When people forget God’s covenant, it is often because they also forget the great deeds he did in their past. The psalmist reminded the Lord of his glorious past and how he established the Israelite people by using the image of a vine. Wine is often mentioned in Scripture. Vines were common in Canaan, as the climate and soil were ideally suited for vineyards. The psalmist may have been alluding to Genesis 49:22, where Jacob blessed his son Joseph by calling him a fruitful bough.
The psalmist may also have known Hosea’s prophecy: Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit
(Hosea 10:1). Jeremiah also later used the same imagery: Yet I planted you a choice vine
(Jeremiah 2:21). The psalmist based his pleas on God’s historic redemption in solidarity with all the generations in God’s covenant.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.