1 > God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, The flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
3 Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
5 How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you; On the kingdoms that don't call on your name;
7 For they have devoured Jacob, And destroyed his homeland.
8 Don't hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, For we are in desperate need.
9 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, That vengeance for your servants' blood is being poured out.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death;
12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom Their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, Will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 79
Commentary on Psalms 79 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 79
This psalm, if penned with any particular event in view, is with most probability made to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the woeful havoc made of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. It is set to the same tune, as I may say, with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and that weeping prophet borrows two verses out of it (v. 6, 7) and makes use of them in his prayer, Jer. 10:25. Some think it was penned long before by the spirit of prophecy, prepared for the use of the church in that cloudy and dark day. Others think that it was penned then by the spirit of prayer, either by a prophet named Asaph or by some other prophet for the sons of Asaph. Whatever the particular occasion was, we have here,
In times of the church's peace and prosperity this psalm may, in the singing of it, give us occasion to bless God that we are not thus trampled on and insulted. But it is especially seasonable in a day of treading down and perplexity, for the exciting of our desires towards God and the encouragement of our faith in him as the church's patron.
A psalm of Asaph.
Psa 79:1-5
We have here a sad complaint exhibited in the court of heaven. The world is full of complaints, and so is the church too, for it suffers, not only with it, but from it, as a lily among thorns. God is complained to; whither should children go with their grievances, but to their father, to such a father as is able and willing to help? The heathen are complained of, who, being themselves aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, were sworn enemies to it. Though they knew not God, nor owned him, yet, God having them in chain, the church very fitly appeals to him against them; for he is King of nations, to overrule them, to judge among the heathen, and King of saints, to favour and protect them.
Psa 79:6-13
The petitions here put up to God are very suitable to the present distresses of the church, and they have pleas to enforce them, interwoven with them, taken mostly from God's honour.