A threefold appeal to God to restore and save His people from their enemies (vv. 3, 7, 19)
(vv. 1-3) The last psalm closed with the plea that the people of Israel, however low they may have fallen, are still the Lord’s people, and the sheep of His pasture. In this psalm the godly, while still confessing the sin of the people, rise higher in their appeal. If Israel are the Lord’s sheep, it follows the Lord is the Shepherd of Israel, the One to whom the sheep should look. Thus the cry goes up to the Shepherd of Israel who once led His people like a flock, and dwelt in their midst between the cherubim, to once again shine forth before the tribes; to come in His strength to deliver them from their enemies, and cause His face to shine in favor upon them.
(vv. 4-7) They confess that their present low condition is the result of their sins and the consequent chastisement of the Lord. As in the previous psalm they ask, “How long?” Faith realizes that there must be a limit to God’s chastening’s. Can God be deaf to the prayers of His people: indifferent to their tears, or unmoved by their sufferings at the hands of men, to whom they are a bone of contention and an object of derision?
Again they appeal to the God of hosts to restore them, show His favor, and save them.
(vv. 8-16) Furthermore they plead they are God’s vine, brought out of Egypt, separated from the world, and planted in the land. Why, then, if Israel is God’s vine, has God broken down the hedges and allowed the nations to trample them underfoot? They beseech God to look down from heaven and visit His vine—the vine that God had planted and the branch that God made strong for Himself. In the branch may there not be an allusion to David and his family, of whom according to the flesh, Christ came? They admit all this sorrow has come upon them at the rebuking of the Lord, involving a confession of their own sin that called for rebuke.
(vv. 17-19) Here they make their highest appeal. “Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou makest strong for thyself.” This surely is an allusion to Christ, the One who is the resource of God, available for the need of man and the maintenance of the glory of God.
When brought into blessing through Christ, the people will not go back from Jehovah. Thus for the third time they repeat the refrain, “Restore us, O Jehovah, God of hosts; cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.” Their first plea is that God is the Shepherd of Israel; their second plea, God cannot be indifferent to their sufferings; the last plea is Christ, the Man of God’s right hand.