Psalm 80 - Restore us

Read: Psalm 80 vs 1-19

There’s a lovely tender tone to the opening words of Psalm 80:

‘Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,

You who lead Joseph like a flock.’

Asaph, who is writing this Psalm, knows that God is enthroned between the cherubim (vs 1) and with almost naïve trust he asks that God would shine His face upon him and upon His people. Like so many of the Psalms these are not words about God, these are words to God:

‘Restore us, O God;

Make your face shine on us,

That we may be saved.’ (vs 3)

Yet the reality is that Asaph feels God to be far away at this time. He senses that God is angry and that His anger is smouldering (vs 4). ‘Tears by the bowlful’ is an awful image and this has been what Asaph and those around him have been tasting (vs 5).

Reflecting upon this however does not weaken the intensity with which Asaph prays, it actually increases it. The prayer that God would restore His people (vs 3) intensifies to a prayer that ‘God Almighty’ would bring restoration (vs 7). These prayers of faith lean into God when He seems distant, they refuse to lean away.

Verses 8-18 use the image of a vine to picture Israel’s life past and present. Asaph pleads that the God who planted Israel and nurtured her life, would now revive a vine that God Himself seems to have cut down and almost destroyed. 

Like so many Old Testament images the picture here of the vine points forward to Jesus Himself. For those who trust in Him, He becomes the centre of who we are. Our identity and our life become rooted in Him. We find our truest selves when we see ourselves as grafted into Him. He is the vine. We are the branches. Jesus’ words come as a promise to both warn us and draw us:

‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5)