A psalm of Asaph
79
📚O God, the nations have comeinto your inheritance;
they have defiled your
holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem
in heaps.
79:1 This psalm is very similar to Psalm 74. See note on Asaph there. In the first four verses of this psalm he sees a great future calamity as though it were then present. But it did not take place for several hundreds of years. In the remaining verses Asaph gives an inspired prayer that would be suitable to the people when the event occurred.⚜
2 📚They have given the dead bodies
of your servants as food
to the birds of the heavens,
the flesh of your saints to the
beasts of the earth.
3 📚They have shed their blood
like water around Jerusalem,
and there was no one
to bury them.
4 📚We have become objects
of reproach to our neighbours,
a scorn and derision to those
who are around us.
5 📚How long, LORD?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 📚Pour out your wrath on the nations
that have not known you,
and on the kingdoms that have not
called on your name.
79:6 Note on such prayers as this at Ps 35:8. Not knowing or acknowledging the one true God is blameworthy. Men willfully refuse the knowledge of God (Prov 1:29), and suppress what God has revealed about Himself (Rom 1:18). If any person really wishes to know and serve Him God would be willing to move heaven and earth if necessary to get instruction to that person. We know this from the revelation of God’s character in the Bible. The sad truth is that people do not wish to know Him and they make no attempt to call upon His name or seek His face. Therefore they are very guilty indeed, and God’s anger will certainly come on them (2 Thess 1:8).⚜
7 📚For they have devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 📚Oh, do not remember our
former evil deeds against us.
Let your tender mercies come
speedily to us,
for we are brought very low.
79:8 See Ex 20:5; 34:6-7; Lam 5:7. Asaph here is speaking of national sin and guilt, and prays that God will not send punishment for it. There is such a thing as an accumulation of national sin which affects following generations. At last great punishment comes on the nation in a single generation. One example of this is the Amorites in Canaan (Gen 15:16). When their sin was full God sent Israel into Canaan to destroy them. Another example was Israel punished in the days of king Nebuchadnezzar for previous sins (2 Kings 23:26-27; 2 Chron 36:15-19). Another example is the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of Israel by the Romans in 70 A.D. as prophesied by the Lord Jesus in Matt 23:35-36.
God is patient and long suffering. But at last when the accumulated sins of a nation become so great that justice can delay no more, God pours out His anger on that nation. In the cases given above each generation of a people became what all previous generations made it, and what they themselves decided to be, the final generation being the worst and the most guilty of all. This is the story of human history. The only way God’s punishment can be averted on either an individual or a nation is repentance and sincere turning to God for mercy (2 Chron 7:14; Isa 55:7; Ezek 18:30-32; Jonah 1:1-2; 3:6-10; Luke 24:45-47; Acts 3:19).⚜
9 📚Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
and rescue us, and purge away
our sins,
for your name’s sake.
79:9 The concern of godly people is not merely that they may receive God’s grace and mercy and escape from His wrath, but that God’s name may be glorified (Ps 57:5). If a person has no concern for the glory of God’s name he knows nothing of the true spiritual life.⚜
10 📚Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations,
in our sight,
that you avenge the blood
of your servants which has
been shed.
11 📚Let the groaning of the prisoner
come before you.
In accordance with the greatness of
your power preserve the dying.
12 📚And repay seven times as much
into the bosoms of our neighbours
the scorn with which
they scorned you, O Lord.
13 📚So we, your people and sheep 📖
of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will declare your praise to all
generations.