Psalm 80:2
shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us.
The way that we describe a place or person often focusses attention on one particular aspect of their character or history. When we read about 'the Britain of Shakespeare and Dickens' we know that the writer wants us to be thinking about our literary heritage. But if we read 'the Britain of Stephenson and Brunel' then the focus isn't on literature, but on engineering.
In this psalm, as we've come to expect in the psalms, the
psalmist responds to great sufferings by crying out to God. But he doesn't just appeal to 'God Almighty'. Instead, he describes God by his relationship to some famous names from history. What it is about God that he is remembering and wants us to focus on, by using that particular description?
To understand that, we need to know who these people
are! In v.1 God is the shepherd of Israel which is another name for Jacob, the father of Joseph. Ephraim and Manasseh were two of Joseph's sons and Benjamin was Joseph's brother. Why name them particularly? I wonder if it's because the psalmist is remembering how God's might saved Joseph from trouble. Sold into slavery. Wrongly imprisoned. Forgotten by his friends.
Joseph knew what it was like to suffer and feel abandoned, just like the psalmist.
But God rescued Joseph, raised him to an exalted position, and blessed him with sons – including Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. But they were not just individuals. They gave their names to three of the twelve tribes
of the nation of Israel. What God did individually for Joseph, he repeated time and time again for that whole nation throughout the Old Testament. He awakened
his might to come and save them. And so the palmist can cry out to God with confidence when he suffers. He knows that his God is a rescuing God who does not abandon his people.
What was true in the past for Joseph, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh was true for the psalmist hundreds of years later and is true for us today. Whatever our struggle or suffering or difficulty, God can be relied on
to hear and help his people. Let's cry out to him for the help we need today.
