The Shepherd On The Chariot

Mahx Note for Psalms 80


CONTENTS
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Etzion commentary has:
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/archive/tehillim70/39tehillim.htm

"What does our psalm mean with its image of God as His people's shepherd and as He who tends them like sheep? This analogy is found in two other psalms of Asaf":

77:21 – You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.

78:52 – And He led His people like sheep, and He guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

"...like in psalms 77-78, in psalm 80, the analogy of "shepherd of Israel… You who tend Yosef like sheep" alludes to the period of the exodus from Egypt, the time of Israel's wandering in the wilderness, when God guided His people like a flock of sheep."

Accordingly, it can be understood that the description of G-d as being "enthroned upon the Cherubim", which is stated in parallel to His being described as the Shepherd of His people, is a reference to His Presence, the Shekinah leading Israel through the wilderness. Clearly, it is first a reference to the Divine Presence over the cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant. Since this was itself in correspondence with Hashem riding upon the chariot above, just as was the Shekinah in the wilderness, this conclusion is established.

Note that in Psalms 81:6 all Israel is referred to as Yoseph. G-d's people are called the children of Yaakov and Yoseph in Psalms 77:16.

Rav Elchanan Samet of Etzion quoting Prof. Y. M. Grintz, says that it is clear that all Israel could not have been referred to like this, as Yoseph, at the time of David and Solomon. What is the significance of this? And what is the relationship to the image of the Shepherd riding upon the chariot?

There is a prophetic sense in which the birth of Yoseph was the indicator for the return of Yaakov to the Land and thus for the salvation of Israel. Here were Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh are "camped together", so to speak, in this prophecy the same prophetic issue is raised.




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