Bible Study - Psalm 80

I had noticed last week, with Good Shepherd Sunday, the reference in Psalm 80:1 to God as “Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock.” This follows right after Psalm 79:13, where God’s people say to the Lord, “We your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.” Psalm 80 seemed like a good follow-up to what we heard in worship last week and has other important messages for us all, too.

The author is someone from the line of Asaph and his sons, from the tribe of Levi. Asaph was appointed by David to provide music in the tabernacle in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:16-19, 16:4-5,7 and Nehemiah 12:46). Asaph’s sons later provided music and songs in the temple (1 Chronicles 25:1-9) and are called “prophets,” as their words were inspired by God and His Holy Spirit. This is a reminder again that all Scripture, including the psalms, is inspired by God and helpful for us (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Psalm 50 and Psalms 73-83 are also mentioned as psalms by Asaph and his family group.

The mention of “Lilies” in the introduction is most likely a notation of the melody or musical setting for this psalm, when it was sung. The term “Lilies” is also found in the introduction to Psalms 45 and 60. (If you use the Lutheran Service Book, you can find some of these same type of notations with the hymns but also in the back of the hymnal on pages 998-1017. For example, you can find that the “tune” called “Old Hundredth,” “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” is used for 5 different hymns - 632, 775, 791, 805, and 923. See page 1015 in the Lutheran Service Book.)

Psalm 80 is a prayer that God, the “Shepherd of Israel,” would come to save His people, especially the Northern Kingdom of Israel, from threats at this time. (You might remember that after the time of Kings David and Solomon, the Kingdom split into two kingdoms, because there was disagreement over who should be king. Ten of the 12 tribes supported the Northern Kingdom. This is complicated history, which I won’t get into here, but the names mentioned in Psalm 80:1-2 are all connected mostly with the North and with Joseph. This northern kingdom tended to have leaders and people who were less faithful to God over time, and had many troubles as a result. We don’t know for sure, but this psalm was likely written when the North was being threatened by the armies of Assyria, which finally overran and destroyed the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC. Even the Southern Kingdom of Judah was threatened at this time, too.)

There were people still faithful to God, though, and they were crying out to God to “give ear” and to “stir up His might and come to save them" (Psalm 80, v.2). They were calling upon the one true God, “enthroned upon the cherubim” in the temple in Jerusalem.

The cherubim were angels, and representations of two of them were placed on the Ark of the Covenant, according to instructions given to Moses by God (Exodus 25:10-22, especially v.22). Later on, when the temple was built, Solomon built two cherubim in the inner sanctuary, above where the Ark was placed (1 Kings 5:22-28). This is where God would appear in glory, at times, to communicate with Moses and later on with God’s people. (Parallel to this would be the altar area in churches today. We know that God is with us always and is not limited to one place in a church. Yet we respect this area, where we hear God’s Word and receive His presence and blessings in Word and Sacrament.)

In Psalm 80, three times the psalmist and people pray, “Restore us, O God; let Your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:3, 7, 19). They know that they are sinful people, who need to be “restored” by God and His mercy and forgiveness. They know that they do not deserve this mercy. God has a right to be angry with them, and they ask, “How long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?” (Psalm 80:4). They remember how much God had blessed them in the past, taking them from being a small “vine” in Egypt and allowing them to grow into a strong nation (Psalm 80:8-11).

The mention of “mountains” and “cedars” and “the sea” and “the River” describe the boundaries of Israel in its greatest times. See Deuteronomy 11:24 as another example of that description. We could spend a whole study and more on how often the images of a vine and vineyard is used to talk about God’s people, too. See Old Testament references like Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2-6, Jeremiah 2:21, 12:10, and Hosea 10:1, and New Testament passages like John 10:4, Luke 13:6, Mark 12:1-12, and John 15:1-6.

Sadly, God’s own people had so often sinned and rebelled against Him and His will, including idolatry and worship of false gods, particularly in the Northern Kingdom, that the people had often experienced “the bread of tears” and “tears to drink in full measure,” as a result of their sins. There was “contention” with neighboring people and mockery and laughter from their enemies (Psalm 80:5-6). The trouble and sorrow all seemed to be happening again. God’s “vineyard,” the place of His people, was being “broken down” and plundered again by enemy peoples (Psalm 80:12-13, 16).

And so God’s people cry out, “Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine” (Psalm 80:14). They knew that their only hope would be in God’s “letting His face shine” upon them again with His mercy and peace and blessing (Psalm 80:7, Numbers 6:24-27). They could not “restore” and “save“ themselves, by their own power.

Sadly again, most of the Northern Kingdom continued to “turn back from the Lord” (Psalm 80:18) and finally the Assyrians conquered these people and killed many and carried most others away into captivity in other lands. Very few of these Jews ever returned to the land of Israel. God did not give up on His people, though, even after the Southern Kingdom also drifted from the Lord’s will and many were carried away into captivity in Babylon, in 587-586 BC. God preserved a remnant of His people and brought them back to the land of Israel and  continued His promises to answer His people’s prayers “to come and save” them (Psalm 80:3).

Look especially at Psalm 80:15,17-18. Several of the things said here refer to our coming Savior Jesus. The word “stock” in v.15 could be translated “the shoot” or “the root”  that is planted by God’s right hand, His most powerful hand. See how that same term is used in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 11:1-2 and referred to in passages like Acts 13:22-23, regarding Jesus, from the line of Jesse. Notice in Psalm 80:15,17, “the son God has made strong for Himself… the man of God’s right hand, the son of man whom God has made strong for Himself.”

The term “Son of Man” is a reference to the Messiah in Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 2 and other places. and it is a term Jesus often used for Himself in the Gospels, for His saving work. (See Mark 10:45 and Matthew 12:8 and Luke 19:10, etc.) Hosea 11:1 is quoted by Matthew as referring to Jesus, called out of Egypt as God’s Son. Even a Jewish writing, the Targum, paraphrased Psalm 80:15b as referring to “the King Messiah whom Thou hast established for Thyself,” though the emphasis was simply on the Messiah coming from the Jewish nation.

Clearly, the New Testament says that Jesus was the answer to these many prayers of Psalm 80. He was the Shepherd of Israel and the whole world - the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). The psalmist prays, “Give us life, and we will call on Your Name” (Psalm 80:18). He prays, “Let Your Face shine, that we may be saved,” again and again (Psalm 80:3,7,19). John 1:1,4-5 tells that “the Word (Jesus) was God… In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The psalmist prays, “Stir up Your might and come to save us” (Psalm 80:2). That is exactly why Jesus came. John 3:16-17 tells us, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him… that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is the Answer, and we are “restored” through Him (Psalm 23:3, Psalm 51:12, and 1 Peter 5:10, “The God of all grace , who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”).

Two final thoughts. We use the prayer, “Stir up your power and come to save us” (Psalm 80:2) also in the four weeks of the Advent season, as we prepare for a truly Christ-centered Christmas and its greatest gift, Jesus Himself. We can also use those words as a prayer for our churches, that Christ will do His saving work in and through the Word and Sacraments that we use, even in challenging days, when some seem more resistant to the faith. And we pray this prayer also as we await with confidence the return of Christ on the last day. As Revelation 22:20 says, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

Finally, one last thought that Lutherans might be especially interested in. Pope Leo X, in 1520, wrote a papal document condemning Martin Luther and his teachings and giving him 60 days to appear in Rome. Pope Leo quoted from Psalm 80:13, saying that Luther himself was “the boar from the forest who was ravaging the Church.” In early 1521, Pope Leo then excommunicated Luther from the Roman Catholic Church, even though Luther was trying to proclaim Jesus as the one and only Savior from sin (John 10:9, 14:6) and the one who was seeking to draw all people together in one flock, with one Shepherd, Jesus Himself, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 10:16).