Psalm 80 - Mahx Note

The Vine and Why G-d Planted It

Etzion's study points to the contrast between Isaiah and Jeremiah's use of the vine metaphor for Israel and that of this Psalm. The prophets state clearly, from Above, that it was the vine itself that produced bad fruit and therefore was turned over to those who plundered it. This psalm, they say, does not acknowledge this, but asks, from the perspective down Below, why God abandoned his own good vine, which he himself transplanted out of Egypt.

Both are the word of God. This should say both are the Word of God. Both are the word incarnated by him, in him, who is the Word of God. He also is the vine of the vine, whose are the branches. This metaphor of John 15 can only apply to Mashiach and Israel together. Mashiach is the central vine, all Israel is the branches.

Again, this psalm must be read as being a paradox from the perspective of human reason that is resolved only in a timeless view of the corporate unity of Israel. Although God has called Israel his own vine it does not produce the fruit he intends because it cannot so long as it is in a state of being rightfully under the sentence of death in Adam. The ultimate purpose of the psalm is that Israel should come to know this. Even before it is fully manifested then, in the time of the Judges, when God was not yet sending Israel into a state of captivity, but was still apparently completing his process of transplanting them from Egypt, when he still appeared to approve of them, be it through Moshe's mediation in prayer for Israel, at that time he already allows them to be defeated by the Philistines. And they ask Why?

It is this very question which finally brings forth the self-evident answer that Israel as one human being must be for anew from Above through the death and resurrection of her Mashiach.

When this is known, then it is known that he is the vine, the vine of the vine, the root of all the branches. Because only Mashiach's perspective is the human perspective that is true, Only his "complaint", his defense of Israel, is sufficient to be heard of G-d for the eternal life of Israel.

Further, the Etzion text asks:

"Why did the author of our psalm choose to liken Israel to a single vine, whereas Yeshayahu compares them to a vineyard?"

It is instructive to look at Yehoshua's use of the vine metaphor on the one hand and his use of the vineyard parable on the other hand.

If, as the Etzion study states, the vine metaphor is used from the point of view of prayer and the human perspective, while the vineyard parable is used from the point of view of prophecy and the Divine perspective, then we might be able to say the same about Yehoshua's use of both.

In John 15 Yehoshua shows how from the human point of view all Israel must be attached to him, the True Tzaddik. In Matthew 20 in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Yehoshua shows how every tribe in Israel and every soul will be shown in the end to be Messianic in nature , which is to say, because they are attached to him, and their works will all therefore be essential, whether they have come early or late. So it was with Yoseph and Yehudah and Benyamin in Egypt.