Psalms 79

1 The psalm of Asaph. God, heathen men came into thine heritage; they defouled thine holy temple, they setted Jerusalem into the keeping of apples. (The song of Asaph. God, the heathen came to thy inheritance; they defiled thy holy Temple, and they laid Jerusalem in ruins.)

2 They setted the slain bodies of thy servants to be meats to the volatiles of heavens; the fleshes of thy saints to the beasts of the earth. (They left the dead bodies of thy servants to be food for the birds of the air; yea, the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.)

3 They shedded out the blood of them, as water in the compass of Jerusalem; and none there was that buried (them). (They poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem; and there was no one left to bury them.)

4 We be made (a) shame to our neighbours; mocking and scorning to them, that be in our compass. (We were made a reproach to our neighbours; mocked and scorned by those who be all around us.)

5 Lord, how long shalt thou be wroth into the end? shall thy vengeance be kindled as fire? (Lord, how long shalt thou be angry, forever? shall thy anger burn like fire?)

6 Pour out thine ire into heathen men, that know not thee; and into realms, that called not thy name. (Pour out thy anger upon the heathen, who know thee not; and upon the kingdoms, that have not called upon thy name.)

7 For they ate Jacob; and made desolate his place. (For they have devoured, or destroyed, the people of Jacob; and made their place desolate.)

8 Have thou not mind on our eld wickednesses; thy mercies before take us soon, for we be made poor greatly. (Remember not our past wickednesses; let thy constant love come soon to us, for we be made so very low.)

9 God, our health, help thou us, and, Lord, for the glory of thy name, deliver thou us; and be thou merciful to our sins, for thy name. (God, our salvation/God, our deliverance, help thou us, and, Lord, for the glory of thy name, save thou us; and have thou mercy on our sins, for the sake of thy name.)

10 Lest peradventure they say among heathen men, Where is the God of them? and be he known among nations before our eyes. The vengeance of the blood of thy servants, which is shed out; (Lest perhaps they say among the heathen, Where is their God? Let thyself be known among the nations around us, by the vengeance which is poured out upon them; for the blood of thy servants.)

11 the wailing of fettered men enter into thy sight. After the greatness of thine arm; wield thou the sons of slain men. (Let the wailing of the fettered come before thee. And by the greatness of thy power, free thou those who be condemned to die.)

12 And yield thou to our neighbours sevenfold in(to) the bosom of them; the shame of them (the same rebuke), which they did shamefully to thee, thou Lord.

13 But we that be thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture; shall acknowledge to thee into the world. In generation and into generation, we shall tell thy praising. (Then we who be thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, shall give thanks to thee forever. Yea, in all generations, we shall tell out thy praises.)

Psalms 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.