Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
     before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
    and come to save us!

Restore us, O God;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Referring to God as the Shepherd of Israel suggests and understanding of God as caring and protective, which is a good beginning to this passage, which is not as dark as the readings from the last couple of days.

The mention of Israel (which refers to both a man and a nation) and four of the sons/tribes of Israel, suggests that the writer is talking about all of God’s chosen people, but there’s no way of knowing if these four were singled out for a particular reason.

The plea here is for God to restore his people, which summarizes the hope embodied in Advent.

The reference to God as being “enthroned upon the cherubim” is about the cherubim, a class of angels, being referred to as the throne-bearers of God. Frequently mentioned in scripture (they are also the guardians of the Tree of Life in Genesis. Their appearance is not well described, and not consistent in scripture. They are always described as having wings; at times they are said to have two faces and other times as having four (a man, a lion and an eagle. The fourth face is variously described as being the face of a cherub or the face of an ox.)

Christian art has often portrayed them, not as described in scripture, but as pudgy young boys, more along the lines of the pagan Cupid than the biblical cherubs.

This is along the lines of much of the tradition related to Advent and Christmas, as culture has wanted to soften what is in essense a cosmic battle between good and evil into a more sentimental image where salvation is seen as more of a gentle nudging toward goodness than a literally earth-changing triumph over evil.