A Reflection on Psalm 80

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!
 
Psalm 80 laments the exile of the northern tribes, those called “Israel” or “Ephraim” after the split of the kingdom under Rehoboam the son of Solomon. It may have been composed by refugees from Israel, but it also may have been composed,  and was certainly used in worship, by the southern tribes, “Judah.” It is a beautiful affirmation of the unity of God’s people, naming Benjamin (one of the southern tribes) between Ephraim and Manasseh (two of the northern tribes). 
 
Restore us, O God; 
      Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
 
“Turn us again!” As Steven mentioned in his sermon on Sunday, that is the more literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase here. When the kingdom split, becoming North (Israel) and South (Judah), the first king of Israel set up golden calves in Israel as a substitute for the temple at Jerusalem because he was afraid he would lose his power over the people if they went into Judah to sacrifice and participate in the feast days given in the law of Moses. Yet our God is enthroned upon the cherubim—in his heavenly courts, of course, but the physical symbol and copy and his only authorized place of worship was in the temple, where his “Holy Seat” was on the ark of the covenant, between the two cherubim of gold set there. In this haunting refrain, Judah is included in this call to repentance, to turn again to the one true God and to his ordered worship because that is where he shines forth!
 
You brought a vine out of Egypt; 
      you drove out the nations and planted it.
 
The picture of God’s people as his planting, the vine in his vineyard, is the imagery of the rest of this psalm, as well as in this past Sunday’s readings from Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21. In John 15 Jesus takes this imagery on himself, calling himself the true vine and the vinedresser his Father. Which is to say, Jesus is united Israel--united not only North and South, but as David prays for his own heart in Psalm 86:11, united to fear God’s name. To Jesus, as it was once to the temple in Jerusalem, is now where we all must turn, must ask the Father to turn us, that his Son’s face may shine upon us! As it says in To Be a Christian (the new Anglican catechism):
 
What does is mean for you to repent?
To repent means that I have a change of heart, turning from sinfully serving myself to serving God as I follow Jesus Christ. I need God’s help to make this change.
 
Turn us again, God of our salvation! Restore us again in your unfailing love.
 
- Rebekah