Psalm 80:1-8
1 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who sit enthroned between the cherubim,
shine forth 2 before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Awaken your might;
come and save us.
3 Restore us, O God;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
4 How long, Lord God Almighty,
will your anger smolder
against the prayers of your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears;
you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
6 You have made us an object of derision[b] to our neighbors,
and our enemies mock us.
7 Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
OUT OF EGYPT
Text: “You have brought a vine out of Egypt” (vs.8, NKJV)
As another Advent Season closes, I want us to consider a couple of prophecies suggested by this Psalm which is the testimony of Asaph.
Prophetic utterances throughout the Bible are two-fold in nature: foretelling and forthtelling. Most folks associate prophecy in the predictive sense, foretelling events that are understood to be within the doctrine of last things as may be found in prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, and the Book of Revelation.
Forthtelling on the other hand is simply telling forth. This would include commandments or proclamations made for the immediate moment, often preceded with a “Thus says the Lord!” It is sometimes used to remind or to reaffirm things or events in the distant past. Such is the example we have Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea was referring to an event 700 years before his time. It had to do with Moses and the Children of Israel when they were miraculously delivered from oppression by means of God opening the Red Sea in the great Exodus event.
Now we jump forward some 1400 years after the Exodus to an episode in the life of the child Jesus. Because of an edict of King Herod after being tricked by the Wise Men who did not return to report what they found in the newborn King of the Jews, Herod determined that infant boys under two years of age should be slaughtered in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Thus, Joseph was warned in a dream. “Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word” (Matt. 2:13). When the coast was finally clear, Joseph and Mary felt safe to return with her newborn child to her native town of Nazareth. Thus, the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’’’ (Matthew 2:16).
So, with the supreme and complete fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy, readers of Matthew’s gospel can know that a greater than Moses is here! (compare Matthew 12:38-42).
“Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!” Echoing our Psalmist’s threefold prayer (vss. 3,7,19).
Author: Garth Hyde
Other Scriptures for today:
- 2 Samuel 7:1-17
- Galatians 3:23-29
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