Psalms 80

Chapter context

What is happening in Psalms 80?

prayerpraiselamentkingship

Psalms 80 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as Book III. Psalms is the Bible’s great book of sung prayer, teaching the full range of faithful speech from anguish and repentance to jubilation and doxology. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prayer, praise, and lament in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

¹ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. ² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. ³ Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. ⁴ O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? ⁵ Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. ⁶ Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. ⁷ Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. ⁸ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. ⁹ Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. ¹⁰ The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. ¹¹ She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. ¹² Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? ¹³ The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. ¹⁴ Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; ¹⁵ And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. ¹⁶ It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. ¹⁷ Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. ¹⁸ So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. ¹⁹ Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Study helps

Glossary

Benjamin Person v. 2: Son of my right hand. (1. ) The younger son of Jacob by Rachel ( Gen. 35:18 ). His birth took place at Ephrath, on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem, at a short distance from the latter place.
Egypt Place v. 8: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.
Euphrates Place v. 11: Biblical river. Modern identification: Euphrates River.
Great Sea Place v. 11: (Heb. yam), signifies (1) “the gathering together of the waters,” the ocean ( Gen. 1:10 ); (2) a river, as the Nile ( Isa. 19:5 ), the Euphrates ( Isa. 21:1 ; Jer. 51:36 ); (3) the Red Sea. Modern identification: Mediterranean Sea.