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Text: Psalm 80
You have layers of meaning in this psalm.
- You have the nation of Israel’s history and future for some.
- You have a three-fold principle at work in the nation: repentance, revelation, and restoration.
- Look at the chorus in verses 3, 7, 14, and 19.
- This phrase, Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved, shows up four times.
- Repentance – Turn us again means the LORD stopped shining when Israel stopped looking at Him. If you want His face to shine upon you, then quit turning your back on Him.
- Draw near to God and he will draw near to you
- Revelation –
- Restoration –
- You have a Messianic prophecy of the Shepherd becoming a man.
The earliest stages of the nation going into Egypt (vss 1-3)
- The Shepherd seated between the heavenly cherubim just like the pattern Moses was given in the wilderness.
- God would meet with man as in Exodus 25:22 in the Holy of holies.
- Mediate between God and man. Christ would leave his place, make Himself of no reputation, take on the likeness of sinful flesh, complete the offering for sin and return to dwell between the cherubim as a man to represent mankind to the Father.
- Followed by the instructional chorus.
The next stage of Israel is the wilderness wanderings (vss 4-7)
- The prayers are a grief to God. He feeds them with unleavened bread. Their diet is a diet of grief.
- The Shepherd feeds the flock with bitter medicine.
- Followed by the instructional chorus.
The next stage of Israel in the promised land disobeying God (vss 8-14)
- The Shepherd has left his own vineyard to be overrun (vss 8-16). It is the time of the Gentiles.
- Isaiah 5:1-10, particularly verse 7.
- His vineyard is suffering and crying out for care. So the Lord scatters the nation.
- Followed by the instructional chorus.
The solution is the Shepherd becomes a man (vss 15-19)
- The burned branch in verses 15-16 is the branch that John talks about not bearing fruit and being cast into the fire.
- The Shepherd would be manifest in the flesh. This is why Paul’s statement about God manifest in the flesh was such a revelation! The thought was that God would send a man like verse 17 says, but to know God is manifest in the flesh in Jesus Christ, that is a great mystery!
- The man of thy right hand, the son of man, made strong to serve the Living God, he restores completely, he makes alive, he gathers all who call upon the name of the LORD! It’s Jesus Christ!
- All this is followed by the instructional chorus.
