the God who made promises to this people, and that is why they dare to ask.

Psalms 80:5

Tears have become Israel’s daily food and drink. The picture is bitter: instead of bread and a cup of blessing, they are given sorrow. The psalmist even says that God has given it, because he sees nothing outside God’s hand.

BSA: full measure (“a large amount, abundance”): The weeping is not a little but a heavy portion, poured out in great quantity.

See also: Psalm 42:3.

Psalms 80:6

The nation has become a quarrel among its neighbors, and its enemies laugh at it. Being mocked adds shame to suffering. They are painfully aware that people who once feared them now laugh.

BSA: mock (“laugh among themselves, scorn us”): The enemies share private jokes at Israel’s expense, which makes the humiliation sharper.

Psalms 80:7

The refrain returns, now with a fuller name: God of Hosts, the Lord of heaven’s armies. The people’s trouble has grown, so their appeal rests on a greater name. The One who commands every power can surely turn His face toward them.

BSA: Hosts (“of armies, commander of heaven’s hosts”): The title reminds the people that God commands every force in heaven and earth.

Psalms 80:8

Israel becomes a vine. God took it out of Egypt, cleared the land by driving out the nations, and planted it in Canaan. The story is told as the gardener’s work: everything good began with God.

BSA: uprooted (“brought out, carried”): God lifted His people out of slavery as a gardener lifts a plant to a better place.

See also: Isaiah 5:1-2; Exodus 12:51.

Psalms 80:9

God cleared the ground, then the vine took root and spread through the land. The growth was real, but it was the result of His preparation first. Past blessing becomes the ground of the present prayer.

BSA: cleared (“prepared, made ready”): God removed the obstacles before the vine could grow.

Psalms 80:10

The vine grows so large that its shade covers the mountains and its branches reach the great cedars. The picture is almost impossible: a vine as tall as a forest. It describes Israel at its fullest, in the days of David and Solomon.

BSA: mighty (“goodly, majestic”): The cedars were famous for their size, so the vine’s growth is made to seem a wonder.

Psalms 80:11

The vine’s branches reach the Sea, the Mediterranean on the west, and the River, the Euphrates on the east. This marks the widest edges of the land God had promised His people.

BSA: River (“toward the east, as far as the Euphrates River”): The River is the Euphrates, the far boundary of the promised land.

See also: Genesis 15:18.

Psalms 80:12

Now the mood turns. Walls that once protected the vine are broken, so anyone passing can take its fruit. The psalmist puts it to God as a question: why? The same God who built the protection has allowed it to be torn down.

BSA: walls (“hedges, fences”): These were the garden’s protection, a picture of God’s care around His people.

See also: Isaiah 5:5.

Psalms 80:13

A wild boar from the forest tears at the vine, and the creatures of the field feed on it. These are the pagan powers that have overrun Israel. An unclean animal, wild and unwatched, now eats what God planted.

BSA: ravages (“wastes, destroys”): The boar does more than eat; it leaves the vineyard in ruins.

Psalms 80:14

The prayer now becomes direct and urgent: return, look down, see, attend. Each verb asks God to come close and take notice. The people do not ask first for what they deserve, but that He would look at the vine and care for it.

BSA: Attend to (“visit, care for, and rescue”): To visit is to come in care, as a gardener comes to a failing plant.

Hebrew: פְּקֹד (peqod, H6485) — “visit, attend to, take charge of.” In the Old Testament, when God ‘visits’, He steps in to help or to judge. Here the people ask for the help.

Psalms 80:15

The vine was planted by God’s right hand, and it is called a son He raised up for Himself. The word ‘son’ may also be ‘branch’ in the Hebrew. Israel belongs to God, and that gives the people their hope.

BSA: son (“branch, young vine”): The same word can mean a shoot, so the picture of a son and a vine run together.

See also: Exodus 4:22.

Psalms 80:16

The vine has been cut down and burned. This is the harshest picture of the psalm, and the psalmist traces it to the rebuke of God’s face. The same face that was asked to shine now seems to frown.

BSA: rebuke (“wrath”): The disaster is understood as God’s anger over His people, not mere bad luck.

Psalms 80:17

The prayer turns to a person: the man at God’s right hand, the son of man God made strong. He may be the king who represents the people, or Israel itself. Christians have also seen here a pointer to the Messiah, who stands at God’s right hand.

BSA: son of man (“whom You have strengthened, made strong”): The one so named is the one God has made strong for His purpose.

See also: Psalm 110:1; Mark 14:62.

Psalms 80:18

The people promise that if God revives them, they will not turn away again. They ask for life first, then they will call on His name. Renewal must come from God before faithfulness can follow.

BSA: revive (“quicken, give new life”): The people ask for life to be breathed back into them, not for mere repair. name (“character, reputation”): To call on God’s name is to trust who He is.

See also: Psalm 85:6.

Psalms 80:19

The refrain comes a third time with the fullest name: LORD God of Hosts. The prayer has climbed from ‘God’ to ‘God of Hosts’ to the covenant name. It ends where it began, asking only that God’s face shine so that they may be saved.

BSA: shine (“be kind to us, smile upon us”): The final request is simply for God’s kindly look.

See also: Psalm 67:1.