Psalm 80:8-13
You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains
were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its
shoots as far as the River. Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.
The reason that the psalmist prays for God to save his
people throughout this psalm is because he knows that God is a saving God. He is asking God to do again what he has already done in the past. This is the same God who rescued his people from slavery in Egypt and led them into the promised land, driving out their enemies
so that they could live in security and peace. They weren't just a tiny seedling, they were a great and flourishing vine, whose branches and shoots spread over the whole land.
But it didn’t last. We see in v.12-13 that God’s vineyard –
his people – is no longer securely protected. The vine is trampled by animals and eaten by insects. A ruined shadow of its former self. The psalmist asks why, but he already knows the answer. The people had turned away from God. It is God who broke down the walls, but only because the people first broke the covenant.
When I read these verses, I find myself thinking 'What a
waste.' Not only is the people's situation terrible in itself - insecure, fearing their enemies on all sides, poor and weak and helpless - but they also know what they have lost. The picture here shows us just how much better it is to live under God's blessings than to reject him. The people had been warned what would happen if they turned away from God. But they did it anyway, believing that going their own way would lead to something better that
what God offered. That isn't just the experience of Old Testament people. v.12-13 are a picture of the effects of sin in our lives, too. It brings ruin and destruction and disappointment. We know this. But we so easily forget. We need this picture clearly in our minds, for the moments when we are tempted to follow our sinful desires rather than go the way that the Spirit leads. We're so easily fooled into thinking that selfishness, greed, pride, anger or
self-sufficiency will bring us the good things we want in life. When in fact they're all ways of knocking down the walls and letting in the wild animals that will destroy the blessings of our relationship with God.
Let's repent today of whatever sins we have believed will
bring us something better than knowing God. And let's pray that we would increasingly turn away from sin and towards God, rather than the opposite.
