The psalmist in his prayer complains of the miseries of the church, 1-7. God's former favors are turned into judgments, 8-13. He prays for deliverance, 14-19.
1 [To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph.]
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,/
you who lead Joseph like a flock./
You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,/
stir up your strength/
and come and save us.
3 Turn us back, O God,/
and cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts,/
how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
5 You feed them with the bread of tears/
and give them tears to drink in great measure.
6 You make us a strife to our neighbors,/
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us back, O God of hosts,/
and cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt./
You have cast out the heathen and planted it.
9 You prepared room before it/
and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with its shade,/
and its boughs were like the beautiful cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs to the sea/
and her branches to the river.
12 Why have you then broken down her hedges/
so that all those who pass by the way pluck her?
13 The boar from the forest wastes it/
and the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we implore you, O God of hosts./
Look down from heaven and behold. Visit this vine,
15 The vineyard which your right hand planted,/
the branch that you made strong for yourself.
16 It is burnt with fire. It is cut down./
They perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand,/
upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will not go back from you./
Revive us, and we will call upon your name.
19 Turn us back, O LORD God of hosts,/
cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Psalms, Chapter 80[➚]
John Calvin's Chapter Summary:
This is a sorrowful prayer, in which the faithful beseech God that he would be graciously pleased to succor his afflicted Church. To excite him the more readily to grant them relief in their distressing circumstances, they compare these circumstances with the condition of the Church in her beginnings, when the Divine favor was conspicuously manifested towards her.