Ps. 80.6-7 (redemption, external)

You have made us / an object of strife / for our neighbors
and our enemies / mock at us / among themselves
O God Sabaoth / restore us
make your face shine / that we may be saved. 

This verse follows a similar trajectory as many other complaint/petitions. The petition moves from the internal devastation to the external. The internal is the direct effect upon the community (for example, sickness, invasion or exile). The external is how that reality is perceived by others (for example, shame, mockery and derision). Importantly, the both fall under the petition for redemption. The psalmist and his community is just as concerned about the external as they are about the internal. Of course, they both are of the same reality. The internal devastation cases the external shame and, therefore, the redemption of the internal will produce a redemption of the external. That said, the fact that the psalmist petitions specifically for the external to be redeemed (to be moved from a state of shame and weakness to that of glory, strength and well-being) is revealing. To the psalmist redemption has not fully occurred unless that redemption is a public reality, one that is perceived by all. In other words, one that “shines”. It must be communicated and communicable. We must also note how these verses fall immediately upon the previous disturbing image of feeding-on-tears. What seems to be clear from this is that the mockery and strife that they have become to neighbor and enemy is of a piece with that terrible image. It is, in other words, of the same quality of horror. Although the image is not as potent, the reality is. Cut off from the heavenly assembly, they not only implode upon themselves—feeding on their tears—but they also explode in a dark burst of shame. In this explosion a part of the community is transferred to these ‘neighbors and enemies’. The holy community’s reputation is severed from them and is subject to the (verbal) violence of mockery and strife. In this way the earthly division of the community from itself (the duality now experienced of the reputation and of their well-being) is one that mirrors and is induced by the division of heaven from earth, caused by the barrier-fumes of God’s anger (vs. 4). This is why the petition for redemption is now repeated. The psalmist is calling for God to emerge, on his cherubim-throne, from his darkness and come to their aid so as to bring about their unity (their well-being). This unity will be the manifestation of his “shine face”—their transfer from the darkness under which they labor (heavenly host is severed from them) and among which they live (neighbors and enemies) to that of shining light (...unity and integrity).