Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday in Advent

Give heed, O You who shepherd Israel;
Reveal Yourself, O You who lead Joseph like a flock,
Who sit upon the cherubim.
Raise up Your power
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
And come for our salvation.
O God, convert us,
And reveal Your face, and we shall be saved.
O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your servant?
Will You feed us the bread of tears,
And will You give us as drink tears in measure?
You made us an offense to our neighbors,
And our enemies sneered at us.
O Lord God, convert us,
And reveal Your face, and we shall be saved. (Ps 80:1–7 LXX)

The coming of Christ the Lord is demanded with great longing, so that He may appear to be most clearly signified by what He does.… So the address is rightly made to the king of heaven and earth who rules Israel, under whose control all things were created and are administered.… But since the Lord still remained within the cloak of His majesty, the psalmist asks that He should appear in the blessing of the holy incarnation, so that He may strengthen His faithful with the most unswerving belief. Observe that the texture of this verse contains a triple invocation to show that the holy Trinity performs together all things.

The psalmist begs that the Lord appear before them with spiritual might, in other words, that as had been promised through the prophets He should be born of the Jewish nation. But since these names in the usual fashion of divine Scripture are clearly not idly inserted, we must investigate most eagerly their meanings. Ephraim means “fruitfulness,” Benjamin “son of the right hand,” and Manasseh “forgetful.” Clearly these attributes lie within the Lord Savior. He was fruitful when after His body had lain slaughtered for a time He rose to the everlasting kingdom of heaven. He is the “Son of the right hand,” that is, Son of the almighty Father. “Forgetful” points to when He was oblivious of the injuries done to Him, when set on the cross He prayed for the Jewish people. So the psalmist entreated that the Lord come with these powers, and he was in no doubt that He would manifest them.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 79.2–3