PSALMS 80

READING CYCLE THREE(see “Guide
to Good Bible Reading“)

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR’S INTENT AT
PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are
responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in
the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in
interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects (reading cycle #3). Compare your subject divisions with the five translations
above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original
author’s intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one
and only one subject.

1. First paragraph

2. Second paragraph

3. Etc.

CONTEXTUAL INSIGHTS

A. Notice the different names/titles of Israel’s
Deity.

1. Shepherd of Israel, Ps. 80:1 (see note at Ps.
23:1)

2. O God (Elohim), Ps. 80:3

3. Lord
(YHWH), Ps. 80:4,19

4. God of hosts, Ps. 80:4,7,14,19

See the SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY.

B. There is a chorus phrase that concludes several
strophes: Ps. 80:1-3, 4-7, 14-19. It has two
imperatives and one cohortative. It is a prayer for mercy,
forgiveness, and restoration.

C. There may be a “Messianic” reference related to

1. “shoot” (BDB 488), which may have theological
connections to “Branch” (BDB 666, cf. Isa. 4:2; 11:1; 53:2; Jer. 23:5) and for
“sprout” (BDB 855, cf. Jer. 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12)

2. “the man of Your right hand”

3. “the son of man whom You made strong for
Yourself”

4. and even possibly “Shepherd of Israel,” which
would bring connotations of a Davidic seed

The other option is that all the imagery relates to national
Israel or Judah.

D. Because of the placement of this Psalm (i.e.,
in the Psalms of Asaph) and Ps. 80:12-13 pointing toward an invasion of Judah,
the date is possibly 586 b.c.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 80:1-3
 ¹Oh, give ear,
Shepherd of Israel,
 You who lead Joseph like a
flock;
 You who are enthroned above
the cherubim, shine forth!
 ²Before Ephraim and
Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power
 And come to save us!
 ³O God, restore us
 And cause Your face to shine
upon us, and we will be saved.

80:1-3 This strophe is made up of a
series of imperatives of request.

1. give ear, Ps. 80:1 – BDB 24, KB 27, Hiphil imperative

2. shine forth, Ps. 80:1 – BDB 422, KB 424,
Hiphil imperative

3. stir up, Ps. 80:2 – BDB 734, KB 802, Polel imperative

4. come to save, Ps. 80:2 – BDB 229, KB 246,
Qal imperative

5. restore us, Ps. 80:3 – BDB 996, KB 1427,
Hiphil imperative

6. cause to shine, Ps. 80:3 – BDB 21, KB 24,
Hiphil imperative (this may reflect the Aaronic
blessing of Num. 6:25, also note Ps. 31:16)

7. we will be saved, Ps. 80:3 – BDB 446, 448,
Niphal cohortative

80:1 “Shepherd of Israel” This phrase
denotes God’s presence and tender care (cf. Gen. 49:24; Ps. 23:1-3) and also
links to David, who was called by God from tending the sheep. This makes the
Messianic allusion in Ps. 80:15-17 more probable (see Contextual Insights, C).

Notice how God is characterized.

1. Who led Joseph like a flock (Joseph is also
mentioned in Ps. 77:15; 78:67)

2. Who is enthroned above the cherubim.
This is an allusion to Exod. 25:22. YHWH symbolically dwelt above the mercy seat
of the ark of the covenant between the two cherubim (cf. 1 Sam. 4:4; 2
Sam. 6:2; Ps. 99:1). This was where heaven and earth met in the place of mercy
and revelation!

For “cherubim” see
Special Topic: Cherubim.

▣ “shine forth” This emphasis on God’s
involvement in the earthly, daily affairs of Israel is described as a light
coming from above the ark. Notice the refrain in this Psalm (cf. Ps. 80:3,7,19)
has another imperative verb (BDB
21, KB 24) denoting light. Light in the ANE was a symbol of revelation, health,
goodness. In the OT it often relates to the brightness of a theophany (physical
appearance of God). Note Ps. 50:2; 94:1, as well as the Shekinah cloud of
glory during the exodus and wilderness wandering period (i.e., Exod. 13:21-22;
33:9).

God is light – Ps. 27:1; Isa. 60:20; Mic. 7:8; James 1:17; 1
John 1:5

Jesus is light – Isa. 9:2; John 1:4; 8:12; 12:35,46

believers are light – Matt. 5:14-16; John 8:12b

80:2 There is some question why only
these tribes are mentioned. From Num. 2:18-24 we know they camped together on
the west side of the tabernacle as they traveled through the wilderness.

Ephraim and Manasseh were the children of Joseph. Joseph and
Benjamin were the sons of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel.

Joseph’s children were fully adopted by Jacob (i.e., thirteen
tribes) and became the largest tribe when the united monarchy (i.e., Saul,
David, Solomon) split in 922 b.c. They became the leaders of the northern
coalition known as Israel, Samaria, or Ephraim. The first leader/king was an
Ephraimitic labor leader, Jeroboam I.

Benjamin became part of the southern coalition of Judah along
with most of the Levites. Simeon had earlier been incorporated into Judah,
therefore, it may be a way of referring to all the covenant people.

80:3 This refrain (cf. Ps. 80:7,19)
shows that this Psalm was written during a time of national difficulty. If
Psalms 77-80 by Asaph come from the same historical period, then this is
possibly related to the invasion of Judah by Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. He
invaded several times (i.e., 605, 597, 586, 582
b.c.), but it is possible to see
this Psalm as relating to the fall of Israel in 722
b.c., when Samaria fell after a three year siege by Assyria. The Jewish
Study Bible (p. 1372) suggests that it was originally written for the fall of
Samaria but was reworked to refer to the fall of Jerusalem because of the
proximity and phrasing connections to Psalm 79, which is obviously 586
b.c.

Because Ps. 80:14 uses the same
imperative (BDB 996, KB 1427), some scholars see it as an additional
refrain, thereby having each strophe close the same. However, Ps. 80:14 is not
the same, even the same verb is a
Qal not Hiphil.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 80:4-7
 ⁴O
Lord God
of hosts,
 How long will You be angry
with the prayer of Your people?
 ⁵You have fed them
with the bread of tears,
 And You have made them to
drink tears in large measure.
 ⁶You make us an
object of contention to our neighbors,
 And our enemies laugh among
themselves.
 ⁷O God of
hosts, restore us
 And cause Your face to shine
upon us, and we will be saved.

80:4-7 This strophe is a plea for God
to intervene on behalf of His people.

1. how long will You be angry – the question of
God’s action or inaction is recurrent (cf. Ps. 74:10; 90:13; 94:3; Pro. 1:22)

2. You have fed them with the bread of tears
(powerful imagery, cf. Ps. 42:3; 102:9)

3. You have made them to drink tears in large
measure (lit. “third part,” BDB 1026 I, only here and Isa. 40:12)

4. You make us an object of contention to our
neighbors (cf. Ps. 44:13; 79:4; Ezek. 5:14; 22:4; Dan. 9:16)

5. You have made it so our enemies laugh among
themselves (at us). The TEV and NJB follow the LXX, “our enemies mock us.”

These consequences of Israel/Judah’s covenant disobedience and
idolatry are exactly the opposite of what God wanted them to do in relation to
their Gentile neighbors of the ANE. They were meant to be a light (cf. Ezek.
36:22-23) but became a joke (cf. Ps. 79:10; 115:2).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 80:8-13
 ⁸You removed a vine
from Egypt;
 You drove out the nations and
planted it.
 ⁹You cleared the
ground before it,
 And it took deep root and
filled the land.
 ¹⁰The mountains were
covered with its shadow,
 And the cedars of God with its
boughs.
 ¹¹It was sending out
its branches to the sea
 And its shoots to the River.
 ¹²Why have You
broken down its hedges,
 So that all who pass that
way pick its
fruit?
 ¹³A boar from the
forest eats it away
 And whatever moves in the
field feeds on it.

80:8-13 This strophe uses the vineyard
as a metaphor for the covenant people.

1. YHWH brought them out of Egypt (as He promised
in Gen. 15:12-21)

2. YHWH defeated the Canaanite tribes (i.e.,
Joshua’s conquest)

3. YHWH planted them in the good soil of the
Promised Land

Even with all these divine blessings they were unfaithful (cf. Nehemiah 9;
Psalm 78). So the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27-30 came into effect.

1. His protection (i.e., the wall of the vineyard)
was removed

2. He allowed invaders to take Canaan (Ps.
80:12-13). As the Israelites drove out the sinful Canaanites (i.e., Gen.
15:12-21) so now the sinful covenant people are removed.

80:8 “vine” This could refer to all of
the covenant people (cf. Isaiah 5; Hosea 10:1) or be a specific reference to the
northern kingdom (cf. Gen. 49:22).

80:11 “sea. . .the River” This refers
to the Mediterranean to the west and the head waters of the Euphrates River to
the northeast (cf. Exod. 23:31).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 80:14-19
 ¹⁴O God of
hosts, turn again now, we beseech You;
 Look down from heaven and see,
and take care of this vine,
 ¹⁵Even the shoot
which Your right hand has planted,
 And on the son whom You have
strengthened for Yourself.
 ¹⁶It is burned with
fire, it is cut down;
 They perish at the rebuke of
Your countenance.
 ¹⁷Let Your hand be
upon the man of Your right hand,
 Upon the son of man whom You
made strong for Yourself.
 ¹⁸Then we shall not
turn back from You;
 Revive us, and we will call
upon Your name.
 ¹⁹O
Lord God
of hosts, restore us;
 Cause Your face to shine
upon us, and we will be saved.

80:14-19 This strophe is a concluding
prayer (3 Qal imperatives of request in Ps. 80:14) for YHWH
to have mercy on the descendants of Abraham.

The real question of interpretation is how they view this
divine action to occur.

1. restore a strong nation (i.e., the shoot [BDB
488, only here in the OT] or vine of Ps. 80:8,14)

2. send a special Davidic seed (Ps. 80:15,17)

a. the son whom You have strengthened or secured
(BDB 54)

b. Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
the son of man whom You have made strong (BDB 54, parallel to Ps. 80:15) for
Yourself (cf. Ps. 110:1)

It is obvious this imagery could refer to

1. national Israel/Judah

2. a Davidic king/Messiah (cf. 2 Samuel 7 and
Aramaic Targums)

80:16 Notice that Israel/Judah’s
difficulties are a direct result of God’s actions, not the power of the invader.
God used pagan nations to judge His people (cf. Habakkuk). This was shocking to
Jewish people. He had fought on their side (cf. Ps. 76:6) but now He was on the
side of the invaders (i.e., a reversal of “holy war” imagery).

80:17 “Your hand” See
Special Topic:
Hand.

▣ “the son of man” This phrase is
recurrent in Ezekiel. See my commentary notes below from Ezekiel 2:1.

Ezek. 2:1 “Son of man” This is
literally “ben-Adam” (BDB 119
construct, BDB 9). This is used often in Ezekiel as a way of referring to
Ezekiel as a human being (93 times, cf. Ps. 8:4). In Ezekiel it is the way God
addresses Ezekiel. This same phrase is found in Job and Psalms. In Dan. 7:13
this term takes on divine characteristics as one likened to “a son of man”
coming before the Ancient of Days (i.e., deity) riding on the clouds of heaven.
Daniel 7:13 is the background for Jesus’ use of this term for himself, which
combines humanity and deity (i.e., 1 John 4:1-3). The phrase had no
nationalistic or militaristic rabbinical overtones.

80:18 This verse lists several
promises spoken by the psalmist but on behalf of the covenant people.

1. then (i.e., after God turns again to them, cf.
Ps. 80:14) we shall not turn back (i.e., backslide, BDB 690, KB 744, Qal
imperfect) from You

2. give us life/revive us (BDB 310, KB 309,
Piel imperfect)

3. if God acts on their behalf they will call upon
(BDB 894, KB 1128, Qal
imperfect) His name in the temple

Notice this use of imperfects,
which denotes an ongoing action.

80:19 See note at Ps. 80:3.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide
commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of
the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the
Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a
commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think
through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be
thought provoking, not definitive.

1. Does this Psalm refer to an invasion? If so,
which historical period fits best?

2. Is this Psalm written about Israel or Judah?

3. List and explain the different terms and
allusions to “light.”

4. Why does the refrain of Ps. 80:3,7,19 add to
God’s name each time?

5. Why are nations often referred to in plant
metaphors?

6. Are there “Messianic” hints in this Psalm or do
they all refer to the nation as a whole?

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