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“Cause Thy Face to Shine”
Psa 80:8-19
The imagery of the vine is taken from Jacob’s dying words, in which he compared Joseph to a fruitful bough which had grown over the wall, Gen 49:22. It is therefore a very apt and appropriate figure in this psalm, of which the northern tribes are the special subject. The figure of the vine is wrought out with extreme beauty. The book of Exodus tells of the transplanting, and those of Joshua and Judges of the ground that was cleared to receive it. In the days of Solomon, the boughs of the kingdom reached to the Euphrates on the east, and the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) on the west. But the walls were broken down by invasion, and the vine lay at the mercy of every passer-by or the wild creatures of the forest.
We, too, know the havoc which ensues when the Church no longer lives within the ring-fence of God’s care. Revive us! Restore us! Cause thy face to shine! The man of thy right hand, Psa 80:17, may be another term for Israel, Gen 35:18. But our Lord alone can fulfill this description; and God’s power is pledged to arrest the advance of the enemy, and to cause the true Vine and its branches to cover the earth. We must turn to Joh 15:1-27 to find the antitype of Israel, in the relation between Christ and His Church.