Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 80. This is a community lament geared to a situation in which the people (or at least a part of them) have received hard treatment from the Gentiles; it poignantly asks God to "restore us, let your face shine that we may be saved!" The specific tribes mentioned are Joseph (with his sons Ephraim and Manasseh) and Benjamin (vv. 1-2), namely, the two sons of Jacob's wife Rachel. Some have taken this to indicate that the psalm came from the northern kingdom, but Benjamin remained with Judah at the breakup of the kingdom (1 Kings 12:21). Further, when Ps. 80:1 speaks of the Lord as "enthroned upon the cherubim," it is describing his place at the ark, in the Jerusalem temple. Thus it is more likely that these tribes are mentioned as a part of the whole people, and the whole congregation owns the distress of the part (Rom. 12:15 exercised on a corporate level). A notable feature of the psalm is its refrain, "Restore us, O [Lord] God [of hosts]; let your face shine, that we may be saved!" (Ps. 80:3; cf. vv. 7, 19). As the ESV footnote explains, "restore us" could be rendered "turn us again," and this shows how "turn again, O God of hosts" (v. 14) is a variation of these words. In this light, vv. 14-15 form a long version of the refrain, explaining more fully what it would mean for God to restore his people and let his face shine.

80:1-3 Stir Up Your Might to Save Us. The psalm opens by setting out the basic request: a portion of the people need God to stir up his might and come to save them. (The second stanza spells out the specifics of the situation.)