Psa 80:1 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.
I did attempt to cover this verse in a previous post, but I ended up covering just two words. Lord willing, this post will finish verse 1.
The structure of the introduction to the prayer can be outlined like this:
‘Give ear’ – A plea, request, call for action
‘O Shepherd of Israel’ – He who is addressed
‘Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock’ – He who is addressed
‘Thou that dwellest between the cherubims’ – He who is addressed
‘shine forth’ – A plea, request, call for action
We have covered the first part, now let’s consider the first description of He who is addressed.
“O Shepherd of Israel”
What immediately comes to mind is Jesus’ statement in John 10:11-14: I am the good shepherd. This statement was one of Jesus’ numerous claims to deity. It’s a powerful cross-reference when dealing with groups who deny the absolute deity of Christ.
In the shepherd, we find protection, provision, and direction. We see a mastership and authority. For a deeper consideration of the role of the Shepherd, one need read no further than Psalms 23.
This description places the one being addressed into a position of supremacy. It also places the one praying into the position of sheep. It’s a recognition that the sheep have no say over the shepherd, but rather, the shepherd over the sheep.
The shepherd addressed here is shepherd over a specific group: Israel. Israel means ‘prevailing with God’. It’s almost a paradox that one should have God as his shepherd yet be one who prevails with God.
There is an important point to be made, that if God is to be your shepherd, you will have to struggle with Him. This idea is seen directly in the story of Jacob, which in order to understand the idea of being ‘Israel’ must be studied, and also seen indirectly in Isaiah 1:18. God wants you to struggle with Him.
We shall move on now, but needless to say, there is wrapped up several major studies in this description alone. To recap:
1. The place of the shepherd: power, protection, provision, authority
2. The place of those praying as sheep: to follow
3. The shepherd is over Israel, not another group. Israel as a group are those who prevail with God. How does one prevail with God?
“Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock”
Continuing on from the description of shepherd, we now enter more specifics.
He is leading. This image brings about the idea of God moving before us. Not us in front. It’s important that we wait on God. I heard it said by a preacher, Much of us waiting on God is God waiting on us. I think there is much truth to that. Very often God is waiting for us to follow Him, while we are waiting for God to move in the direction we want.
The other aspect of this leading from the front is that you don’t HAVE to follow. It comes back to the idea that this Shepherd is shepherd over those who want to struggle with Him, those who want to know Him. Once again, to go deeper on this, look at the life of Jacob aka Israel.
Whenever one reads Scripture, it’s helpful to ask questions: who? what? when? why? how? Why is one of my favorite questions. Like, why does the Psalmist now use Joseph instead of Israel?
I believe one possible answer to that question is a further highlight of who the Great Shepherd leads. We have seen that He leads Israel – those who prevail. Now if we use the same reasoning – looking at the meaning of the name, we see another idea. Joseph means ‘Adding’. It’s a request for blessing – more blessing. It ties in with Jacob speaking to the angel, ‘I will not let go until you bless me’. It’s the acknowledgement that we will see later in this verse, that without God’s attention, we will perish.
There is another idea wrapped up in the name of Joseph. It’s the mercy and grace of God. He adds. There is a prevailing rule that no man can come to God except God draw him. (John 6:44) We see in Acts 2:47 that the Lord ADDED to the church. You can’t be truly part of the church unless God adds you. But for the grace of God, there would be no redemption, no salvation. If you find God in front, leading, then you may well thank Him for adding you to the flock.
There’s a two part idea to the mention of Israel and Joseph. In Israel we see man prevailing. Man is active then God responds. In Joseph we see God acting, while man is passive. If we truly want God, if we will struggle long enough like Israel did to overcome his weaknesses, then we will find God’s mercy and grace that will bring blessing and adding to us what we could never do ourselves.
“Thou that dwellest between the cherubims”
We come to the final description in the opening of the prayer, and I believe it’s the most powerful. It calls to the One who dwells between the angels of the ark of the covenant. You can find a description of the ark of the covenant’s construction in Exodus 25. When the Psalmist says, between the cherubims, that places the one being addressed on the mercy seat.
The mercy seat was a place of judgement and mercy. If you look into its role in the tabernacle, it was the final stop on the day of atonement, where God would judge sin and give mercy. It’s the image of Christ, the meeting place of heaven and earth, where sin is judged in Him and pardon given to the guilty. It is a symbol of absolute justice and unfathomable mercy. Here we have entered into the presence of the Most Holy One. To HIM is this prayer addressed. As we will see, the people of God have suffered for their sins, and this prayer is a call for mercy. So fittingly, this prayer is addressed to the One who dwells on the mercy seat.
“Shine forth”
And finally, we come to the end of the verse with the second request/call to action. Shine forth!
This plea is a recurring request throughout the Psalm, mentioned four times, three times in a growing crescendo and once here as the introduction. It’s only two words, yet it contains very much inside those words.
1. There is the implicit idea of God being shrouded in darkness and therefore hidden. In Exo 20:21, it tells us that Moses drew near ‘unto the thick darkness (heavy cloud) where God was. In Isaiah 45:15, the prophet declares, Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself. When we put this into context with Jesus’ statement that no man can know the Son save to whom the Son reveal HIMSELF (this statement has a very strong Oneness undertone to it) in Mat 11:27, then perhaps we can see the critical importance in the prayer: SHINE FORTH!
There is no revelation of God unless He shines forth to reveal Himself. Without that, we are forever lost.
2. Point one brings us neatly to point two. Shine forth is a reference to light. In relation to God, it is God in revelation. That’s what day one in Genesis is all about. The light is God revealing Himself. It’s the Word. The Logos. God’s expression. God was there before hand, shrouded in darkness overlooking the chaos. But on day 1, He speaks, and the light that appears is Him. That’s why in John 1, it’s declared that the Word of God is the light that lights every man that comes into the world. In John it is equated with life, just as here in Psalms 80, light and life are equated together.
In closing, there’s one last parallel I would like to draw and that is with John 1:5 where it says, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it/hold it/contain it’. In both passages, it is made abundantly clear that there is no hope if God doesn’t shine forth. If His light is not revealed, the people will perish. O, but if His light shines forth, there is no devil in hell, no angel in heaven, no man on earth who can possibly stop it. Just as in Genesis, He spoke and light burst out through the impenetrable darkness. Even so will light and life reach you if His light shines.
May it be our prayer, each and every day, Lord, shine forth! O Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth!
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