Heard It Through The Grapevine

Psalm 80:8-19

8You brought us from Egypt as though we were a tender vine;

you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.

9You cleared the ground for us,

and we took root and filled the land.

10The mountains were covered with our shade;

the mighty cedars were covered with our branches.

11We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea,

our limbs east to the Euphrates River.

12But now, why have you broken down our walls

so that all who pass may steal our fruit?

13The boar from the forest devours us,

and the wild animals feed on us.

14Come back, we beg you, O God Almighty.

Look down from heaven and see our plight.

Watch over and care for this vine

15that you yourself have planted,

this son you have raised for yourself.

16For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.

May they perish at the sight of your frown.

17Strengthen the man you love,

the son of your choice.

18Then we will never forsake you again.

Revive us so we can call on your name once more.

19Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God Almighty.

Make your face shine down upon us.

Only then will we be saved.

A certain landowner planted a vineyard, complete with a wall, winepress, and lookout tower. This was a state-of-the-art vineyard. Then he rented it out to certain grape farmers and moved away from the area. After the next grape harvest, the owner sent servants to collect his rent. Well, the farmers beat up the servants and even killed some of them.

The owner sent more servants, and these were also severely mistreated. Finally the owner decided to send his own son. “Surely they will respect my son,” he figured. But the farmers seized the son and killed him.

If this story sounds familiar, it’s because Jesus told it in Matthew 21:33-41. Scripture often depicts Israel as a vineyard, and Jesus was making a point about the corrupt leadership of the Pharisees and their ilk. Indeed, they were about to kill the “owner’s” Son.

Psalm 80 gives us a similar story but from the perspective of the vines themselves. Mistreated by various enemies, they cry out for God to rescue them. We know that this rescue ultimately comes from the Son, Jesus Christ. And, along those lines, there is a great turn of phrase in verse 17. Literally it says: “Let your [strengthening] hand be on the man at your right side, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.” With words like that, it’s not hard to see Jesus as the answer to the psalmist’s prayer.

It is a thing most wonderful,

Almost too wonderful to be,

That God’s own Son

Should come from heaven,

And die to save a child like me.

WILLIAM W. HOW

A Word on Words

In Shakespeare’s little known play Timon of Athens, a senator describes a rebel leader in words drawn from the King James Version of Psalm 80:13: “Who, like a boar too savage doth root up / His country’s peace.”

Notable Quotable

“God will come forward when we acknowledge that we have gone back. There is no forth-shining where there is back-sliding.”

W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE