Salmos 79

1 OH Dios, vinieron las gentes á tu heredad; El templo de tu santidad han contaminado; Pusieron á Jerusalem en montones.
2 Dieron los cuerpos de tus siervos por comida á las aves de los cielos; La carne de tus santos á las bestias de la tierra.
3 Derramaron su sangre como agua en los alrededores de Jerusalem; Y no hubo quien los enterrase.
4 Somos afrentados de nuestros vecinos, Escarnecidos y burlados de los que están en nuestros alrededores.
5 ¿Hasta cuándo, oh Jehová? ¿has de estar airado para siempre? ¿Arderá como fuego tu celo?
6 Derrama tu ira sobre las gentes que no te conocen, Y sobre los reinos que no invocan tu nombre.
7 Porque han consumido á Jacob, Y su morada han asolado.
8 No recuerdes contra nosotros las iniquidades antiguas: Anticípennos presto tus misericordias, Porque estamos muy abatidos.
9 Ayúdanos, oh Dios, salud nuestra, por la gloria de tu nombre: Y líbranos, y aplácate sobre nuestros pecados por amor de tu nombre.
10 Porque dirán las gentes: ¿Dónde está su Dios? Sea notoria en las gentes, delante de nuestros ojos, La venganza de la sangre de tus siervos, que fué derramada.
11 Entre ante tu acatamiento el gemido de los presos: Conforme á la grandeza de tu brazo preserva á los sentenciados á muerte.
12 Y torna á nuestros vecinos en su seno siete tantos De su infamia, con que te han deshonrado, oh Jehová.
13 Y nosotros, pueblo tuyo, y ovejas de tu dehesa, Te alabaremos para siempre: Por generación y generación cantaremos tus alabanzas.

Salmos 79 Commentary

Chapter 79

The deplorable condition of the people of God. (1-5) A petition for relief. (6-13)

Verses 1-5 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.

Verses 6-13 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.

Chapter Summary

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.

Salmos 79 Commentaries

The Reina-Valera Antigua (1602) is in the public domain.