Bible Commentaries
Psalms 79

Verses 1-13

Psalms 79:1-13

O God, heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps ( Psalms 78:1 ).

So this goes out to the future to the time when the temple was laid waste, perhaps under the reign of Rehoboam by the Egyptians.

The dead bodies of thy servants have given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of the saints, the beast of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was no one to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them around about us. How long, O LORD? will you be angry forever? shall your jealously burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let the tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away all our sins, for thy name's sake. Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in thy sight in the revenging of blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; and render to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. And so we thy people, the sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: and will show forth thy praise to all generations ( Psalms 79:2-13 ).

And so it begins, of course, with speaking of the desolation that was brought by their enemies upon the temple, upon the people, and asking God to take vengeance upon those that had wrought the destruction upon the nation Israel. "