Bible Commentaries
Psalms 80

Introduction

The Psalmist prays for help on behalf of the oppressed church, particularly on behalf of Joseph and Benjamin, Psalms 80:1-3, and describes, in mournful language, their oppression in Psalms 80:4-7.

In Psalms 80:8-13, Israel appears under the image of a vine tree, which at first is carefully attended to, and had spread forth luxuriantly, but now had become altogether destroyed. In Psalms 80:19, the Psalmist prays that God would again take this vine tree under his gracious protection.

Ver. 1-7 are evidently to be considered as an Introduction; and the individual character of the Psalm is to be found in the figure of the vine tree.

The formal arrangement is obvious,—so obvious, that light is thrown from this Psalm upon others, where otherwise there would have been ground for uncertainty; and even from this Psalm alone, the significance of the numbers in the arrangement of the Psalms is placed beyond a doubt. The whole, inclusive of the significant title, contains twenty verses, two decades. The introduction contains seven, and the main division twelve,—the numbers of the covenant, and of the covenant people. The seven is divided into three and four, the preliminary complaint and the preliminary petition; the twelve is divided into six and six, the expanded complaint, which comes in immediately after the preliminary one, and the expanded prayer, in which the end turns back to the beginning.

The fundamental tone of the whole Psalm is given in the words: “O God, lead us back, and cause thy face to shine, and us to be delivered.” These words occur three times, like the Mosaic blessing to which they allude, for the purpose of making a deeper impression upon the mind, [Note: Calvin: God did not design to dictate a vain repetition of words to his people; but this support is frequently held out to them, when oppressed with evils, in order that nevertheless they may courageously arise.] at the end of the first and of the second part of the Introduction, Psalms 80:3 and Psalms 80:7, and at the end of the main division and of the whole, Psalms 80:19: the names of God in these same verses are arranged in an ascending series,

God, Psalms 80:3; God of Hosts, Psalms 80:7; Jehovah, God of Hosts, Psalms 80:19. They are wanting at the end of the first part of the main division, because it is bound together by the unity of the figure of the vine tree; the twelve also is not so decidedly divided by the six, which is destitute of any meaning of its own, as is the seven by the three and the four. The beginning, moreover, of the second half of the main division is externally indicated by the address, “O God of Hosts,” Psalms 80:14, just as the beginning of the second part of the Introduction by the address, “Jehovah, God of Hosts,” Psalms 80:4, indicating the termination prescribed for the refrain, to which it had to advance by degrees.

The Psalm is a remarkable testimony on behalf of the catholic spirit by which the true church of God has been always pervaded —an illustration of the apostolic saying, “when one member suffers, all the members suffer along with it.” Like the seventy-seventh Psalm, to which it is closely allied, it gives adequate expression to the painful feelings awakened in Judah’s mind by the captivity of the ten tribes; comp. the three times repeated “ lead us back,” Psalms 80:3, Psalms 80:7, Psalms 80:19. The Septuagint have already with accuracy written: ὑ?περ τοῦ? Ἀ?σσυρί?ου . For it is incontrovertibly evident, from reasons which never would have been overlooked, had it not been for the perverse disposition to assign to the Psalms the latest possible date, that we cannot refer the Psalm with several interpreters, to the Chaldean invasion, nor yet, with others, to the times of the Maccabees, nor indeed to any suffering which befell Judah. 1. The vine tree appears as destroyed to a considerable extent, and even as deprived partly of its branches, but still it is standing in the Holy Land: the people of the Lord appear, as is evident from the thrice-repeated prayer, lead us back, partly as led away; and yet they are also in possession of their own land, as is manifest from the title, “to the Chief Musician,” which is wanting in Psalms 74 and Psalms 79, and which marks out this Psalm as designed for a public service in the temple. By this the reference to the Chaldean destruction is wholly excluded. 2. In the very ( Psalms 80:1) first verse, God is addressed by the title: he who leads Joseph like a flock. The idea, in spite of the opposition of Kiel, is altogether untenable that Joseph, who appears always as the leader of the ten tribes, and who is spoken of, in Psalms 78:67, composed by Asaph, in opposition to Judah, is here used for the whole of Israel, or for Judah, in whom Israel at the time existed. Even in Obed. Obadiah 1:18, the house of Joseph denotes the ten tribes (comp. Caspari), and, in like manner, in Amos 6:6, Joseph is used only of the ten tribes; comp. Ch. B. Michaelis.) 3. In Psalms 80:2, the tribes on whose behalf the help of God is supplicated are Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Every thing here depends upon determining whether, in the division of the state into two kingdoms, the Benjamites adhered to Judah or to Joseph. The general view is in favour of the first. (Comp. for example Winer in his dic., Gesenius in his Thesaurus.) It is, however, involved here in inextricable difficulties; as if Benjamin belonged to the kingdom of Judah, and this Psalm refers to the misery of the whole people, there can be no reason assigned why Benjamin is named here, and not Judah. We, on the other hand, maintain that, with the exception of Jerusalem, which lay close on the boundaries of Judah, by whom it was conquered, and by whom, in common with Benjamin, it was inhabited (comp. Raumer, p. 334), and of that portion of its environs which lay on the side of Benjamin, the declivity, namely, slanting down, from the upper city, Benjamin adhered to Joseph. The presumptions are all in favour of this view. Benjamin and Joseph were bound together by ties of an ancient character. They were both the darling sons of beloved Rachel ( Genesis 44:27-29), and were united to each other in the tenderest affection, Genesis 43:29, Genesis 43:30-34. In travelling through the wilderness we find them as here united to each other; comp. Numbers 2:17, &c., Numbers 10:21-24. It is clear, from 2 Samuel 19:21, that the bond of union between Joseph and Benjamin was very close even in David’s time: in this passage Simei says that he comes first of the whole house of Joseph. Further, Benjamin is the very last tribe who can be supposed to have entertained any friendly feeling towards Judah, inasmuch as the honour and pre-eminence which belonged to it during the reign of Saul was transferred to Judah (comp. 1 Samuel 22:7); and history affords evidence that, even in David’s time, there existed a spirit of deep-rooted hostility. Shimei, on the rebellion of Absalom, gave utterance to the spirit of the tribe; the rebel Sheba ( 2 Samuel 21:1) belonged to Benjamin: and at the numbering of the people, with the exception of Levi, which, from the nature of the case, could not be included, the only tribe which was not numbered was Benjamin, undoubtedly because Joab did not choose to provoke its seditious spirit. If we turn now to the evidence in support of the opposite view, we find, as wholly favouring it, the passage 1 Kings 12:21, according to which Rehoboam assembled the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. But a whole series of other passages demonstrates that the author loosely, though, after all, with sufficient accuracy, as the real state of matters was universally known, employed the tribe of Benjamin to denote that small portion of the tribe which was incorporated with Judah, so that we are to supply as understood: so far as it remained faithful to Judah. According to 1 Kings 11:13, 1 Kings 11:32, 1 Kings 11:36, 1 Kings 12:20, it was only the single tribe of Judah that remained with the house of David; and it is utterly preposterous to suppose that in all these passages Benjamin, which always occupied a place of distinguished honour among the tribes, is passed over in silence, on account of its littleness. In 1 Kings 12:17, the only individuals not Jews who submitted to the government of Rehoboam are “the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.” This passage forms the connecting link between 1 Kings 12:21 and the passages above quoted, and gives to the former the necessary limitation. Further, if we join Benjamin to Judah, it will be impossible to make out the ten tribes; for Simeon, who is commonly reckoned among them, manifestly cannot be counted. That tribe, according to Genesis 49:7, ought to be found like Levi, broken up into pieces; according to Joshua 19:1, “its inheritance was in the midst of the tribe of Judah,” not certainly any contiguous portion of the land, but separate, single cities, lying at a distance from each other: comp. Bachiene i. 2, § 408. The Simeonites belong, assuredly, to “the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah,” as their cities originally were situated within the tribe of Judah, and are enumerated in the list of these cities, Bach. § 409. They must necessarily have held fast by Judah, and probably did so very willingly: it was quite natural that they should amalgamate with Judah, and this is sufficient to explain the fact that they are nowhere mentioned as a part of the kingdom of Judah: on the division into two kingdoms they became extinct as a tribe. This peculiar state of matters explains 1 Kings 11:30, &c., according to which the whole number of the tribes was twelve, of which one remained faithful to the house of David, and ten took part with Jeroboam. Now, if we leave out Simeon, it becomes necessary to take in Benjamin, in order to complete the number ten. It is, therefore, evident that the three mentioned tribes represent Israel only in a strict sense, whose leading tribes they formed in accordance with original historical relations, in accordance also with their later importance; and, therefore, the Psalm cannot be referred either to the Babylonian captivity or to the times of the Maccabees. [Note: Calvin: It would have been absurd to have passed over the tribe Judah, and the sacred city itself, and to have given the prominence to Joseph, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin, if the language had not been designed to apply specially to Israel.]

Title: To the Chief Musician, on lilies, a testimony of Asaph, a Psalm. This title is formed in an original manner after those of the two Davidic Psalms, the sixtieth and the sixty-ninth. “To the Chief Musician” is important, because it skews that the Psalmist is here acting as the organ of the whole church. Instead of אל pointing out the object (comp. at title of Psalms 6) we have על in the two fundamental passages, The lilies are an emblem of what is lovely (comp. at Psalms 45), here, as in Psalms 69, of the lovely salvation of the Lord, his ישועות : comp. נושעה with which the refrain generally ends, the peculiarly prominent word of the Psalm, and the ישועות , in Psalms 80:2. The עדות , which, on account of the accusative, cannot be connected with ששנים , signifies always law (comp. at Psalms 60 title), and generally denotes the divine law, as given in the Books of Moses; in this way also it is used in the Asaphic Psalms 78:5, Psalms 81:5. That it is used in the same sense here also, that the Psalmist designates his poem a law, because he does not prescribe a way of salvation at his own hand, but merely points to the one which had already been described in the law, and comes forward as its expounder, is evident from the reference to the title of Psalms 60, where the original itself from which the Psalmist merely copies, is named עדות , and from the fact that the Psalm really throughout depends upon the law, especially the refrain which gives its fundamental tone. The particular application of עדות is to be got from the word immediately preceding, on the lilies: “a law which treats of the way of obtaining deliverance.” [Note: Venema: that the pious, when placed in dreadful trouble, might be instructed in the true way of obtaining deliverance and salvation.] Theעדות לאסף , corresponds to the משכיל לאסף , an instruction of Asaph in Psalms 74 and Psalms 78; but it is a stronger and more emphatic expression: comp. also, H ear, my people, my law in Psalms 88:1.

Verses 1-3

Ver. 1. O thou Shepherd of Israel give ear, who leadest Joseph as the sheep; thou who sittest enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. Ver. 2. Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come for help to us. Ver. 3. O God, lead us back, and cause thy face to shine, and us to be delivered.

The “thou Shepherd of Israel,” in Psalms 80:1 (comp. at Psalms 23:1), refers to Genesis 48:15; Genesis 49:24, where in Joseph’s blessing God is named the Shepherd of Israel. The expression, “who leadest Joseph,” &c., is the development of the first clause, and marks directly that part of Israel who at this time stood particularly in need of the shepherd care of God. In the second clause prominence is given to the omnipotence of God as the second foundation of the deliverance, just as in the first his care for his people had been especially dwelt upon. It is omnipotence that is indicated by, “thou sittest enthroned upon the cherubim:” comp. at Psalms 18:10. The cherubim of the sanctuary are the emblem of the earthly creation. God’s sitting above these indicates that this sublunary world with all its powers is subject to him and serves him. “God of hosts” corresponds to this appellation of God, and denotes as exclusively God’s dominion over the heavenly powers as the expression before us denotes his dominion over those of earth. In reference to shine forth, comp. at Psalms 50:2. Allusion is made, as appears, to the resplendent symbol of the presence of God during the march through the wilderness.

The kingdom of the ten tribes, which had been designated in Psalms 80:2, by Joseph, is designated in Psalms 80:3 by its three most prominent tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, and Benjamin, who, among other things, was ennobled by having given Israel his first king, Saul. Benjamin “the little,” stands between Ephraim and Manasseh. “ Before them:”—that is, leading them forward, at their head, as formerly before Israel in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire: comp. Deut. 13:21, 22, “and the Lord went before them,” &c. Thy strength:—which now slumbers,—comp. Psalms 78:65.

The “ lead us back,” in Psalms 80:3, refers to that portion of the people who had been led into captivity, and who had been described with sufficient distinctness in the preceding clauses, and whom the Psalmist, sympathising with a suffering member, keeps throughout prominently before his eye. The usual sense of שוב in Hiph. is to lead back (comp. Genesis 28:15, where Jacob, who in his exile beyond the Euphrates, and in his restoration to Canaan, typified the fate of his people, is addressed by God, I bring thee back to this place, Jeremiah 12:15; Jeremiah 16:15; Jeremiah 30:3): and there is no ground whatever to depart from this usual sense here; more especially as in the ( Psalms 80:12) 12th and ( Psalms 80:13) 13th verses we find a lamentation expressed in figurative language over a considerable portion of the people who had been led into captivity. The sense to bring back to a former condition, to restore (Luther: comfort us), is of very rare occurrence, indeed occurs with certainty only in one passage, Daniel 9:25: comp. the Christology, p. 2, p. 456. “ Cause thy face to shine,” is demanded as a fulfilment of the Mosaic blessing, Numbers 6:25: comp. at Psalms 4:6; Psalms 31:16.

Verses 4-7

Ver. 4. O Lord God, God of hosts, how long dost thou smoke against the prayer of thy people? Ver. 5. Thou feedest them with tear-bread, and givest them drink in a great measure full of tears. Ver. 6. Thou placest us for contention to our neighbours, and our enemies make merry. Ver. 7. O God, God of hosts, bring us back, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and us to be delivered.

A heaping up of the names of God similar to that in Psalms 80:4, occurs also in the first verse of the fiftieth Psalm, another of the Psalms of Asaph. In prayer, everything depends upon God, in the full glory of his being, walking before the soul. It is only into the bosom of such a God that it is worth while to pour out lamentations and prayers. “Jehovah,” corresponding to “thou Shepherd of Israel,” in Psalms 80:1, points to the fulness of the love of God towards his people; and “God, God of hosts” corresponding to “who sittest enthroned upon the cherubim,” to his infinite power to help them. The Elohim Zebaoth causes no difficulty if we only explain correctly Jehovah Zebaoth: comp. Psalms 24:10. It is manifest from, comparing the fundamental passage, Deuteronomy 29:19, and the parallel Asaph. passage Psalms 74:1, that the smoke comes into notice only as the attendant of fire. It is clear also from these passages that we must translate against, not at the prayer of thy people. There is a significant reference to smoke as the standing symbol of prayer, and to its embodiment in the burnt offering: comp. Psalms 141:2. Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4. Isaiah 6:4, “the house was full of smoke,” Beitr. iii. 644. The smoke of prayer, according to Leviticus 16:13, should smother the fire of the wrath of God: but instead of this, God opposes the smoke of his anger to the smoke of prayer.

In Psalms 80:5, tear-bread is not at all bread destroyed by tears, but bread composed of tears. This is manifest from the parallel passages: comp. at Psalms 42:3, and the second clause: as the tears are drink there, they must be bread here. It cannot always be, that the Shepherd of Israel, of whom it is said, Psalms 23:5, “thou preparest before me a table in presence of my enemies, . . . my cup overfloweth,” prepares nothing but tears for the food and the drink of his people. That were a very singular quid pro quo. The second clause can only be translated: thou causest them to drink with a measure of tears. For השקה is constantly construed with the accusative of the person and the thing; but it never occurs with ב , before the thing. The “measure” is thus the thing that is given to drink (the שליש as the name of a measure occurs only in one other passage, Isaiah 40:12; there is no need for defining its size, it was, at all events, large for tears): “of tears” denotes the contents of the measure.

Ver. 6 alludes to Psalms 44:13, on which also Psalms 79:4 depends. The neighbours are always the petty tribes in the immediate neighbourhood of Israel (several interpreters refer incorrectly to the Assyrians and Egyptians), who continually availed themselves of those occasions when Israel was oppressed by more powerful nations, to give vent to their hatred. The מדון , the object, the butt of rage expressed in actions, but especially in bitter contempt, “ where is now their God?” &c. The למו as the dat. comm., i.e., according to the heart’s desire.

Verses 8-13

Ver. 8. Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt, thou didst remove the heathen and didst plant it. Ver. 9. Thou didst make room before it, and it struck its roots and filled the land. Ver. 10. The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the cedars of God with its branches. Ver. 11. It sent its boughs to the sea and its shoots to the river. Ver. 12. Why then hast thou broken down its wall, so that everything that passes by plunders it? Ver. 13. The boar out of the forest wastes it, and whatever stirs in the field feeds of it.

God cannot leave off, far less destroy a work which he has once begun; this is the truth on which depends the significance of the contrast between the once and the now. The fundamental passage for the figurative representation is Genesis 49:22, where Joseph, to whom the eye of the Psalmist is continually directed, appears, in reference to his joyful prosperity, as a wall tree by a fountain, whose branches rose high above the walls. The difference is only this, that here instead of the fruit tree, the vine is introduced, after the example of Isaiah in ch. Isaiah 5:1-7, where Israel appears as the vineyard of the Lord. It is obvious from the fundamental passage, and from the expanded description which follows, that the point of comparison next to the abundance of beautiful fruit is the luxuriant growth: comp. Hosea 14:7, “They shall grow as the vine.”

That the הסיע in Psalms 80:8 is to be taken in its usual sense, to cause to depart, which it maintains even in Job 19:10, is evident on comparing the Asaphic passage, from which it is immediately borrowed, Psalms 78:52, and the fundamental passages, Exodus 12:37; Exodus 15:22, on which this depends. An affirmation may be made in regard to the spiritual, which could not be applied to the natural vine. “ Thou didst remove the heathen” is taken from Psalms 78:55, which again depends upon Exodus 23:28; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11. The sons of Asaph always follow in the footsteps of their father. The “ plant” is from Psalms 44:2, to which allusion is also made in Psalms 80:12. The Berleb.: “Shall all this be for nought and in vain? Or hast thou planted it on this account, that the enemies might devour it?” On פנה in Psalms 7 “to clear,” “to clear out,” in Psalms 80:10, comp. the Christol. 404. It corresponds to “the clearing out of the stones” of Isaiah 5:2, and refers to the removal of the original inhabitants of the country. Instead of “it struck its roots,” Luther has falsely, “Thou hast made it strike its roots.”

The fundamental passages for Psalms 80:11-12 are Genesis 28:14, where it is said in the promise to Jacob, “thou stretch out on the west and on the east, on the north and on the south,” and especially Deuteronomy 11:24, “every place which the sole of your feet shall tread upon shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the west sea shall be your boundaries:”—comp. Joshua 1:4. God had in former times gloriously fulfilled the promises contained in these passages. צלה and ענפיה are in reality both accusatives governed by בכו Pü; the mountains which were covered with the shadow of the vine are the mountains on the south of Canaan, the hill country of Judah, particularly the southermost part of the same, the hill country of the Amorites, which at the commencement of Israel’s country met the traveller like a wall; comp. Raumer p. 48. “The wilderness of mountains” is introduced in Psalms 75:7 as the southern boundary, in the same way as the mountains are here spoken of as the most southern portion of the land. The cedars of God (comp. at Psalms 36:6) which the boughs of the vine ascend and cover, are, as usual, those of Lebanon (comp. Psalms 29:5; Psalms 92:13; Psalms 104:16), which formed the north boundary of Canaan: comp. Psalms 29, where Lebanon and the wilderness of Kadesh stand opposed to each other as the northern and southern boundaries of Canaan. The sea is the Mediterranean, the river, Euphrates. From this antithesis the translation falls to the ground: and his boughs were cedars of God,—which would bring out a monstrous figure.

The ארה to pluck (elsewhere only in Song of Solomon 5:1), applies not to the grapes but to the branches:—the luxuriance of the branches formed the subject of the preceding description; and the opposite of that state is described in this clause, as it is in Isaiah 5:5, Psalms 89:40-41. All who pass by time way: Berleb.: “for example, Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Salmanasser, Senacherib.”

The boar from the forest (comp. Jeremiah 5:4) is according to the analogy of Psalms 68:30. Ezekiel 29:3, where the hippopotamus and the crocodile are emblem of Pharaoh, and Ezekiel 17, where the eagle indicates Nebuchadnezar, descriptive not of the enemies generally, but of the king of Assyria. “Whatever stirs in the field” (זיז is from the Asaph. Psalms 50:11, the only other passage where it is used of beasts), denotes the whole mass of the nations serving under him. [Note: Berleb: The beasts represent, in the inner man, the destructive passions by which the vineyard of the soul is torn up and consumed.]

Verses 14-19

Ver. 14. O God, God of hosts, turn yet back, look from heaven and behold and visit this vine. Ver. 15. And maintain that which thy right hand has planted, and the Son whom, thou hast made strong for thyself. Ver. 16. It is burned with fire, cut down, before the rebuke of thy countenance they perish. Ver. 17. May thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the Son of Man whom thou hast made strong for thyself. Ver. 18. We will not go back, quicken thou us and we will call upon thy name. Ver. 19. Lord, God, God of hosts, lead us back, cause thy face to shine and us to be delivered.

The beginning of the prayer in the main division, Psalms 80:14 joins on to the beginning of the prayer in the introduction, Psalms 80:1. The כנה , Psalms 80:15, is the imper. of כּ?נן , to make firm, comp. the proper noun, כנניהו , whom Jehovah hath established. It is construed first with the accusative, and afterwards with על , which denotes the care and the protection. Against the idea that it is to be considered as a noun, in the sense of a slip, it may be urged, that there is no such noun, that the reference to the ( Psalms 80:8) 8th verse demands that it be the vine-tree that is here spoken of, and that the following verse refers to the vine as if it had previously been spoken of. The Son of the second clause is just the spiritual vine. The translation, a shoot, according to Genesis 49:22, is not only against Psalms 80:17, but also against the sense, as it is not any particular shoot, but the whole vine that is here spoken of. The אמץ should be taken in its usual sense, to make strong (comp. the proper noun, Amaziah,) rather than in the sense of to choose, which depends upon the single and very doubtful passage, Isaiah 44:14. The singular, otherwise strange, is accounted for here and in Psalms 80:17, by the allusion to the name of Benjamin, whom the Psalmist here considers as the representative of all Israel. Thy right hand and, Son ought to read with italics, for the purpose of making this allusion obvious. The Son of the right hand is the Son who stands at the right hand of his earthly and his heavenly father, and who is, consequently, protected by him: Genesis 44:20, “his father loves him,” and Deuteronomy 33:12, “the beloved of the Lord,” are to be considered as explanations of the name. In so far as Jacob gave this significant name to his son, under the guidance and inspiration of God, it was a pledge of the divine love and help for him, and, at the same time, for all Israel, with whom he is interwoven. The subject in “they perish,” in Psalms 80:16, is the children of Israel, the spiritual vine. [Note: Calvin: “Let us learn, whenever the anger of God burns forth, even in the midst of the flames of the conflagration to cast our griefs into the bosom of God, who wonderfully revives his church from destruction.]

Ver. 18 alludes to Psalms 44:18, “our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps declined from thy paths.” Israel could not say so now; they have deserved their misery, they have turned aside to many ways, and, instead of the name of the Lord, they have called upon strange gods (comp. Psalms 79:6), but they promise better; if the Lord will bring them back unto life ( Psalms 71:20), they also will walk in a new life. The guilt of Israel is very tenderly touched. The Psalmist has no intention of acting the part of Job’s friends, he follows the admonition of Job: “have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends, for the hand of God is upon me.” God has undertaken to rebuke, Psalms 80:16, and therefore his servants may well be silent.