Psalm 80:14
Read Psalm 80:14 Using Other Translations
What does Psalm 80:14 mean?
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts
The Lord had been with his vine, the people of Israel, when he
brought them out of Egypt, and planted and settled them in the
land of Canaan, and made them a flourishing people; but had
departed from them when he suffered the hedges about them to be
broken down, and the boar and wild beast to enter and devour
them; and here he is entreated to return and restore them to
their former prosperity. So the Lord sometimes departs from his
church and people, and hides his face from them; and may be said
to return, when he manifests himself, shows his face and his
favour again, and grants his gracious presence, than which
nothing is more desirable; and if he, the Lord of hosts and
armies, above and below, is with his people, none can be against
them to their hurt; they have nothing to fear from any enemy:
look down from heaven:
the habitation of his holiness, the high and holy place where he
dwells, and his throne is, from whence he takes a survey of men
and things; where he now was at a distance from his people, being
returned to his place in resentment, and covered himself with a
cloud from their sight; and from whence it would be a
condescension in him to look on them on earth, so very
undeserving of a look of love and mercy from him:
and behold;
the affliction and distress his people were in, as he formerly
beheld the affliction of Israel in Egypt, and sympathized with
them, and brought them out of it:
and visit this vine;
before described, for whom he had done such great things, and now
was in such a ruinous condition; the visit desired is in a way of
mercy and kind providence; so the Targum,
``and remember in mercies this vine;''so the Lord visits his chosen people by the mission and incarnation of his Son, and by the redemption of them by him, and by the effectual calling of them by his Spirit and grace through the ministration of the Gospel; and which perhaps may, in the mystical sense, be respected here; see ( Luke 1:68 Luke 1:78 ) ( Acts 15:14 ) .
