Advent Meditation on Psalm 80
“Turn us again, O God; / show the light of thy countenance,
and we shall be whole”
The Psalms are the most familiar and the most used parts of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Christian liturgy and yet they are easily and often taken for granted. What are the Psalms? The Psalms are prayers and praises and they play an important role in the Christian understanding of the Gospel. The two psalms which stand out for consideration in our Advent meditations are Psalms 80 and 85. They are two of the most used Psalms in the Christian liturgy during the season of Advent.
Psalm 80 is used on The Sunday Next Before Advent at Morning Prayer, on The Second Sunday in Advent as the Introit at Mass, and on The Third Sunday in Advent as the Gradual. Psalm 85 is used as the Introit and Gradual Psalm on The Sunday Next Before Advent, as the Gradual Psalm on The First Sunday in Advent and as the Gradual Psalm for The Advent Ember days. It is even the Psalm appointed in its entirety for the evening service on Christmas Day – not the most highly attended service, to be sure. But there it is.
Our initial focus will be on Psalm 80. Augustine notes about Psalm 80 that “the song here is of the Advent of the Lord and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His vineyard.” This interpretation alerts us to an intriguing and important feature of the Psalms. They are at once the hymn book and the prayer book of Israel but become the hymn book and the prayer book, too, of the Christian Church. In a way, the Psalms gather together into song and prayer the teachings of the Law and the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures at the same time as illuminating something of the meaning of Christ and his Church. That is really Augustine’s point.