This psalm repeats the same three-word plea three separate times, almost like a refrain in a hymn — “turn us again” — each time followed by the same simple promise: God’s face shining is all it would actually take to be saved.
A study in Psalm 80 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 11 min read
Shepherd Of Israel, Shine Forth
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.”
Psalm 80:1-2
Naming Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh together suggests a crisis reaching well beyond Judah alone — a prayer offered on behalf of tribes scattered across the whole of a threatened Israel, not one region’s private trouble.
“Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Psalm 80:3
This refrain will repeat two more times, almost unchanged, across the psalm — and notice what it does not ask for. No specific battle plan, no particular strategy, only God’s face turned toward them again.
The Bread Of Tears
“O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.”
Psalm 80:4-5
“Bread of tears” and “tears to drink” turn grief into sustenance, the very thing keeping the people alive — a striking way to describe suffering so prolonged it has become, in a grim sense, their daily nourishment.
Thou Hast Brought A Vine Out Of Egypt
“Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.”
Psalm 80:8-10
The psalm shifts here into an extended image, Israel as a vine transplanted, deliberately prepared for, and allowed to grow until its shade covered entire hillsides — a slow, patient investment now under serious threat.
Why Hast Thou Broken Down Her Hedges?
“Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.”
Psalm 80:12-13
The very hedges God once built for protection are now described as broken down by God’s own hand — the psalm does not blame a rival power for the vineyard’s exposure, but traces the vulnerability all the way back to its actual source.
“Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself… Quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 359
White quotes this entire psalm as the prayer Judah’s people offered during Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem — placed directly alongside Hezekiah’s own recorded prayer in the temple, the whole nation asking together for exactly what verse 3 had already named: God’s face turned back toward them.
Quicken Us, And We Will Call Upon Thy Name
“Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.”
Psalm 80:17
“The man of thy right hand” and “son of man” together suggest both a present king and, many readers have noted, a hope reaching further still — language that would eventually gather deeper meaning once applied to a greater deliverer than any king this psalm’s original singers had yet seen.
“So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Psalm 80:18-19
The psalm’s final promise pairs commitment with request — “so will not we go back,” a pledge of loyalty offered before the rescue has even arrived, not held back as a reward reserved for afterward.
