BOOK 19 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Psalms 80

Psalms book home•Chapter 80 of 150•19 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Psalms 80 Overview

Asaph addresses God as Shepherd, repeats a refrain asking His face to shine, recalls Israel as a vine brought from Egypt, laments its broken hedge, and asks life and restoration.

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80Chapter

19Verses

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Before you read Psalms 80

Coming from

Psalm 79 centered on prayer after jerusalem and the temple are defiled. Psalms is an anthology rather than a continuous chronological story, so the connection here is canonical and thematic.

In this chapter

Asaph addresses God as Shepherd, repeats a refrain asking His face to shine, recalls Israel as a vine brought from Egypt, laments its broken hedge, and asks life and restoration.

Leads into

Psalm 81 turns to a festival call to worship and heed god's voice, continuing the Psalter’s arranged movement without requiring that the two psalms describe consecutive historical events.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Psalm 80 belongs to Book III of the Psalter (Psalms 73–89). The vine image clearly represents Israel in the psalm; later biblical vine imagery should be connected carefully rather than collapsing every use into one symbol.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

“Turn us again” — prayer for the Shepherd of Israel to restore His vine.

Communal Lament truth

In Psalm 80, the covenant community can bring shared disaster and national grief before God without pretending the loss is small.

Covenant truth

In Psalm 80, god’s covenant faithfulness remains the standard even when His people are unstable or disobedient.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Communal Lament connection

Lamentations gives sustained voice to communal grief after Jerusalem’s devastation. This connection helps frame Psalm 80.

Covenant connection

2 Samuel 7 gives the great covenant promise concerning David and his house. This connection helps frame Psalm 80.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep communal lament in context

Keep the national/covenant catastrophe in Psalm 80 distinct from an individual believer’s eternal standing before God.

Keep covenant in context

Do not confuse covenant blessing or chastening in Psalm 80 with a works-based condition for receiving eternal life.

Read Psalms 80 watching for…

Shepherd of Israel.

shine forth.

turn us again.

vine from Egypt.

man of thy right hand.

Chapter outline2 sections

1-7The Shepherd of Israel is asked to shine, save, and restore his grieving people 8-19Israel is pictured as a vine; the psalmist asks God to return, revive, and restore it

To the chief Musician upon ShoshannimEduth, A Psalm of Asaph.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.

Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

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.

Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.

Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

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.

She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.

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.

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.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

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.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Psalms 80:14

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