The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Face” it comes from the Hebrew Word “paneh” which means “face, presence.”
Asaph prays urgently for restoration using the image of a vine that has been broken down. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Psalm 80.
Asaph calls on the Shepherd of Israel to give ear, He who leads Joseph like a flock, who dwells between the cherubim, to shine forth, stirring up His strength, and coming to save them, pleading, “Turn us again, O God, and cause thy “face,” “paneh” in Hebrew, “to shine; and we shall be saved,” asking how long He will be angry against the prayer of His people.
Asaph describes a vine God brought out of Egypt, casting out the heathen and planting it, preparing room before it, causing it to take deep root, and it filled the land, the hills being covered with its shadow, and the boughs like goodly cedars, sending out its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the river, yet now asking why God has broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by pluck her, the boar out of the wood wasting her, and the wild beast devouring her.
Asaph pleads for God to return, look down from heaven, and visit this vine, and the vineyard His right hand has planted, and the branch He made strong for Himself, asking that His hand be upon the man of His right hand, upon the son of man He made strong for Himself, promising they will not turn back from Him, asking Him to quicken them, and they will call upon His name, closing with a repeated refrain, “Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved,” this repeated plea for restoration binding the entire psalm together as one urgent, sustained cry.
Asaph’s vivid image of Israel as a once-flourishing vine now broken down and ravaged captures the painful reality of watching something carefully cultivated fall into apparent ruin through circumstances seemingly beyond one’s control. This psalm’s threefold repeated refrain, turn us again and cause your face to shine, models the value of persistent, repeated prayer that refuses to give up petitioning even when restoration has not yet visibly arrived.
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