Psalm 79– A Psalm of Asaph.
In the last psalm, Judah replaced Ephraim as the head. And so in history Assyria has already attacked and destroyed Israel. But here is prophetically announced judgment on Judah also.
1 O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
“‘O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance’— Judah— the remnant. "It is the cry of amazement at sacrilegious intrusion; as if the poet were struck with horror. The stranger pollutes thine hallowed courts with his tread. All Canaan is thy land, but thy foes have ravaged it [the heart of Jerusalem]. ‘Your holy temple they have defiled.’ Into the inmost sanctuary they have profanely forced their way, and there behaved themselves arrogantly. Thus, the holy land, the holy house, and the holy city, were all polluted by the uncircumcised. It is an awful thing when wicked men are found in the church and numbered with her ministry. Then are the tares sown with the wheat, and the poisoned gourds cast into the pot.— ‘They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.’ After devouring and defiling, they have come to destroying, and have done their work with a cruel completeness. Jerusalem, the beloved city, the joy of the nation, the abode of her God, was totally wrecked.” (Treasury of David) They “spoiled God's inheritance, polluted His temple, destroyed His religion, and murdered His people.”(Geneva Study Bible)
2 The dead bodies of Your servants they have given as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth. 3 Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those who are around us.
The righteous were the target and one are left “to grant a shovelful of earth with which to cover up the poor bodies of thy murdered servants.” (C. H. Spurgeon) None will bury the saints. “Of which some came from Abraham but were degenerate: and others were open enemies to your religion, but they both laughed at our miseries.” (Geneva Study Bible)
“If God's professing people degenerate from what… their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is well if a just reproach will help to bring us to a true repentance.
But it has been the lot of the gospel Israel to be made unjustly a reproach and derision; the apostles themselves were ‘counted as the off scouring of all things.’” (Matthew Henry)
5 How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? 6 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, and on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.
“True, the destruction of Jerusalem has been a judgment sent by God on the nation because of its sin, but, ask the people, is not that enough? Will not God now reverse his judgment and punish those who eat up His people?” (Bridgeway Bible Commentary) “The Chaldeans, whose destruction God had foretold, were especially meant: and, so far from worshipping Jehovah, they blasphemed Him, and cruelly oppressed His worshippers. (Lam 3:52-57).” (Thomas Scott)
8 Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low. 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, for Your name’s sake! 10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let there be known among the nations in our sight the avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed.
“’Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us!’ etc. By former iniquities against us is meant "a confession not only of one offense or two, and these only recently committed, but an acknowledgement that they had for a long time been involved, along with their fathers, in manifold and old transgressions. Thus they acknowledge a long continued stubbornness, in which they had hardened themselves against God.” (John Calvin) "'Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low.' etc Seeing we have no other Savior, neither can we help ourselves, and also by our salvation your Name will be praised: therefore O Lord, help us.” (Geneva Bible) “These prayers are evidently dictated by the Holy Ghost, because they are founded on God's promises. See Isaiah 43:25—‘I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.’ Ezekiel 36:22— and Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says Jehovah GOD, ‘It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.’ (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary) They pray that God will forgive their sins and restore them to their land, which He does allow.
11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; according to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die;
Those "taken captive and carried away in exile during the Babylonian captivity.... were ‘appointed to die’ or ‘doomed to die.’ They were literally called ‘the sons of death.’ They prayed that God would hear their ‘sighings’ the word is translated from a Hebrew word that means ‘groans’. They prayed God would hear them and save them.” (Browning) “‘So here; [ the remnant in] Judah acquired strength, and flourished again.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom etc. “‘The expression does not mean seven times as much as they have done, but completeness of retaliation.’ Well, maybe so; but there is also the possibility that Dahood had it right when he declared that, ‘This is a demand for vengeance of the most thorough-going kind, in the spirit of Lamech, who in Genesis 4:24 assures his wives Adah and Zillah that, ‘If Cain is avenged seven times over, then Lamech seventy times seven.'” (Burton Coffman) But Asaph left vengeance to the LORD. Moreover, in light of our forgiveness by the sacrifice of Jesus, let us remember the Words of our Savior: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” (Mat 18:21-22) And on this precept Judah remained for a season.
13 So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, will give You thanks forever; we will show forth Your praise to all generations.