Psalm 80

(We are stepping out of 1 Thessalonians until June 18.  June 1-16 we will be in Israel and will be posting an account of the previous day's travels and significant scripture related to it.  So we will not have our usual Sunday 'Psalms' posts and are going to place them here for three days.)

Here we find another amazing prayer in time of difficulty.  It comes from citizen of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and specifically one who pleads for the leading tribes of the NK: Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh (v1-2).  These tribes had left the kingdom after the reign of Solomon and established their own idolatrous religion.  Their idolatry eventually lead to their removal from the land by the Lord in the time of the Assyrian ascendency.  


So here is a man, part of a nation in despair, who nevertheless …

·        Pleads to the God who dwells between the cherubim (v1).  This is the language of true worship for Israel.  He refers to the holy of holies in the temple where sat the Ark of the Covenant, site of the mercy seat between the two golden cherubim.  There were not many in that kingdom that sought the true God but here was one.  This man was faithful to God in a deviant society.

·        Pleads to God as a part of His vine and vineyard (v8-11).  Again, this is truly remarkable.  Again, the northern Ten Tribes had been taken captive and dispersed among many nations.  To this day they are simply known as the diaspora, seemingly lost tribes of Israel.  And yet this godly man knows different.  He pleads with God to restore the vineyard, Israel, the vine He brought from Egypt.  This man believed in a faithful God!

·       Pleads the glory of the Messiah (v17-18).  Some would suggest that these words apply to the desperate nation, that “Israel” is “the man of Your right hand.”  That may be initially the primary meaning.  But as in the Servant Songs of Isaiah, the only true fulfillment for Israel is bound up in the exaltation of the Messiah.  Israel is nothing apart from Messiah.  She will only be truly saved in the context of the reign of Christ.  Think about this.  God told His Son to sit at His right hand while He made His enemies a footstool for His feet (Psalm 110:1).  Indeed, the Lord (Messiah) at God’s right hand will execute kings in the day of His wrath (Ps. 110:5), the answer to the very prayer of the Psalmist in Psalm 80.  The prayer in Ps. 80:14, visit this vine, is answered in the incarnation of Messiah, when God became Man!  When the Messiah is glorified then Israel will be glorified.  And we in the Church think the same way.  We share today in His glory (John 17:22) but this cannot be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18) when He is revealed in glory!  All we are is bound up in Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord!  He alone became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

How could this man, from the dispersed nation, have such faith, such insight?  You might want to read the backdrop, 2 Chron. 30, when Judah held a great Passover in the time of Hezekiah.  They made a special point to invite what was left of the Northern Kingdom to come and share in the feast.  The essence of the invitation was, “Return to God and He will return to you” (2 Chron. 30:6).  Psalm 80 contains a chorus, given three times (v3,7,19) that pleads with God to RESTORE US.  The Hebrew word for “return” in 2 Chron. 30 and “restore” in Psalm 80 is the same.  The text tells us that most people scoffed at the invitation from Hezekiah, but a few responded (2 Chron. 30:10-11).  This man was one of those few.  He did not need to be part of the populist majority to worship truly.  So do not pray “restore me O Lord” is you are not willing to return to Him!