"...Turn us back, O Elohim of Hosts, and cause your Face to shine, that we might be saved!..."
As we begin looking at the second part of Psalm 80, let's start where we left off in Part One - with verse 7 (see above).
This is the plea of the psalmist, the cry for mercy, for the Salvation of YHVH, for His favor upon His wayward people. Three times Asaph the psalmist cries out for YHVH, the Shepherd of Israel, to turn His people back to Him that they might be saved.
Why should He do it? Why should He listen?
Why should He act on behalf of this people?
Let's continue reading...
Psalm 80 (continued)
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared a place for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 Hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its twigs.
11 She spread her branches to the Sea, and her shoots to the River.
12 Why have You broken down her hedges, so that every passer-by plucked her fruit?
13 The boar out of the forest ravages it, and the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beg you, O Elohim of hosts; look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
15 And the stock which Your right hand has planted, and the Son whom You made strong for Yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your face.
17 Let Your hand be upon the One at Your right hand; upon the Son of Adam whom You made strong for Yourself,
18 And we shall not backslide from You. Revive us, and let us call upon Your Name.
19 Turn us back, O Elohim of hosts, and cause Your face to shine, that we might be saved!
Not many weeks ago, we were observing YHVH's appointed time of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and now we are almost at the end of counting the days for 7 weeks plus one day until Shavuot. During these important appointed times, we have been reminded of YHVH's faithfulness to His people in bringing them miraculously out of the land of Egypt, saving His people with His own strong Right Arm of salvation (otherwise known as the Mashiach - the Messiah - the One Who Saves)!
The second part of Psalm 80 is a wonderful reminder yet again as we continue to reflect on the faithfulness of YHVH to His people.
The psalmist speaks of YHVH's faithfulness in bringing Israel out of bondage in Egypt, specifically reminding YHVH of how He brought Israel out as a vine and planted her in the land which He promised and provided - HIS Land of inheritance for HIS chosen people.
In route to the promised land, the "Vine" (Israel) stopped at Mt Sinai where she entered into a covenant with her Elohim, her Husband, in the receiving of the covenant agreement, the Torah.
Side note: While not specifically stated in YHVH's Word as such, Jews traditionally celebrate Shavu'ot as the day YHVH gave His people Israel the Torah on Mt Sinai, and His people said "yes"!
Israel said "We will do everything YHVH has said!" (Exodus 19:7-8) And thankfully, even though Israel broke her part of the covenant time and again, YHVH has been and always will be faithful to HIS covenant with His people.
Isaiah 54:5-8
“For your Maker is your husband, יהוה of hosts is His Name, and the Set-apart One of Israel is your Redeemer. He is called the Elohim of all the earth. For יהוה has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when you were refused,” declares your Elohim.“For a little while I have forsaken you, but with great compassion I shall gather you. In an overflow of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I shall have compassion on you,” said יהוה, your Redeemer.
Hosea 2:16-23
"And it shall be, in that day,” declares יהוה, “that you call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Baʽal.’ And I shall remove the names of the Baʽals from her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day I shall make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens... And I shall make them lie down in safety.
“And I shall take you as a bride unto Me forever, and take you as a bride unto Me in righteousness, and in right-ruling, and kindness and compassion...in trustworthiness, and you shall know יהוה.
“And it shall be in that day that I answer,” declares יהוה, “that I answer the heavens, and they answer the earth, and the earth answer the grain and the new wine and the oil, and they answer Yizreʽel. And I shall sow her for Myself in the earth, and I shall have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I shall say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people,’ while they say, ‘My Elohim!’ ”
We see in verses 8-11 of Psalm 80 that this Vine, Israel, flourished and grew under YHVH's care and covered the land, shadowing the hills and even the mighty cedars, spreading from sea to river.
And then we read why Asaph is crying out for YHVH to return to Israel and cause Israel to return to Him: in verses 12, 13, and 16 Asaph reveals that YHVH has broken down Israel's hedges and allowed the beasts to plunder the land, the vineyard. Israel was perishing at the rebuke of YHVH's face!The obvious question is "Why?" "Why would YHVH break down the hedges of His own wife, His own inheritance?"
And I hope that the answer is also obvious to all of us who are human beings, flawed, prone to sin, never able to uphold the covenant with our God perfectly without His help...
Israel broke the covenant.
Israel broke the relationship.
Israel turned away from her Husband, her Maker, her Redeemer.
Let's look at the situation as portrayed in Isaiah 5.
Isaiah 5:1-7
“And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I waited for the yielding of grapes, did it yield rotten ones? And now, please let Me inform you what I am doing to My vineyard: To take away its hedge and it shall be burned; to break down its wall and it shall be trampled down; and I lay it waste; it is not pruned or dug and thornbushes and weeds shall come up; and I command the clouds not to rain on it."
For the vineyard of יהוה of hosts is the house of Yisra’ĕl, and the man of Yehuḏah is His pleasant plant. He looked for right-ruling, but see, oppression; for righteousness, but see, weeping.
Another interesting side note: the Hebrew scripture includes two plays on words in Isaiah 5:7. The Hebrew word for right-ruling or judgment is mishpat משׁפט, while the word for oppression is mispach which means slaughter/bloodshed משׂפח. The word for righteousness is tsedakah צדקה, while the word for weeping (or a shriek of anarchy or covetousness) is tse'akah צעקה.
Of course, it should come as no surprise to us when we read this story and compare it with the cry of Asaph regarding Israel's condition in Psalm 80.
This is where we should stop and thank YHVH that this condition is NOT the end of the story between Him and His people!
This is where we should stop and thank YHVH for His faithfulness to His covenant with His people even when his people are not faithful to Him!
Even when He turns His back on His people for a short time, He is faithful to turn back to His people in everlasting compassion and redemption. Just as Asaph cries for YHVH to return and to visit this vine that He planted and turn the vine back to Him, YHVH promises in Isaiah 54 that He will have eternal compassion and will be their Redeemer!
During my most recent trip to Israel in January and February, I was part of a group that was praying God's Word regarding His promises to His people regarding His land and His covenant of redemption. We were traveling through many parts of Israel, praying YHVH's Word.
One thing that really caught my attention during this trip was the theme of "planted in the land."
YHVH has fulfilled and continues to fulfill His promise to plant His people in the land, never to be uprooted (Amos 9:15)!
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| Methuselah: a baby palm tree in Israel...sprouted from a 2000 year old seed! |
We saw it in the villages in Samaria, teeming with life.
We saw it in the sprouting of a seed long "dead". (Methuselah, a baby palm tree that was sprouted from a 2,000 year old seed that was found in Masada!)
Do you know that there is only one place in all of YHVH's Word where He says He will do something with all of His heart and all of His being?
He commands His people to love Him with all our hearts and souls and beings (the Sh'ma...Deuteronomy 6:5).
What does He say HE will do with all His heart and being?
Jeremiah 32:37-41
‘See, I am gathering them out of all the lands where I have driven them in My displeasure, and in My wrath, and in great rage. And I shall bring them back to this place, and shall let them dwell in safety. And they shall be My people, and I shall be their Elohim. And I shall give them one heart and one way, to fear Me all the days, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I shall make an everlasting covenant with them, that I do not turn back from doing good to them. And I shall put My fear in their hearts so as not to turn aside from Me.
And I shall rejoice over them to do good to them, and shall plant them in this land in truth, with all My heart and with all My being.’
How exciting!
Go back and look at Asaph's cry, his plea of desperation on behalf of the people of Israel.
And see how YHVH answers, for eternity!
But the story is not complete without seeing the VINE who came from the Vine...the Branch who sprouted from the stump of Israel...the Incorruptible Seed who is the Right Arm of Salvation of YHVH...the everlasting Covenant that YHVH has made with His people found in verse 17 of Psalm 80...the Living Word of YHVH...
Yahshua!
YHVH is Salvation (the meaning of Yahshua's name)!
1 Peter 1:22-25
Now that you have cleansed your lives in obeying the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently with a clean heart, having been born again – not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible – through the living Word of Elohim, which remains forever, because “All flesh is as grass, and all the esteem of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the Word of Elohim remains forever.” And this is the Word, announced as Good News to you.
Isaiah 11 (excerpts)
And a Rod shall come forth from the stump of Jesse, and a Sprout from his roots shall bear fruit. The Spirit of יהוה shall rest upon Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of יהוה, and shall make Him breathe in the fear of יהוה... And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, standing as a banner to the people. Unto Him the gentiles shall seek, and His rest shall be esteem.... And He shall raise a banner for the nations, and gather the outcasts of Israel, and assemble the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
And this leads directly into Isaiah 12...a cry of thankfulness to Yah!
And in that day you shall say, “I thank You יהוה, though You were enraged with me, Your displeasure has turned back, and You have comforted me. S
ee, El is my deliverance, I trust and am not afraid. For Yah, יהוה, is my strength and my song; and He has become my deliverance.”
And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of deliverance.
And in that day you shall say, “Praise יהוה, call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted.
Sing to יהוה, For He has done excellently; this is known in all the earth. C
ry aloud and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Set-apart One of Israel in your midst!”
Yahshua said about Himself: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.... I am the vine, you are the branches. He who stays in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit. Because without Me you are able to do naught!" (John 15:1,5)
What is interesting to me as I continue to dig (no pun intended) further into the living soil of God's Word is how intertwined Israel and Yahshua are!
This is a topic for another blog post, but I just want to mention it here because it is so evident in Psalm 80.
The Son in this Psalm refers to both, separately and inseparably, Yahshua the Redeemer, the Right Arm of YHVH and Israel the son, the people of YHVH.
The Vine refers to Israel the people who came from Israel the man (Jacob), the fallible, fallen, sinful, obstinate nation. The Vine also refers to Yahshua, who came from Israel but also is the Redeemer of Israel and the Creator of Israel and Husband of Israel and Messiah of Israel, the infallible, perfect spotless lamb, King of kings, sinless offering of redemption!
But as I said, this is a topic for another blog post!
For now, let's celebrate and thank YHVH for His faithfulness and enduring compassion and love for His people, planted in His land as His beloved Vine!
Resting in the shadow of His faithfulness,
Gina
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