Psalm 80

A Song of Asaph.

This Psalm looks like a song we might have in our hymn books today....complete with 3 stanzas and a repeated refrain.

Stanza one is a plea for rescue.....acknowledging God as the Great Shepherd of Israel.  3 of the northernmost tribes are mentioned.....perhaps a particular attack against them had begun?

<<as an aside......I love to think of God as the Shepherd......for just as a shepherd leads, guides and defends helpless, defenseless sheep,   so our God does for us......as helpless and defenseless as we are  (just usually without knowing it)>"

Verse 2 asks God to 'shine forth'....tying into the refrain:
   "Restore us, O God;   Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved."

How reminiscent of the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26!

Stanza 2 asks, "How long?"   How long will You try us in anger against our sin?
Our grief is such that we cry daily.....crying is as common as eating.  We are a trial to our neighbors and a byword among others.   Our enemies laugh at us!

And then the refrain....."Restore us, O God;  Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved."

Stanza 3 is a parable about a vine dresser and his vine. Israel was a tender shoot, picked by God out of Egypt; planted and tended in the soil of the promised land.  God Himself groomed and nurtured her.

   But now.....the hedges of protection around the garden are torn down.  The vine and it's fruit are exposed and vulnerable.  Enemies are harming it; animals and beasts destroy.

   Return again to tend the garden!  It is dying because You have removed Your hand!
   Revive us!!  We will call on You!
   Tend us!!   we will turn back to You!

"Restore us, O God;  Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved."
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God, in His great mercy.....allows us to face the consequences of our sin....and yes, indeed, judges us for it.   If He didn't let us suffer, how would we grow?    How would we know our helpless place before Him?  How would we learn to trust Him?  

More and more I see how defenseless and helpless I am....How I run off from His side in all confidence, little knowing the danger and sometimes not the sin that prompts me.  But He always draws me back, sometimes after I've suffered the sting of discipline.  And there I know that He is my substance.....and there I vow to stay.  

    until the next time I wander.......