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Advent Season · Fourth Sunday of Advent · Year A

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Psalm 80

December 21, 2025

El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd), Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd), Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1660Museo del Prado, Madrid
A Spanish devotional picture of the child as shepherd, leaning on a lamb among broken columns, painted to be prayed in front of rather than admired.Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.Bartolomé Esteban MurilloSeville's leading painter (1617-1682), known for a warm, soft handling that made his religious pictures the most copied in Spain for two centuries.Museo del Prado, MadridSpain's national collection, formed from what the Spanish crown had bought over three centuries, which is why its Titians and Rubenses are unmatched.Museo del Prado, Madrid
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelMatt. 1:18-25Mt 1:18-25
EpistleRom. 1:1-7Rom 1:1-7
Old TestamentIsa. 7:10-16Is 7:10-16
PsalterPs. 80:1-7, 17-19Ps 80:1-7, 17-19

Overview & Insights

“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” (Psalm 80:3)

The occasion underlying this corporate prayer psalm appears to be one of extreme national distress: passers-by ravage as they please, burning and destroying (vv. 12–13, 16). The people experience sorrow and strife (vv. 5–6). The question “How long?” implies that this tragedy has persisted for some time. As with most psalms, historical details are omitted so the psalm can be used for any similar national emergency (see the Additional Note). This psalm, besides exhibiting the normal structure of the prayer psalm, also displays a matching structure of imagery (as in Ps. 44). God is depicted as a shepherd-king and the people as his flock (vv. 1–3, 5). He also appears as a gardener, the people as his vine, and the enemies as cleared weeds and stones (v. 9) and as beasts (vv. 12–13). The final conception is that of God and his divinely appointed king, “the man at your right hand” (v. 17).

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Take it further: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Commentary

Commentary on Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19Commentary on Ps 80:1-7, 17-19 Working Preacher

Reads the psalm's 'let your face shine' refrain alongside Isaiah 7's Immanuel sign, noting how the psalm's plea for God's presence anticipates the Advent 4 Gospel.

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 CommentaryPs 80:1-7, 17-19 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Traces the psalm's echo of the Aaronic Benediction ('make his face shine upon you') and situates its lament as arising from national disaster, not abstract longing.

Psalm 80 CommentaryPs 80 Commentary Enduring Word (David Guzik)

Verse-by-verse walk through the psalm's shepherd and vine imagery and its three-fold refrain calling on God to 'restore us.'

Background & Word Study

Psalm 80:1Ps 80:1 Sefaria

Hebrew text with classical Jewish commentary on the psalm's opening address to the 'Shepherd of Israel,' useful for the shepherd/vine imagery running through the passage.

The Church Fathers

Catena on Psalm 80Catena on Ps 80 Catena Bible

Patristic catena on the psalm's vine and shepherd imagery and its repeated cry for God's face to shine.

Questions preachers ask

What is the vine in Psalm 80?

Israel itself, brought out of Egypt and planted, and now with its walls broken down so that everyone passing by picks its fruit. The psalm asks God to look again at what he planted, and the refrain repeats three times because nothing has changed yet.

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