7.21. Chapter 7 - "Turn Again, We Beseech Thee": Israel's Hope for the Future

Chapter 7 “Turn Again, We Beseech Thee”: Israel’s Hope for the Future

MOVED by the picture of Israel’s present oppressed and desolate condition, the psalmist breaks forth into earnest, importunate prayer for God’s interposition and deliverance:

“God of Tzebaoth, turn again, we beseech Thee, Look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine”; as much as to say “Only turn Thyself” to look, and thou wilt surely be moved with compassion and wilt visit with Thy mercy and deliverance once again this Vine. But we may regard this prayer also in a more literal and personal sense, during Israel’s long night of weeping God is represented as having withdrawn Himself. “I will go,” He says, to quote another prophetic scripture, “and return to My place till they acknowledge their offence and seek My face”; but “He will turn again, He will have compassion on us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” And “His going forth is sure as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth” (Hos_5:15; Hos_6:3; Mic_7:19). In the first line of the fifteenth verse the Authorised Version has “and the Vineyard,” and the Revised Version the “Stock”; but almost all modern scholars are agreed in regarding the Hebrew word כַנָּה, kannah, not as a substantive, but as the imperative of the verb כָּנַן kanan, meaning to cover or to protect, in which sense it was understood also by the translators of the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. It certainly preserves the parallelism best:

“Look down from heaven, behold and visit this Vine, And protect [or “maintain”] what Thy right hand hath planted. And the son [not branch, as in A.V., or more lit. “upon” or “over the son”; i.e., “let Thy protection be over him”] whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.”

Once again the present wretchedness of Israel forces itself on the psalmist’s mind, and he would use it also once more as a plea with God for His interposition on their behalf:

“It [i.e. the vine which Thou hast brought out of Egypt; the vineyard which Thine own right hand hath planted] is burned with fire, it is cut down, At the rebuke of Thy countenance they perish.

Oh, let Thy hand be upon [or “over”] the man of Thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.”

“The Son,” “the Man of Thy right hand,” “the Son of Man”—primarily all these names apply to and are used of Israel. (a) “Israel is My son, My firstborn,” was God’s word to Pharaoh (Exo_4:22), and in Hos_11:1 we read, “When Israel was a child I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt.” (b) And Israel was called to occupy the position of honour and power as the “man of God’s right hand”—the true Benjamin, to which name there is a manifest allusion, and of whom it is said:

“The beloved of Jehovah shall dwell in safety by Him; And [Jehovah] shall cover him all the day long, And he shall dwell between His shoulders.” (Deu_33:12)

(c) And he also is the Ben-Adam—“the Son of Man” who, though “belonging to a humanity that is feeble in itself, and thoroughly conditional and dependent,”¹ is by God’s power made strong for and by Himself.

¹ Delitzsch. But though Israel was called to be all that, they have never yet responded to their high calling; and actually, and in their truest and deepest sense, these titles belong to the antitypical Israel—to Him who is the crown and glory of Israel, and through whom alone Israel will at last enter into the condition and experience of sonship. He is “the Son”—the only begotten of the Father, and the true and anti-typical Benjamin. Once He was the בֶּן־אוֹנִ֑י, Ben-oni, “the Son of My Sorrow,” “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” but now is בֵּן־יָמִין, Ben-jamin, the Man of God’s right hand,” exalted there in power to be a “Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and the forgiveness of sins.” And He is also “the Son of Man,” which as applied to Him has a sense and significance quite its own—the Man par excellence, the ideal and representative of the race.

Hence the Jewish Targum is quite right when it paraphrases the second line of the seventeenth verse in the words:

“And upon King Messiah, whom Thou hast established for Thyself.” The blessed effects of God’s interposition and of Israel’s final outward and inward deliverance is expressed in the eighteenth verse:

“So shall we not go back from Thee:

Quicken Thou us, and we will call upon Thy Name.” A nation so purified in the fires of God’s judgments, and which shall have passed through such a repentance and contrition of soul as are described, a nation which has tasted so deeply of the bitterness of sin, and the sweetness of the infinite love of God, which is stronger than death, as converted Israel shall have done—will take good heed never to depart from God any more, but shall continue to “follow on to know the Lord.” And this vow of future fidelity on Israel’s part is confirmed by God’s own sure word of promise, which says:

“They shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good; and I will put My fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul.” (Jer_32:41)

Then also—when the spirit of grace and of supplication is poured upon them—shall not only be “quickened” and “live before Him” again as a nation (Hos_6:2), but they shall “call upon His Name,” or, more literally, “then will we call with Thy Name”—i.e., “make it the medium and matter of solemn proclamation,” as Delitzsch properly explains—the idiom being exactly the same as used of Abraham, who, wherever he went, built an altar and “called upon” (or “proclaimed aloud”) the Name of Jehovah.

Yes, in that day they shall say:

“Give thanks unto Jehovah; call upon [or “proclaim”] His Name, declare His doings among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted.

“Oh, praise Jehovah, all ye nations;

Laud Him, all ye peoples. For His grace [or lovingkindness] has prevailed over us; And the truth [or faithfulness] of Jehovah endureth for ever.” (Isa_12:4; Psa_117:1-2) And the nations who hear them will respond:

“Hallelujah: from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, Jehovah’s Name is to be praised.”