Psalm 80:1-19 / A Plea for Restoration
📖 Scripture
1 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
2 before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us.
3 Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
4 How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
6 You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us.
7 Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
12 Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
13 Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.
14 Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine,
15 the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish.
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
✅ Scripture Summary
✅ Memory verse
– Psalm 82:3
✅ Reflection
Repentance or Destruction (80:1–7)
Asaph writes a psalm of communal lament. The first half of the psalm contains the nation’s cry for deliverance. The people call upon their Shepherd and ask for His restoration and salvation. The psalm also laments Israel’s dreadful state and their being an object of derision and mockery to their neighbors and enemies. Although this psalm was sung as a community, we as individual believers can also apply its theme of repentance. We should repeatedly ask for God to turn us away from our habitual sins and to help us turn toward Him. May we not follow the path of disobedience toward inevitable destruction and instead seek repentance from our sins. Let us eagerly and humbly seek God and anticipate His restoration and salvation.
What are some similarities between Israel’s relationship with God in the psalm and your relationship with Him? Seek forgiveness for your sins and turn away from them.
God Who Knows All (80:8–19)
The rest of the psalm revisits Israel’s history, including God’s faithfulness in the past. The people were brought out of Egypt and nations were driven out before them. However, now the people are left vulnerable as the protection of the Lord has lifted from them. The people ask for God to return and watch over them once again. When we face the negative consequences of our sins, it can feel as though God has abandoned us because we have prioritized our own desires and comfort over obedience to Him. In those moments of discomfort and pain, we should repent and remember God’s love for us. We should seek His restoration and obey and worship Him once again.
How do you relate to the Israelites described in this psalm? Pray for God’s wisdom and strength to obey Him once again.
✅ Prayer
“Jesus is the true vine (John 15:1–6). Only through uniting with him by faith can we become branches and have God’s life flow into us. Through him we can be revived.”
– Timothy Keller
✅ Essay
Christian Lament
The psalms are generally thought to express joy, but many of them are songs of lament. The songs we listen to regularly can be entertaining, romantic, or didactic, but many songs also express sorrow. For example, Twenty One Pilots is a musical duo that regularly incorporates Christian themes in their songs. One of them, “Routines in the Night,” is narrated by a man who is having difficulty sleeping due to an event in the past. The narrator revisits his agony every night. He sings, “Walk the layout, routines in the night, some doors have ‘Stay out’ spray-painted in white. While all the world’s asleep, I walk around instead, through the memories, down the halls of my head.”
Lament is an intense expression of sorrow. Lament is not exclusive to Christians; all humans experience the world’s brokenness. Pain, loss, and hopelessness are common. However, we Christ-followers lament in a particular way. Mark Vroegop in his book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy explains biblical lament as a prayer: “the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.” Lament psalms typically contain an address to God, a complaint, a request, and an expression of trust or praise. In our lament, we are not trying to get through the stages of grief but to bridge the gap between our pain and God’s promise.
The narrator in the song above cries, “So beautiful, the space between, a painful reminder and a terrible dream.” When experiencing this type of painful season, the psalms encourage us to lament to Christ.
Written by John Pai