Psalm 80:8-19 / NRSV
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 Lord God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
This Psalm is a lament.
The earlier psalms are ascribed to David, but the latter, not. They are Liturgical hymns.
This one was written after fall of the northern kingdom when all the glory and power of the kingdom under David and Solomon is lost.
'Lament' is not our focus - that’s another sermon – today it's just set-up for the last few lines, calling for restoration. The psalmist here compares Israel to a vineyard that God once planted and nurtured and made to flourish. The vineyard is God’s work – God’s creation.
God created the vineyard in love - but weeds sprang up and the vines didn’t produce and God allowed it then to fail. The singer/psalmist is pleading with God to remember that love and God’s original passion for the vineyard and to restore it once again.
And the psalmist believes God will do so.
This psalmist is looking for political restoration - restore Israel to its prior greatness. When we today read this as prayer – to what do we wish to be restored?
▸ The glory days of the 50's with a full church?
▸ or to a time when we, personally, individually, were closer to God?
You can’t have the 1st until we have the 2nd
The earlier psalms are ascribed to David, but the latter, not. They are Liturgical hymns.
This one was written after fall of the northern kingdom when all the glory and power of the kingdom under David and Solomon is lost.
'Lament' is not our focus - that’s another sermon – today it's just set-up for the last few lines, calling for restoration. The psalmist here compares Israel to a vineyard that God once planted and nurtured and made to flourish. The vineyard is God’s work – God’s creation.
God created the vineyard in love - but weeds sprang up and the vines didn’t produce and God allowed it then to fail. The singer/psalmist is pleading with God to remember that love and God’s original passion for the vineyard and to restore it once again.
And the psalmist believes God will do so.
This psalmist is looking for political restoration - restore Israel to its prior greatness. When we today read this as prayer – to what do we wish to be restored?
▸ The glory days of the 50's with a full church?
▸ or to a time when we, personally, individually, were closer to God?
You can’t have the 1st until we have the 2nd
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