Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 80: Turn us again

Psalm 80[1]

¹   Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock!
    You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
²   before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
     Stir up your might, and come to save us!
³    Restore us, O God;
     let your face shine, that we may be saved.
     [Turn us again, O God; 
    show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.][2]
⁴    O Lord God of hosts,
     how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
⁵    You have fed them with the bread of tears,
     and given them tears to drink in full measure.
⁶    You make us the scorn of our neighbours;
    our enemies laugh among themselves.
⁷   Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.
    [Turn us again, O God of hosts; 
    show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.][3]
⁸   You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹   You cleared the ground for it;
     it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
     the mighty cedars with its branches;
¹¹   it sent out its branches to the sea,
      and its shoots to the River.
¹²   Why then have you broken down its walls,
      so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³   The boar from the forest ravages it,
      and all that move in the field feed on it.
¹⁴   Turn again, O God of hosts;
      look down from heaven, and see;
      have regard for this vine,
      [Turn again, O God of hosts, 
      look down from heaven and behold; cherish this vine,][4]
¹⁵   the stock that your right hand planted.
¹⁶   They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
      may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
¹⁷   But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
      the one whom you made strong for yourself.
¹⁸   Then we will never turn back from you;
      give us life, and we will call on your name.
¹⁹   Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
      let your face shine, that we may be saved.
      [Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts;  
     show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.][5]

The familiar cry of the person at prayer who knows has a glimmering of understanding of their neediness – and the nation’s neediness – repeats and repeats through this psalm like a heartbeat.

Yet there is a surprise in store, a phrase that might make the attentive person at prayer’s heart miss a beat too.

I refer to what happens at regular points in Psalm 80 at verses 3, 7, & 19 and the bold call at the heart of the psalm in verse 14.

At frequent intervals, the poet calls out for God to ‘restore’ or ‘turn around’(Hebew: hasibenu) all the people of his faith community and nation. The NRSV and the Anglican psalter translate the Hebrew word hasibenu[6] differently. ‘Restore’ is the former version’s choice; ‘turn’ is the psalter’s selection. The word literally means ‘cause us to return’. Scholars believe it may have been written at a time following a great national calamity, possibly the conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 721BC. Whatever the circumstances that prompted its creation, this is a psalm of communal lament.

In verses 3, 7 and 19 the triple request is that God takes action and effects the ‘turning around’. This has struck me with force. So desperate is the situation, not withstanding the human sin that has led to these specific circumstances, only God can do the ‘turning round’ or ‘restoring’. Confession is not going to restore the penitent people to life. Nor are any number of other actions. Only God can do this deep work.

What I also notice in these three verses is that as the psalmist repeats this plea, the name of God grows. In verse 3 the psalmist locates his help as simply coming from God. By verse 7 the psalmist adds ‘God of hosts’ (or God of the armies of heaven). And finally, by verse 19, there is the addition of the more intimate, more personal, divine name ‘Lord’ (Yahweh).

Another element of this repeated plea, is the call to God for God’s face to shine out on the petitioner and people.  There is a sense in this psalm that God has become distant, far off, almost absent. God can’t be seen. Yet, the psalmist wants to have God’s ear and will not give up on the hope that God can hear and will act. For the bulk of the psalm, the poet tells God what’s going on and expects God to respond and take action. Verse 4-6 tell the personal toll that the national disaster is having: tears and heartbreak and a sense of shame because everyone else  - all the neighbouring nations – are laughing and pouring scorn on them. Verses 8-13 tell, in allegorical form, the story of the exodus, the creation of Israel and the spread of the Kingdom of David from Mediterranean to the Euphrates river, followed by the beginnings of the kingdom’s collapse.

Then comes the startling verse 14 which I have already hinted at. This verse calls on God to ‘turn again’. Having already said that the rescue of all people is God’s initiative. Repentance – turning around again to face God – is part of our tradition, our spirituality, our sense of what happens to recalibrate a broken relationship. Yet this bold psalmist makes a very clear and surprising claim: there can be no restoration, no life or future, until God also ‘turns around’ and faces God’s people. The primary need is for God to act. Without God’s repentance there can be no life. This is the thought that might make your heart skip a beat today.

God acted and intervened to enable the exodus. God acted and intervened in Jesus at the cross of calvary. And God acts and intervenes each day in our lives. Not because of our clever words or careful actions, but because again and again and again God cannot deny God’s disposition: which is to rescue us from ourselves and restore life. May our disposition be to trust in this God who comes close and can alone turn our hearts and our lives. May we see this happen today and again tomorrow and on into time everlasting.

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[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Common Worship The Psalter Psalm 80

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Hasibenu  is also found in Jeremiah 27.22 and Daniel 9.25, both prophets of the exile; in Nehemiah 9.26 and in Lamentations 5.21.