(To the chief Musician. On Shoshannim-Eduth. Of Asaph. A Psalm.) Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that sittest [between] the cherubim, shine forth.
Psalm 80 opens by calling God the Shepherd of Israel, and in the same breath sets Him on the throne above the ark. A ruined people ask the God of glory to show Himself again.
This psalm picks up where the previous one left off.
The last psalm closed with a plea. The people of Israel, however low they may have fallen, are still the Lord's people, and the sheep of His pasture. In this psalm the godly, while still confessing the sin of the people, rise higher in their appeal. If Israel are the Lord's sheep, it follows the Lord is the Shepherd of Israel, the One to whom the sheep should look.
The verse sets a humble picture beside a majestic one.
Two thoughts are brought together in the beginning of Psalm 80... He is not only seen in His lowly character as a shepherd, but He is the One who sits between the cherubim.
That pairing gives confidence to the one who prays:
So we may walk our way in confidence, knowing that He who "dwells between the cherubim" is the One who leads His people "like a flock" (Psalm 80:1). His word, His mercy, His righteousness, His light, His way and His love are as everlasting as Himself.
The answer reaches back to the birthright and to the wilderness journey.
The psalm opens with a cry to the Divine Shepherd who of old led Joseph like a flock. The reference is to the wilderness journey to the promised land... After Reuben lost the birthright for his sin, it passed naturally to Joseph, Rachel's firstborn. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were the twofold witness of this, and so was the tabernacle in Shiloh in the land of Ephraim.
The psalm goes on to name three tribes, and their place in the camp explains why:
Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh were the three tribes at the rear of Israel's host. Their place was right behind the ark.
The phrase points to a place — the mercy-seat, the golden lid of the ark, with a carved figure at each end overshadowing it.
God took possession of the house that had been built according to His word. From then on He dwells among His people. He was known as dwelling between the cherubim (1 Sam. 4:4; Psalm 80:1); that is, between the cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat. The mercy-seat was His throne, the throne on which He sat. From there He governed His people. From there He gave out mercy according to the value of the incense and the blood of the sacrifices presented before Him on the great day of atonement.
The cry asks God to stop hiding Himself and to appear.
They now call clearly to the Shepherd, He who is enthroned in glory between the cherubim. They ask Him to "shine forth," to show Himself in glory and power for their salvation, to answer their cries for help. Three times they plead, "Turn us again, O God, and cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved." Ancient Jewish comments on this verse say that the face which shines upon Israel is the Messiah.
That shining is not only for the future:
They plead for Him to shine forth, as indeed will be true for them when He comes in great glory to introduce the millennium; but true for believers now, who know the shining of His face.
The psalm asks for two things, and the order matters.
First, we have the appeal to the Shepherd of Israel going out to lead Joseph like a flock, as once the ark went three days' journey into the wilderness to search out a place for them to camp (Deut. 1:33)... Then there follows what answers to Aaron's blessing (Num. 6:24-26), only restoration is in question, not their first state — "O God, restore us, and cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved."... Here power is looked for first, and the blessing follows... Power must first step in and destroy the adversaries.
- Sheep, therefore Shepherd. The plea grows out of the previous psalm. If the people are His flock, then He is their Shepherd — the One they should look to.
- Shepherd on the throne. One Person holds both titles. The Leader of the flock is the God enthroned in glory.
- The throne is a mercy-seat. God dwelt between the cherubim over the ark's golden lid. From there He ruled His people and gave out mercy on the ground of the blood presented there.
- Memory drives the prayer. Joseph, Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh recall the wilderness march. Those tribes marched right behind the ark.
- Shine forth, and we are saved. The threefold cry asks God to show Himself in glory and power. Israel will see that shining face when He comes. Believers know it now.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come to our deliverance.
Psalm 80 is a cry for rescue while the nation lies in ruins. Its second verse reaches back to Israel's marching order in the desert, where three tribes camped closest to the ark, and it asks God to rouse His own strength.
Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh are not chosen at random. They were the tribes camped and marching closest to the ark. The ark was the chest that carried God's covenant and marked His presence among the people.
The whole of Psalm 80 is opened up by the position of the tribes. In the last days of Israel's desolation, the spirit of the psalmist asks God to lead them and to show His power as He did when He led them through the wilderness. He asks for the power of His presence on the ark of testimony, as God showed it when Israel set forward and the word was, "Rise up, Jehovah, and let your enemies be scattered." Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh were the three tribes nearest the ark in the camp of Israel. That is why verse 2 of the Psalm says, "before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh."
God set their place, and He set the order of their marching too.
The group under Ephraim was on the west side, and so nearest to the holy place with the cloud of the Divine Presence. This explains why Psalm 80 speaks of God shining forth "before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh." Notice that God commanded the order in which the tribes were to march when they set out on their journeys, just as He commanded the order of their tents when they rested.
Each name carries a meaning, and the order matters: Benjamin stands before Manasseh, the firstborn.
Ephraim, his name meaning "fruitful," speaks of the positive results in blessing of God's dealings with Israel. Benjamin, meaning "the son of my right hand," is a picture of Christ reigning in glory. He is named before Manasseh (the firstborn), whose name means "forgetting." That is the negative side: Israel will one day forget all their past history. Why? Because they now have Christ.
One writer sets this prayer in a time still to come, when the temple lies defiled and the city in ruins.
This psalm is a cry for God to step in after the temple has been defiled and Jerusalem laid in heaps (Ps. 79:1) — a state of sorrow to be known in the future. So the godly remnant will say, "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Your strength, and come and save us" (Ps. 80:2).
The order of the prayer matters. Verse 2 asks for strength; the shining face and salvation come in verse 3.
The psalm calls on His strength (vv. 1, 2), as when Moses said, "Rise up, Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered." Then comes what answers to Aaron's blessing (Num. 6:24-26), only restoration is in question, not their first condition — "O God, restore us, and cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved." Here power is looked for first, and the blessing is a consequence... Indeed, this is the only principle upon which Israel's blessing is possible. Power must first intervene and destroy the adversaries.
The appeal joins two pictures of the same Person. He leads His people like sheep, and He sits enthroned between the cherubim, the winged figures over the ark.
If Israel are the Lord's sheep, then the Lord is the Shepherd of Israel, the One to whom the sheep should look. So the cry goes up to the Shepherd of Israel who once led His people like a flock and lived among them between the cherubim. They ask Him to shine forth before the tribes again, to come in His strength to deliver them from their enemies, and to cause His face to shine in favour upon them.
The ark's proper place was in the middle of the camp, yet it went out ahead of the people. The same pattern holds for God's people now.
In Ps. 80:2, "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Your strength," calls on God to act as in those days. The proper place of the ark was in the centre, but it went before them... We have the power and presence of Jesus with us in our journey and our worship. So it is now: when He brings out His own sheep He goes before them; and when we rest, "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I."
- Position. Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh camped and marched closest to the ark. The prayer asks God to act from the spot where His presence once stood.
- Presence. God Himself placed them nearest the cloud of His presence. That nearness was His arrangement, not their choice.
- Precedent. The plea repeats Moses' words spoken when the ark set out. It asks God to act in ruin as He acted in the wilderness.
- Power. Strength comes first, blessing second. Deliverance must come before the shining face and restoration of verse 3.
- Person. The One they call on is Shepherd and enthroned King at once. The same presence still goes ahead of His own today.
O God, restore us; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Psalm 80 is the cry of a nation in ruin, and three times the same words come back like a refrain — at verse 3, verse 7, and verse 19. The prayer asks for two things that belong together. God must turn His people. And He must turn His face toward them.
The ESV says "Restore us, O God." Older translations say "Turn us again," and several writers below build on that older wording.
They are already turning. Even so, they ask God to turn them, because they know their own will is weak.
They too must be turned to Him. They really are turning. But they know how weak and wayward their own will is, and their old history stands in front of them — a bow that shoots crooked. That is just why they ask, in the words of the psalmist, to be turned. God alone could make this desire of theirs work. The work in them, like the work for them, must be His. So the two are joined together in the cry: "Turn us again, O God! Make Your face shine on us, and we shall be saved."
Their suffering did not produce this prayer by itself. Hardship alone cannot bend a heart back toward God.
Discipline by itself does not turn anyone to God. It may break the will, humble a person where God is working, and so do a preparatory work; but it does not turn anyone to God. So they are brought to this point. In the ruins of Ephraim and Judah, at their lowest, because nothing less would do, they say, "Turn me," "Turn us again."
The request for God's face to shine is not new with the psalmist. It picks up the blessing God appointed Israel's high priest to speak over the people.
We may here recall the wording of the blessing appointed for God's High Priest in Israel, as stated in Num. 6:23-27. "The LORD make His face to shine upon you," Aaron was to say. "Make Your face shine" is the prayer of the godly in this Psalm. They have not forgotten, and will not forget, the words in Numbers.
The refrain is not simple repetition. Each time it returns, the name used for God is fuller than before.
This is no effort to restore themselves. It is dependence on God to do it. Notice, too, how the psalmist names God each time he asks Him to make His face shine. In verse 3 he says, "O God." In verse 7 he says, "O God of hosts." In verse 19 it is "O LORD God of hosts," which adds the thought of God's covenant relationship with Israel.
The reasons they give for asking also come in threes. The last one is a Person.
Their first plea is that God is the Shepherd of Israel. Their second plea is that God cannot be indifferent to their sufferings. Their last plea is Christ, the Man of God's right hand.
Who is this shining face? One old answer names the Messiah.
Ancient Jewish comments on this verse say that the face which shines on Israel is the Messiah. And so, when His face shines, when He appears in glory, His earthly people will be saved. And they know Him. They speak of Him as "the Man of Your right hand," as "the Son of Man whom You made strong for Yourself."
This prayer is not locked in the past. Anyone whose own face is turned the wrong way can pray it.
How good it is that we can look to God when our face is set wrong! He can turn us. And His face can then shine on us, to bring blessing and present deliverance to His people.
The shining face is not only a way to be rescued. It is the blessing itself.
For us it means nothing less than enjoying Him directly. That is a kind of blessing no hearts like ours could ever value as they should. He never blesses us more fully than when He makes Himself the object of our hearts, today and for eternity.
- Turn — the people cannot turn themselves. The work in them and the work for them must both be God's.
- Not by pain — suffering may break the will and prepare the ground. By itself it turns no one back to God.
- Shine — the request echoes Aaron's blessing in Numbers 6. They ask God for what He told the priest to say over them.
- Rise — three cries, three names: God, God of hosts, LORD God of hosts. The last one adds God's covenant bond with Israel.
- Saved — that shining face is the Messiah's, the Man of God's right hand. For hearts now it is not just the rescue; it is the reward.