Bible Commentaries
Psalms 79

Introduction

THE main division of the Psalm contains twelve verses. These are divided, as is frequently the case, into three strophes, each consisting of four verses. Psalms 79:1-4 contains the representation of the misery:—the land of the Lord has been taken possession of by the heathen, the temple desecrated, Jerusalem laid in ruins, the servants of God have been put to death; the people of God become the objects of contempt to their neighbours. The second and third strophes contain the prayer. The conclusion, Psalms 79:13, containing the result of the whole, gives expression to confidence.

The Psalm stands nearly related to the Psalms 74; the situation is the same, and they come a good deal in contact as regards the expression. Both Psalms refer to the Chaldean devastation. The Psalm before us proceeds on the supposition that the seventy-fourth had been previously composed, and supplements it. In the seventy-fourth Psalm the destruction of the sanctuary is pre-eminently and almost exclusively brought forward; but in the seventy-ninth it is referred to very briefly, for the purpose of indicating the passages where that Psalm is to be brought in, and other subjects are put in the foreground. There is no good reason for the assertion which has been made, that the Psalm before us must have been composed previously to the seventy-fourth, as the Temple is there spoken of as entirely destroyed, whereas it is only its desecration that is spoken of here. The desecration does not exclude its destruction; the destruction is one of the forms of its desecration. Had the Psalmist designed, in allusion to the seventy-fourth, to speak of the sanctuary in one single expression, he could not possibly have found a stronger term than this: the most dreadful thing that can befall the sanctuary is that it be desecrated. In saying this everything that can be affirmed of it is said.

Several expositors, both ancient and modern, refer the Psalm to the time of the Maccabees. But there are quite decisive grounds against this view. First, from the close resemblance to Psalms 74, the arguments which were there adverted to are of force here. There are no traces here of any reference to the special relations of the times of the Maccabees. And there are two circumstances which are not suitable to those times: the laying of Jerusalem in ruins, Psalms 79:1, and the mention of nations and kingdoms in Psalms 79:6 (comp. 2 Kings 24:2), whereas in the time of the Maccabees Judah had to do only with a single kingdom. [Note: The remark of Venema renders it evident that even verses 2 and 3 will not suit the times of the Maccabees: “that the expressions, they delivered the servants of God to birds and wild beasts, and there was none to bury them, are to be taken in a restricted sense, as used only of some, and in reference to the attempts and intentions of the enemies.”] There are also two weighty external reasons. Jeremiah was acquainted with the Psalm, and made use of it (comp. at ver. 6), and in 1Ma_7:16 and 1Ma_7:17 it is quoted as forming at that time a portion of the sacred volume. [Note: κατά? τὸ?ν λό?γον ὁ?̀?ν ἐ?́?γραψε σαρκας ὀ?σί?ων κ .τ .λ . The Syrian translation: “according to the word which the prophet has written.” This is the usual way of quoting Scripture: comp. Harless on Ephesians 4:8. Hitzig translates falsely: according to the words which a certain one wrote. The obscure productions of unknown authors are never quoted in this way. The fact that the author omits, in the passage from the Psalm, what does not suit his purpose, renders it evident that the Psalm was not composed for the occasion there referred to: comp. J. D. Michaelis.] It is thus not necessary here to avail ourselves of the general reasons which may be urged against the existence of Maccabean Psalms. [Note: Amyrald.: besides it cannot be doubted that there were prophets at the time of Nebuchad who were able to compose such poems; whereas in the age of Antiochus there were none, at least none whose writings have reached posterity.]

The title, “a Psalm of Asaph,” is confirmed by the fact that the Psalm stands closely related to a whole class of Psalms which bear in their titles the name of Asaph. Those critics who reject the titles are unable to explain this similarity admitted by themselves, which obtains among all the Asaphic Psalms, even among those which were composed at different eras. If we follow the title the reason of this is clear as day. The descendants of Asaph looked upon themselves as the instruments by which the Asaph of David’s time, their illustrious ancestor, continued to speak, and therefore they very naturally followed as closely in his footsteps as possible: the later descendants, moreover, would always have the compositions of their more early, ancestors before their minds. The unity of the persons named in the titles is connected with the unity of character by which all these Psalms are pervaded. Any one who composed at his own hand, and did not look at his ancestor or the early or contemporaneous instruments of that ancestor, could not have adopted it.

Verses 1-4

Ver. 1. O God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance, they have polluted thy holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. Ver. 2. They have given the bodies of thy servants for food to the fowls of heaven, the flesh of thy saints to the wild beasts of the earth. Ver. 3. They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury. Ver. 4. We have become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

On Psalms 79:1, Calvin: “The Psalmist says, the order of nature is, as it were, inverted; the heathen have come into the inheritance of God.” Berleb.: “Faith utters a similar complaint in its struggles: the heathen have made an inroad into my heart as thy inheritance.” The pollution of the temple by the heathen presupposes its previous pollution by the Israelites: comp. Exodus 5:11, Ex 23:38. Psalms 74:7, is parallel. On חיתו in Psalms 79:2, comp. at Psalms 50:10. That the ארץ is to be understood of the earth and not of the land is obvious from the term in contrast heaven.

The expression, “and there was none to bury,” points to a great and general desolation, such as did not exist at any other period except during the Chaldean invasion.

Psalms 79:4 is from Psalms 44:13.

Verses 5-8

Ver. 5. How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire! Ver. 6. Pour out thy floods of wrath upon the heathen who know thee not, and upon the kingdoms which do not call upon thy name. Ver. 7. For he devours Jacob, and they lay waste his pasture. Ver. 8. Remember not against us the iniquities of our ancestors, make haste to surprise us with thy tender mercies, for we have become very much reduced.

On “how long . . . for ever,” in Psalms 79:5, comp. at Psalms 74:9; Psalms 13:1. On the second clause, Deuteronomy 29:19. Exodus 20:5. [Note: Ven.: The interrogative form conveys an insinuation that God ought not to destroy utterly the whole people, as there remain among them so many pious, to be chastised and purified ( Daniel 11:35), but not to be destroyed.]

In Psalms 79:6, the heathen and the kingdoms are not at all the heathen nations generally, but those who have raged against Israel. The prayer rests upon what God does constantly. Judgment begins at the house of God, but it proceeds thence to those whom God has employed as the instruments of his punishment: the storm of the wrath of God always remains to fall at last upon the world at, enmity with his church; comp. Deuteronomy 32, Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel 39. [Note: Arnd: “The difference is this: God’s wrath will burn for ever against unbelievers; with believers, however, when they deserve punishment his wrath burns fiercely indeed, but not eternally,—he visits them with the rod and chastisement for a short while, and with a view to their improvement.”]

The sing. כלא in Psalms 79:7 denotes the one soul which animates the many-membered body of the enemies of the church of God. All the nations and kingdoms referred to in Psalms 79:6 served the king of Babylon. It is better to take נוה in the sense of pasture than of habitation: comp. the מרעית in Psalms 79:13: they eat up Israel, the poor flock, and lay waste his pasture, his land. Psalms 79:6-7 are repeated almost word for word in Jeremiah 10:25. It has been alleged in favour of Jeremiah being the original author, that the prophecy was uttered before the destruction. But this reason is of no weight. The prophecy, which designedly bears no particular date, was, at least in its present form, written after the destruction; it contains much moreover which represents the destruction as an event which had already taken place, while other portions of it again refer to it as still future, (a peculiarity which admits of explanation from the circumstance that the prophet is here giving a summary view and the substance of what had been spoken at different times); Jeremiah 10:25 itself takes for granted that the heathen had already devoured Israel and laid waste his pasturage. On the other hand, and in favour of the priority of the Psalm before us, it may be urged that in all such cases there is a presumption in favour of Jeremiah borrowing—it being his usual manner to do so; that in this chapter there are manifestly references to other Psalms, the preceding verse being borrowed from Psalms 6:1, (comp. Küper p. 159); that in Jeremiah the words occur without any connection whatever, while in the Psalm before us the prayer that the Lord would pour out the flood of his wrath upon the heathen, is appended without anything intervening to the complaint that his zeal is burning like fire against Israel—the “pour out” refers back to “they have poured out,” in Psalms 79:3, (Mich. propter, sanguinem tuorum copiose effusum effunde, see Psalms 69:24),—comp. Psalms 79:10; that the difficult singular אכל is changed into the plural; and finally, that the passage is expanded exactly in the style of Jeremiah in quoting passages, who can leave nothing short and round,— and they have eaten him and consumed him.—ראשכים in Psalms 79:8, where it stands alone, signifies nothing else than ancestors, not antiquity. The reference to Leviticus 26:45, which it is impossible not to observe, is altogether against the exposition, the former sins: “and I remember to them the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the heathen, that I might be their God,”

God does not remember the sins of their ancestors, but according to his own promise, the covenant which he made with them. Comp. also Leviticus 26:39, where instead of “ancestors” we have “fathers:” they desired that they may not be treated according to this verse, but according to the ( Leviticus 26:45) 45th of this chapter, or rather, that after they had experienced the treatment referred to in the ( Leviticus 26:39) 39th verse, they might now also enjoy the ( Leviticus 26:45) 45th, comp. Lamentations 5:7. The guilty fathers do not at all stand in opposition to the innocent children. It is the uniform doctrine of scripture that no one is punished unless he be personally guilty, and that it is only in the ungodly children that the sin of the fathers which is represented as increased in them that is punished: comp. the Beitr. p. 544 ss. The mention of the sins of the fathers, so far from exculpating, indicates the depth and the magnitude of the guilt. Calvin: “They acknowledge an obstinancy of long standing, in which they have hardened themselves against God. And this acknowledgment corresponds to the prophetic punishments. For sacred history testifies that the punishment of the captivity was postponed till God had experienced that their wickedness was incurable:” comp. Isaiah 65:7. On קדם to surprise, comp. at Psalms 21:4.

Verses 9-12

Ver. 9. Help us, O God, our Salvation, for thy name’s glory’s sake; and deliver us and pardon our sins for thy name’s sake. Ver. 10. Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? May the vengeance of the blood of thy servants which they have shed become known to the heathen before our eyes. Ver. 11. May the sighing of those who are bound come before thee. According to the greatness of thine arm preserve the dying. Ver. 12. And recompense to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

In the ( Psalms 79:9) 9th verse the church implores the Lord to redeem that pledge of similar future deeds, which she got in his early dealings. The name, and the honour of the name, i.e., his glory (comp. at Psalms 29:1-2), are in reality the same:—for the sake of thy historically manifested glory (comp. at Psalms 23:3), for the purpose of now verifying this in sight of the blaspheming enemies, and to their terror.

The first half of the ( Psalms 79:10) 10th verse is word for word from Joel 2:17, and this passage again rests on Exodus 23:12. Numbers 14:13 ss. Deuteronomy 9:28. On comparing these passages, especially the one last quoted, it becomes obvious, that “Where is their God?” signifies, “Where is his far-famed love towards his people and where is his omnipotence?” The ground is not one of a mere external character:—the heathen would have had good reason to speak thus, and therefore God must not give them any occasion to do so; he must make known his omnipotence, and his love, in delivering his people; they cannot be for ever given over to misery: comp. the Christology p. 657, &c. In the second clause, the גים is written without the Vau: comp. at Psalms 74:11. “Before our eyes,” is from Deuteronomy 6:22. “The vengeance of the blood of thy servants” points back to “He will avenge the blood of his servants,” in the conclusion of the Song of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:43.

In Psalms 79:11, the whole people appears under the emblem of a prisoner. At the first clause we ought to add: as it once did in Egypt, Exodus 2:23-25. The people of God have the privilege, in every trouble, of looking to the early deliverances as pledges of those yet to come; and hence they possess a sure ground of confidence. The world, when it prays, prays only as an experiment, having no connection whatever with history. On “according to the greatness of thine arm,” comp. Numbers 14:19, Deuteronomy 3:24. Inward greatness is meant, energy. The תמותה is a noun formed from the third fem. fut. (comp. in Balaam p. 120, &c.), very probably by the Psalmist himself. Hence it cannot mean “death,” but only “that which dies,” “the dying.” The sons of the dying are those who belong to him as a personified race, and thus the dying themselves, just like “the sons of the needy’’ in Psalms 72:4.

On “in their lap,” Psalms 79:12, comp. Isaiah 65:6-7, Jeremiah 32:18, Luke 6:38. Their reproach, inasmuch as they say, Where is their God? Psalms 79:10.

Verse 13

Ver. 13. And we are thy people and sheep of thy pasture, therefore we shall praise thee for ever, recount thy praise through all generations. The verse is expressive of confidence: “we shall praise thee” being equivalent to “thou shalt give us occasion to do so;” comp. Psalms 44:8. In reference to “the sheep of thy pasture,” comp. at Psalms 74:1.