Through the Psalms

Old Testament

God Has Removed His Protection Part I - (Psalm 80:8-11)

Daily Praise
You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the Sea, and her branches to the river.

Reading Notes
This section of scripture includes verses eight to fifteen and pictures a vine planted by God. It shows how God has taken special care of this vine, and as a result it has thrived. The vine grew so well and so strong it covered the mighty cedars of Lebanon and stretched from sea to sea. In this illustration the vine represents God's people Israel and it illustrates how God took them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land and made a great nation out of them. However, Israel never did completely carry out God's will as represented here in this illustration. The picture of the vine spreading from sea to sea covering the mighty cedars is a picture of blessings and a picture of how Israel was to spread the knowledge of the true and living God of Israel to the surrounding nations. The Gentile nations are represented by the cedars, and Israel is represented by the vine.

And in God's illustration the vine is growing so large that it's covering and blessing the Gentile nations, through the knowledge of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel was meant to be God's representatives to the Gentile world. They were meant to be a light to the world to bring the Gentile nations to the knowledge of the true and living God. And the image here of the vine casting its shade over the cedars represents the blessings the Gentile nations would have received from knowing God as taught them by Israel. However, as we'll see Israel chased after foreign idols because of their rebellion against God and the fact that they wanted desperately to be like the Gentile nations who surrounded them. So much so they abandoned God and sought after idols and they tried to remove God from their society. Therefore, as we'll read in the next section, God removed His protection and His blessings from them. These passages are important to us, because they are part of God's warning through historical example, of what happens to nations and individuals who abandon God.

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