“Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.”
The divine appearance is requested: "Shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh! Stir up your might, and come to save us!" The specific enumeration of three tribes (representing the central and northern regions) suggests the psalm addresses a crisis affecting northern/central Israel. The request for God to shine forth evokes theophanic imagery: divine manifestation is needed to address the crisis.
Church Fathers on Psalms 80:2
1. ...If perchance things obscure demand the office of an interpreter, those things which are evident ought to require of me the office of a reader. The song here is of the Advent of the Lord and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His vineyard. But the singer of the song is that Asaph, as far as does appear, enlightened and converted, by whose name ye know the synagogue to be signified. Lastly, the title of the Psalm is: “For the end in behalf of them that shall be changed;”…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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