Sunday Sermonette: Moar Anachronism

Psalms 79 and 80 are attributed to Asaph. As you will recall, Asaph was purportedly one of David's chief musicians, but the setting of these psalms is evidently the fall of Judah to Babylon, so that makes no sense. These must have been written during the exile, after Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and kidnapped the elites. It's also possible, though less likely, that the setting is the sack of Jerusalem by the Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak in the 10th Century BCE, in the reign of Rehoboam, but Asaph, if he ever existed, would certainly have been long dead by then. In general, most of the psalms seem to be responses to events in either the communal history, or the biography of an individual writer, which are unspecified.

 

"According to Lilies" in the introductory note to Psalm 80 probably refers to the name of the tune.

A Psalm of Asaph.

79 O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance;
    they have defiled thy holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
² They have given the bodies of thy servants
    to the birds of the air for food,
    the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth.
³ They have poured out their blood like water
    round about Jerusalem,
    and there was none to bury them.
⁴ We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
    mocked and derided by those round about us.

⁵ How long, O Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?
    Will thy jealous wrath burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out thy anger on the nations
    that do not know thee,
and on the kingdoms
    that do not call on thy name!
⁷ For they have devoured Jacob,
    and laid waste his habitation.

⁸ Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers;
    let thy compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.
⁹ Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of thy name;
deliver us, and forgive our sins,
    for thy name’s sake!
¹⁰ Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of thy servants
    be known among the nations before our eyes!

¹¹ Let the groans of the prisoners come before thee;
    according to thy great power preserve those doomed to die!
¹² Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
    the taunts with which they have taunted thee, O Lord!
¹³ Then we thy people, the flock of thy pasture,
    will give thanks to thee for ever;
    from generation to generation we will recount thy praise.

 

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm.

80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
thou who leadest Joseph like a flock!
Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
²     before E′phraim and Benjamin and Manas′seh!
Stir up thy might,
    and come to save us!

³ Restore us, O God;
    let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

⁴ O Lord God of hosts,
    how long wilt thou be angry with thy people’s prayers?
⁵ Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears,
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.
⁶ Thou dost make us the scorn^[a] of our neighbors;
    and our enemies laugh among themselves.

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

⁸ Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt;
    thou didst drive out the nations and plant it.
⁹ Thou didst clear the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches;
¹¹ it sent out its branches to the sea,
    and its shoots to the River.
¹² Why then hast thou broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³ The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.

¹⁴ Turn again, O God of hosts!
    Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
¹⁵     the stock which thy right hand planted.^[b]
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
    may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance!
¹⁷ But let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
    the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself!
¹⁸ Then we will never turn back from thee;
    give us life, and we will call on thy name!

¹⁹ Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
    let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

Footnotes

1. Psalm 80:6 Syr: Heb strife
2. Psalm 80:15 Heb planted and upon the son whom thou hast reared for thyself