Psalms79
New Living Translation
1 O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. They have defiled your holy Temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.
2 They have left the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven. The flesh of your godly ones has become food for the wild animals.
3 Blood has flowed like water all around Jerusalem; no one is left to bury the dead.
4 We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
5 O Lord, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you— on kingdoms that do not call upon your name.
7 For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness.
8 Do not hold us guilty for the sins of our ancestors! Let your compassion quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.
10 Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, “Where is their God?” Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants.
11 Listen to the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die.
12 O Lord, pay back our neighbors seven times for the scorn they have hurled at you.
13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation.
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Psalms 79Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Psalms 79. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The deplorable condition of the people of God. (1–5). A petition for relief. (6–13).
vv1-5
God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.
vv6-13
Those who persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of prayer, are the ungodly. How unrighteous soever men were, the Lord was righteous in permitting them to do what they did. Deliverances from trouble are mercies indeed, when grounded upon the pardon of sin; we should therefore be more earnest in prayer for the removal of our sins than for the removal of afflictions. They had no hopes but from God's mercies, his tender mercies. They plead no merit, they pretend to none, but, Help us for the glory of thy name; pardon us for thy name's sake. The Christian forgets not that he is often bound in the chain of his sins. The world to him is a prison; sentence of death is passed upon him, and he knows not how soon it may be executed. How fervently should he at all times pray, O let the sighing of a prisoner come before thee, according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die! How glorious will the day be, when, triumphant over sin and sorrow, the church beholds the adversary disarmed for ever! while that church shall, from age to age, sing the praises of her great Shepherd and Bishop, her King and her God.
Key Words
מִזְמוֹר: properly, instrumental music; by implication, a poem set to notes
אָסָף: Asaph, the name of three Israelites, and of the family of the first
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
גּוֹי: a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts
בּוֹא: to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)
נַחֲלָה: properly, something inherited, i.e. (abstractly) occupancy, or (concretely) an heirloom; generally an estate, patrimony or portion
טָמֵא: to be foul, especially in a ceremial or moral sense (contaminated)
קֹדֶשׁ: a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity
הֵיכָל: a large public building, such as a palace or temple
שׂוּם: to put (used in a great variety of applications, literal, figurative, inferentially, and elliptically)
Cross References
Psalms 79Direct verbal identity, praying for wrath on nations that devour Jacob and do not know God.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallels Israel becoming a scorn and laughingstock to surrounding neighbors.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Identical lament of becoming a reproach, scorn, and derision to neighbors.
Supported by JFB
Parallels the judgment of dead bodies being devoured by fowls and beasts.
Supported by JFB
Echoes bodies left unburied to be meat for fowls and beasts of the earth.
Supported by JFB
Daniel's confession of Jerusalem and God's people becoming a reproach to all around them.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Classic prayer plea: 'Wherefore should the Egyptians speak' parallel to 'Where is their God?'
Supported by JFB
Deuteronomic warning of the Lord's jealousy burning like fire against disobedience.
Supported by JFB
Matches the agonizing cry of 'How long, Lord?' in times of perceived desertion.
Supported by JFB
The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes upon the heathen.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The idiom of rendering recompense directly 'into their bosom' for their iniquities.
Supported by JFB
Shared pastoral imagery of Israel as the sheep of God's pasture under wrath.
Supported by JFB
Prophetic warning of Jerusalem being laid 'on heaps' due to sin.
Supported by John Calvin
Contrasts the disgraceful unburied state of the wicked king with the trials of God's saints.
Supported by John Calvin