Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand and upon the son of man, whom you made so strong for yourself. (Psalm 80:17)
I got into a funk after praying Psalm 80 at Evening Prayer. Well, it is a lament so maybe funk is the right response.
What happened tonight was that the plea for God to set his hand “upon the son of man” connected me to the recent readings from Ezekiel, whom God addresses as “son of man.” And the strength that God imparts to that “son of man” is to open a big ol’ can o’ bad news for God’s people.
The initial chapters of Ezekiel are unrelenting judgment (well deserved) upon God’s people. It’s as though Psalm 80 offers just the right prayer for God to reject or, worse, to answer ironically with the requested son of man arriving plenty strong, but plenty painful for the people.
Not deep enough into a funk, I went on to notice that other verses of the Psalm seem to bear the same irony.
O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people that pray? (Psalm 80:4) seems doomed to hear When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15).
Part of Psalm 80’s plea for help likens the people to a vineyard,
Turn again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold, and visit this vine, And the place of the vineyard that your right hand has planted, and the branch that you made so strong for yourself (vv. 14-15).
But this reminded me of the grim song in Isaiah 5, which includes,
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured (v. 5).
Can you feel the funk?
Well, to be honest, there’s some front loaded stuff on my part. I’m in a phase of life that has me wondering if I’m an object of God’s wrath and irony. Long story and not for blogging, but it’s enough to say that readings full of wrath and judgment get to me these days.
Thankfully the Holy Spirit does Holy Spirit stuff. I felt a nudge and looked for a specific instance of God putting his hand on Ezekiel, the “son of man.” And what an instance it was.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones…Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
A prophesy of restoration for the people moaning Psalm 80, but much more.
The lower case son of man foreshadows the work of the upper case Son of Man, Jesus Christ:
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:27-29)
We (I fer sure) can’t undo the past, or “work it off.”
What’s left is to believe in the Son of Man who can make all things new, and to receive the free gift of new and everlasting life in him.
Northern Plains Anglican 
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