1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock;
thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh
stir up thy strength,
and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God,
and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts,
how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears;
and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours:
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt:
thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou preparedst room before it,
and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it,
and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea,
and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges,
so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it,
and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts:
look down from heaven, and behold,
and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down:
they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So will not we go back from thee:
quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts,
cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Comments by Joan Boney
God has planted a vine ... but the boars out of the field and the wild beasts come and devour the vine. The cousins, the worldly people come with all their plans and try to involve me and eat me alive, consume me with their plans, if possible. They fill me with guilt when I don't go. Either way they eat me up so I cannot do the things of God.
My prayer: See this, O God, and help me. Move them out and deliver me from them. For they destroy me, even if only for a day. The ideas they bring are destructive to me. Free me from them! Turn me back to you and put a shield between them and my mind that I can read Bible and think on your sayings. This is my greatest desire. But they would hinder me. Help me as only YOU can. I don't want to see things of this world with them. I want to see things that are unseen, things of God. I want to live in the unseen. Help me. Free me from them.
Psalm 80 ...
13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it,
and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts:
look down from heaven, and behold,
and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.