Verse 6
Pour out thy wrath - Bad as we are, we are yet less wicked than they. We, it is true, have been unfaithful; but they never knew thy name, and are totally abandoned to idolatry.
Verse 7
Laid waste his dwelling-place - The Chaldee understands this of the temple. This, by way of eminence, was Jacob's place. I have already remarked that these two verses are almost similar to [Jer 10:25], which has led many to believe that Jeremiah was the author of this Psalm.
Verse 8
Remember not against us former iniquities - Visit us not for the sins of our forefathers.
Speedily prevent us - Let them go before us, and turn us out of the path of destruction; for there is no help for us but in thee.
We are brought very low - Literally, "We are greatly thinned." Few of us remain.
Verse 9
Purge away our sins - כפר capper, be propitiated, or receive an atonement (על חטאתינו al chattotheynu) on account of our sins.
Verse 10
Where is their God? - Show where thou art by rising up for our redemption, and the infliction of deserved punishment upon our enemies.
Verse 11
The sighing of the prisoner - The poor captive Israelites in Babylon, who sigh and cry because of their bondage.
Those that are appointed to die - בני תמותה beney themuthah, "sons of death." Either those who were condemned to death because of their crimes, or condemned to be destroyed by their oppressors. Both these senses apply to the Israelites: they were sons of death, i.e., worthy of death because of their sins against God; they were condemned to death or utter destruction, by their Babylonish enemies.
Verse 12
Sevenfold into their bosom - That is, Let them get in this world what they deserve for the cruelties they have inflicted on us. Let them suffer in captivity, who now have us in bondage. Probably this is a prediction.
Verse 13
We thy people - Whom thou hast chosen from among all the people of the earth.
And sheep of thy pasture - Of whom thou thyself art the Shepherd. Let us not be destroyed by those who are thy enemies; and we, in all our generations, will give thanks unto thee for ever.
Introduction
A prayer for the captives, [Psa 80:1-3]. A description of their miseries, [Psa 80:4-7]. Israel compared to a vineyard, [Psa 80:8-14]. Its desolate state, and a prayer for its restoration, [Psa 80:15-19].
The title: see Psalm 45, [Psa 60:1-12], and 69, where every thing material is explained. This Psalm seems to have been written on the same occasion with the former. One ancient MS. in the public library in Cambridge writes the eightieth and the seventy-ninth all as one Psalm; the subject-matter is precisely the same - was made on the same occasion, and probably by the same author.
Verse 1
O Shepherd of Israel - The subject continued from the last verse of the preceding Psalm.
Leadest Joseph - Israel and Joseph mean here the whole of the Jewish tribes; all were at this time in captivity; all had been the people of the Lord; all, no doubt, made supplication unto him now that his chastening hand was upon them; and for all the psalmist makes supplication.
That dwellest between the cherubims - It was between the cherubim, over the cover of the ark, called the propitiatory or mercy-seat, that the glory of the Lord, or symbol of the Divine Presence, appeared. It is on this account that the Lord is so often said to dwell between the cherubim. Of these symbolical beings there is a long and painful account, or system of conjectures, in Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, of about twenty quarto pages, under the word כרב carab.
Shine forth - Restore thy worship; and give us such evidences of thy presence now, as our fathers had under the first tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple built by Solomon.
Verse 2
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh - It is supposed that these three tribes represent the whole, Benjamin being incorporated with Judah, Manasseh comprehending the country beyond Jordan, and Ephraim all the rest - Dodd.
Verse 3
Turn us again - השיבנו hashibenu, convert or restore us. There are four parts in this Psalm, three of which end with the above words; see the third, seventh, and nineteenth verses; and one with words similar, [Psa 80:14].
Verse 5
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - They have no peace, no comfort, nothing but continual sorrow.
In great measure - שליש shalish, threefold. Some think it was a certain measure used by the Chaldeans, the real capacity of which is not known. others think it signifies abundance or abundantly.
Verse 6
Thou makest us a strife - The neighboring districts have a controversy about us; we are a subject of contention to them. A people so wonderfully preserved, and so wonderfully punished, is a mystery to them. They see in us both the goodness and severity of God. Or, all the neighboring nations join together to malign and execrate us. We are hated by all; derided and cursed by all.
Verse 8
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt - This is a most elegant metaphor, and every where well supported. The same similitude is used by Isaiah, [Isa 5:1], etc.; by Jeremiah, [Jer 2:21]; by Ezekiel, [Eze 17:5], [Eze 17:6]; by Hosea, [Hos 10:1]; by Joel, [Joe 1:7]; by Moses, [Deu 32:32], [Deu 32:33]; and often by our Lord himself, [Mat 20:1], etc.; [Mat 21:33], etc.; [Mar 12:1], etc. And this was the ordinary figure to represent the Jewish Church. We may remark several analogies here: -
1. This vine was brought out of Egypt that it might be planted in a better and more favorable soil. The Israelites were brought out of their Egyptian bondage that they might be established in the land of Canaan, where they might grow and flourish, and worship the true God.
2. When the husbandman has marked out a proper place for his vineyard, he hews down and roots up all other trees; gathers out the stones, brambles, etc., that might choke the young vines, and prevent them from being fruitful, So God cast out the heathen nations from the land of Canaan, that his pure worship might be established, and that there might not remain there any incitements to idolatry.
Verse 9
Thou preparedst - before it -
3. When the ground is properly cleared, then it is well digged and manured, and the vines are placed in the ground at proper distances, etc. So when God had cast out the heathen, he caused the land to be divided by lot to the different tribes, and then to the several families of which these tribes were composed.
And didst cause it to take deep root -