Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

Psalm 80

Prayer for Israel’s Restoration

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,

you who lead Joseph like a flock!

You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth

before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.

Stir up your might,

and come to save us!

Restore us, O God;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

O L ord God of hosts,

how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

You have fed them with the bread of tears,

and given them tears to drink in full measure.

You make us the scorn of our neighbors;

our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

You brought a vine out of Egypt;

you drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it;

it took deep root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered with its shade,

the mighty cedars with its branches;

it sent out its branches to the sea,

and its shoots to the River.

Why then have you broken down its walls,

so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest ravages it,

and all that move in the field feed on it.

Turn again, O God of hosts;

look down from heaven, and see;

have regard for this vine,

the stock that your right hand planted.

They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;

may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,

the one whom you made strong for yourself.

Then we will never turn back from you;

give us life, and we will call on your name.

Restore us, O L ord God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

14. Return, I beseech thee, O God of Hosts! In these words it is intended to teach, that we ought not to yield to temptation although God should hide his face from us for a time, yea even although to the eye of sense and reason he should seem to be alienated from us. For, provided he is sought in the confident expectation of his showing mercy, he will become reconciled, and receive into his favor those whom he seemed to have cast off. It was a distinguished honor for the seed of Abraham to be accounted the vineyard of God; but while the faithful adduce this consideration as an argument for obtaining the favor of God, instead of bringing forward any claims of their own, they only beseech him not to cease to exercise his accustomed liberality towards them. The words, from heaven, have, no doubt, been introduced, that the faithful might find no difficulty in extending their faith to a distance, although God, from whom they had departed, was far from them; and, farther that if they saw no prospect of deliverance upon earth, they might lift up their eyes to heaven.

As to the word כנה, cannah, ³⁹⁸³⁹⁸ “Surely, כנה, should not be translated vineyard, but plant: and probably ו should be translated, or understood to mean, even See Noldius, Sign. 38.” — Arcbishop Secker “Michaelis and Gesenius derive it from כנן, texit, with the suffix ה. Bochart considers it an Egyptian word. ‘כנה, verto plantam ex sententia Bocharti (in Phaleg. lib. 1, cap. 15 and 16, edit. Leusd.) qui putat vocem esse Ægyptiacam. Nam, auctore Plutarcho in Iside, hederam Ægyptii χενόιριν, h. e. φυτὸν Οσιριδος, plantam Osiridis vocabant.’ Dathe. De Rossi concurs.” — Rogers’ Book of Psalms, etc., volume 2, 231. in the beginning of the 15th verse, I readily acquiesce in the sense given of it by some who translate it, a place prepared; but as some think that there is a change in the Hebrew word of the letter ג, gimel, into כ, caph, so that the reading should be גנה, gannah, a garden or vineyard, we leave the reader to judge for himself. It is, however, certain that this is a metaphor akin to the former, by which is denoted the singular liberality of God in advancing this people, and causing them to prosper. The vine-branch which was planted by the hand of God is also called the Man of his right hand.

³⁹⁸ “Surely, כנה, should not be translated vineyard, but plant: and probably ו should be translated, or understood to mean, even See Noldius, Sign. 38.” — Arcbishop Secker “Michaelis and Gesenius derive it from כנן, texit, with the suffix ה. Bochart considers it an Egyptian word. ‘כנה, verto plantam ex sententia Bocharti (in Phaleg. lib. 1, cap. 15 and 16, edit. Leusd.) qui putat vocem esse Ægyptiacam. Nam, auctore Plutarcho in Iside, hederam Ægyptii χενόιριν, h. e. φυτὸν Οσιριδος, plantam Osiridis vocabant.’ Dathe. De Rossi concurs.” — Rogers’ Book of Psalms, etc., volume 2, 231.