Psalm 80
An Asaph Psalm
1-2 Listen, Shepherd, Israel's Shepherd— get all your Joseph sheep together. Throw beams of light from your dazzling throne So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh can see where they're going. Get out of bed—you've slept long enough! Come on the run before it's too late.
3 God, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
4-6 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano while your people call for fire and brimstone? You put us on a diet of tears, bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink. You make us look ridiculous to our friends; our enemies poke fun day after day.
7 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
8-18 Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt, cleared out the brambles and briers and planted your very own vineyard? You prepared the good earth, you planted her roots deep; the vineyard filled the land. Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains, even dwarfing the giant cedars. Your vine ranged west to the Sea, east to the River. So why do you no longer protect your vine? Trespassers pick its grapes at will; Wild pigs crash through and crush it, and the mice nibble away at what's left. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, turn our way! Take a good look at what's happened and attend to this vine. Care for what you once tenderly planted— the vine you raised from a shoot. And those who dared to set it on fire— give them a look that will kill! Then take the hand of your once-favorite child, the child you raised to adulthood. We will never turn our back on you; breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!
19 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
Psalm 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that sittest above the cherubim, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy might, And come to save us.
3 Turn us again, O God; And cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
4 O Jehovah God of hosts, How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in large measure.
6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors; And our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts; And cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
8 Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt: Thou didst drive out the nations, and plantedst it.
9 Thou preparedst room before it, And it took deep root, and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, And the boughs thereof were like cedars of God.
11 It sent out its branches unto the sea, And its shoots unto the River.
12 Why hast thou broken down its walls, So that all they that pass by the way do pluck it?
13 The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, And the wild beasts of the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine,
15 And the stock which thy right hand planted, And the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So shall we not go back from thee: Quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O Jehovah God of hosts; Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.