Daily Devotion – September 28, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 80:7-15
80:7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
80:8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
80:9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
80:10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
80:11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
80:12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
80:13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
80:14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
80:15 the stock that your right hand planted.
This psalm is written or sung in a time of brokenness, when things are falling apart. It pleads for God to restore the people that they might be saved. It is sung to remind God that indeed God is the one who planted this vine (or transplanted it) in order that it might provide shade and continue to grow, sending out shoots and branches and bearing fruit.
This vine is not all powerful in and of itself. It can be raided by strangers, it can be ravaged by boars, and it can be fed on by any and all that pass, even in its wild state when untended. Maybe especially when it is untended.
The psalmist is begging God to restore things to their former order, because God planted that vine. But apparently God does not need that order that the psalmist craves. The plant is growing well and wild and feeding people and animals who would never have gotten to eat of its bounty if it were contained in a proper walled garden.
So I’m wondering about this psalm. I can relate to the psalmist’s grief for the way things used to be. Change is hard. But I have to wonder if the spreading of the vine wasn’t God’s idea all along: a nourishment for any and all who pass. After all, why does God plant things?
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for planting us and all that we need, exactly where you want us to grow and flourish. Help us to bear fruit for any and all who pass. Amen.
