Psalms 79:2-12

2 They gave the corpses of Your servants to the birds of the sky for food,[a] the flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.
3 They poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury [them].[b]
4 We have become an object of reproach to our neighbors, a source of mockery and ridicule to those around us.[c]
5 How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy keep burning like fire?[d]
6 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that don't acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that don't call on Your name,
7 for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.[e]
8 Do not hold past sins[f] against us; let Your compassion come to us quickly, for we have become weak.
9 God of our salvation, help us[g]- for the glory of Your name. Deliver us and atone for[h] our sins, because of Your name.[i]
10 Why should the nations ask, "Where is their God?"[j] Before our eyes, let vengeance for the shed blood of Your servants be known among the nations.[k]
11 Let the groans of the prisoners reach You;[l] according to Your great power, preserve those condemned to die.
12 Pay back sevenfold to our neighbors the reproach they have hurled at You, Lord.

Psalms 79:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 79

\\<>\\. This psalm was not written by one Asaph, who is supposed to live after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, or, according to some, even after the times of Antiochus, of whom there is no account, nor any certainty that there ever was such a man in those times; but by Asaph, the seer and prophet, that lived in the time of David, who, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw and foretold things that should come to pass, spoken of in this psalm: nor is it any objection that what is here said is delivered as an history of facts, since many prophecies are delivered in this way, especially those of the prophet Isaiah. The Targum is, ``a song by the hands of Asaph, concerning the destruction of the house of the sanctuary (or temple), which he said by a spirit of prophecy.'' The title of the Syriac versions, ``said by Asaph concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.'' The argument of the psalm is of the same kind with the Seventy Fourth. Some refer it to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; so Theodoret; but though the temple was then defiled, Jerusalem was not utterly destroyed; and others to the destruction of the city and temple by Nebuchadnezzar; and why may it not refer to both, and even to the after destruction of both by Titus Vespasian? and may include the affliction and troubles of the Christians under Rome Pagan and Papal, and especially the latter; for Jerusalem and the temple may be understood in a mystical and spiritual sense; at least the troubles of the Jews, in the times referred to, were typical of what should befall the people of God under the New Testament, and in antichristian times.

Footnotes 13

  • [a]. Dt 28:26; Jr 7:33; 16:4
  • [b]. Jr 14:16; 22:19
  • [c]. Ps 44:14
  • [d]. Ps 80:4; 89:46; Zch 1:12
  • [e]. Isa 10:24-26; Jr 10:25
  • [f]. Or hold the sins of past generations
  • [g]. Ps 85:4; 1 Ch 16:35
  • [h]. Or and wipe out, or and forgive
  • [i]. Ps 23:3; 25:11; 106:8
  • [j]. Ps 115:2; Jl 2:17; Mc 7:10
  • [k]. Dt 32:43; Jr 20:12; 46:10
  • [l]. Ps 12:6; 102:20; Mal 2:13
  • [m]. Lv 26:18,21,24; Isa 65:6-7; Jr 32:18
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