Note: the three refrains are not identical because the designation of the Lord goes from “God” to “God of hosts” to YHWH God of hosts”. Where we might expect a refrain at verse 14 we have a muted “Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts”.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannimeduth, A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock;
thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh
stir up thy strength,
and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine;
and we shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts,
how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears;
and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours:
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine;
and we shall be saved.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt:
thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou preparedst room before it,
and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it,
and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea,
and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges,
so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it,
and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts:
look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down:
they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So will not we go back from thee:
quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine;
and we shall be saved.
Verses 1-7 the refrain different as you say because of the name additions of hosts.
Verses 8-14 is all about the vine that was nurtured and brought the into the land where it grew but was almost devoured because they had left the God of hosts
Verses 15-18 seems to me to be talking about THIS vine. The remnant that was now left beseeching God of hosts to return and the last refrain is Yahweh of armies which is, I believe, only ever used where there is only a small remnant of people.
So is the emphasis on Yahweh to go to battle for the remnant of the true vine now pleading for His return?