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Psalm 80

1  Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, ♦︎
   you that led Joseph like a flock;
2  Shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim, ♦︎
   before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
3  Stir up your mighty strength ♦︎
   and come to our salvation.
4  Turn us again, O God; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
5  O Lord God of hosts, ♦︎
   how long will you be angry at your people’s prayer?
6  You feed them with the bread of tears; ♦︎
   you give them abundance of tears to drink.
7  You have made us the derision of our neighbours, ♦︎
   and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
8  Turn us again, O God of hosts; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
9  You brought a vine out of Egypt; ♦︎
   you drove out the nations and planted it.
10  You made room around it, ♦︎
   and when it had taken root, it filled the land.
11  The hills were covered with its shadow ♦︎
   and the cedars of God by its boughs.
12  It stretched out its branches to the Sea ♦︎
   and its tendrils to the River.
13  Why then have you broken down its wall, ♦︎
   so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?
14  The wild boar out of the wood tears it off, ♦︎
   and all the insects of the field devour it.
15  Turn again, O God of hosts, ♦︎
   look down from heaven and behold;
16  Cherish this vine which your right hand has planted, ♦︎
   and the branch that you made so strong for yourself.
17  Let those who burnt it with fire, who cut it down, ♦︎
   perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
18  Let your hand be upon the man at your right hand, ♦︎
   the son of man you made so strong for yourself.
19  And so will we not go back from you; ♦︎
   give us life, and we shall call upon your name.
20  Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
   you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.
¹⁰ In little more than a year
   you will shudder, you complacent ones;
for the vintage will fail,
   the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease,
   shudder, you complacent ones;
strip, and make yourselves bare,
   and put sackcloth on your loins.
¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
   for the fruitful vine,
¹³ for the soil of my people
   growing up in thorns and briers;
yes, for all the joyous houses
   in the jubilant city.
¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken,
   the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watch-tower
   will become dens for ever,
the joy of wild asses,
   a pasture for flocks;
¹⁵ until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
   and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
   and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
   and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷ The effect of righteousness will be peace,
   and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.
¹⁸ My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
   in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
¹⁹ The forest will disappear completely,^*
   and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰ Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,
   who let the ox and the donkey range freely.

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for^* those who make peace.