Psalm 80:1-7

Psalm 80:1-7

Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us.

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us.

Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

Psalm 80 is the plaintive cry of a soul at the end of our ability to hope. The “hear us” and the “how long” are held up to the “awaken your might” and “restore us.” The superscription to the Psalm tells us that this is for “the director of music” and to the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” That means this is a song meant for the worshipping life of Israel. I love when music reflects that inner turmoil of soul and gives voice to the emotion experienced in these hard moments. A modern song that does this well is “A Prayer” by Kings Kaleidoscope. (I will link a version of it here.) Chad Gardner, the song writer, explains, “The song is my heart, it’s my gut, and it’s my honest pouring of my guts out to God in prayer… And then the song is met ultimately with God’s true response to me as the true me, of where I actually am at.”

Asaph’s psalm does the same thing: it is the deep longing, hope, hurt, and hardship of a people put to voice; crying out to the Shepherd of Israel, who seems so far from their present darkness. The image of God enthroned between the cherubim is both a statement of his transcendence, but also the felt distance from our terrestrial experience. The call for God to “awaken [his] power” implies that, from the experience of the Psalmist, God is not moved (it is not that he is sleeping on the job, as we might say in English, the Hebrew word means something more akin to “stir up your affections for us.” The psalmist knows God loves his people, Asaph is crying out for that love to be put to action.) God has turned his face away and we sing, “make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” (vs. 3, 7, 19)

The psalmist also recognizes that the experience of God’s distance is in the first place because of what they have done: “How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?” The Lord’s anger is aroused because of the sin of his people (cf. Deut.9:18) – all throughout the book of Kings you can read about kings who followed sinful ways which “caused my people Israel to sin and to arouse my [God’s] anger by their sins.” (1 Kings 16:2; see also: 1 Kings 14:22; 21:22; and 1 Chronicles 28:13). Asaph longs for God’s anger at sin, which he knows is just, to be ended. They’ve feed enough on their own tears. 

The return of God’s presence experienced by the people will bring revival (cf. vs. 18) to the people. God moving in compassion towards his people brings their salvation – which means restored relationship to God. The people are experiencing death because of their disobedience and apathy because of their spiritual death (vs. 16) – there is only one Savior from that. Asaph does in shadow what Kings Kaleidoscope do explicitly in their song – turn to Jesus and hear from him. The psalmist writes, “Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man that you have raised up for yourself.” (vs. 17) In Matthew 22: 41-46 Jesus specifically applies the language of the Lord sitting at the right hand of God and the language of being the Son to himself; in Acts 7:56 Stephen looks to heaven and he sees Jesus and says, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

The hope of Israel during these dark nights of the soul is the same as the confidence Stephen had while being stone, and is the hope of the Christian church through the ages, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been raised up, and we are with him, by grace through faith. The hope that allows us to worship in moments of extreme emotion and the apparent distance of God is the same fueling hope that motivates our obedience in life lived for him.

And now, when we cry, “Jesus where are you?” We can hear him say, “I’m right beside you / I feel what you feel… I gave myself for you / and I was crucified, because I love you.”

Prayer
Jesus help us to pray and worship with the transparency and truth of the psalmist – bringing all of who we are into all of who you are. Jesus, open the eyes of our heart to see you shining in the dark night of our souls. In Jesus’ name, Amen.