Let Your Face Shine

Asaph, one of the great singers of the Temple, wrote his psalms in the hard hours of the people. In the first part he planted the vine: the people was brought out of Egypt like a vine lifted with care and planted in cleared ground. Here the parable runs to its end.

The verse that closes the psalm, and gives the song its name:

"O Lord God of hosts, restore us; let your face shine, that we may be saved"

A shining face is a sign of favour and nearness; its opposite is the hiding of the face. No miracle is asked for and no list of demands — only one: that the distance be removed.