Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- KJV Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
- BSB Restore us, O God, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- NKJV Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
- NASB God, restore us And make Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A refrain pleading for God to restore His people and let His favor shine on them so they will be saved. Restoration begins with God turning to us, not us turning ourselves.
Overview
This recurring refrain (vv. 3, 7, 19) frames Psalm 80's lament over a devastated nation. To ask God to make His face shine is to seek the restoration of His gracious presence, echoing the Aaronic blessing (Num. 6:25). Salvation is portrayed as God's gift, granted when He turns back to a people unable to save themselves, a hope ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Lam 5:21Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old.
- Num 6:25–26Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you.
- Ps 85:4Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.
- Ps 80:19Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- Ps 80:7Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
- Ps 4:6Many say, “Who will show us any good?” Yahweh, let the light of your face shine on us.
- 1 Kgs 18:37Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”
- Ps 119:135Make your face shine on your servant. Teach me your statutes.
- Ps 80:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph. Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.
- Ps 67:1For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.
- Ps 60:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
- Jer 31:18–19“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 80:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.