Psalm 79:1 ¶
«A Psalm of Asaph.» O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance;
thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they
given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints
unto the beasts of the earth. 3 Their
blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was
none to bury them. 4 We are
become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are
round about us. 5 How long, LORD? wilt
thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
John Gill underscores that this is a prophecy
of the Asaph who lived in David’s time and is not written by some other person
named Asaph after the destruction mentioned here. This foretells the
destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar in the 500s
BC. Imagine the shock that this prophecy would create in the time of the mighty
King David.
2Kings 24:11
And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his
servants did besiege it. 12 And
Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his
mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. 13 And he carried out thence all the treasures
of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in
pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the
temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
2Kings 25:1 ¶
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month,
in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he,
and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built
forts against it round about. 2 And the
city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the
famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the
land. 4 And the city
was broken up, and all the men of war fled by
night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden:
(now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way
toward the plain. 5 And the army of the
Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and
all his army were scattered from him. 6
So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to
Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7
And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes
of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
8
¶ And in the fifth month, on the seventh
day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of
Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9 And he burnt
the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem,
and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were
with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
This destruction came again in the time of
the future emperor, Roman general Titus, in 70AD.
Mark 13:1 ¶
And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master,
see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! 2 And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou
these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down.
This future event is acknowledged by the
Psalmist to be God’s judgment. God did use other nations to punish Israel for
its idolatry.
I believe, wrongly or rightly, that every
Christian is a type of the ancient nation of Israel and while God will not cast
us off forever He will permit us to suffer for our apostasy. We must not think
of our faith as a charm if we sin and are unrepentant and don’t seek God with
tears and sorrow. We can suffer in this life for our unfaithfulness even though
we do have eternal life with Christ if we are saved. The Psalmist next pleads
for God’s vengeance on the heathen.
Psalm 79:6 ¶
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon
the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste
his dwelling place. 8 O remember not
against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for
we are brought very low. 9 Help us, O
God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away
our sins, for thy name’s sake. 10
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be
known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of
thy servants which is shed. 11
Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the
greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; 12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into
their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 So we thy people and sheep of thy
pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all
generations.
Psalm 69:24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let
thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know
thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten
up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation
desolate.
The Psalmist cries out for God’s vengeance on
the heathen in the time of the destruction he is prophesying about. He pleads
for God’s tender mercies on the Israelites, God’s tender mercies
being the subject of songs and even a 1983 movie starring Robert Duvall.
God will indeed purge away the sins of many
in Christ.
Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Psalm 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me: as for our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high;
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The time that the Psalmist is speaking of is
a very low point and there are many of us who can remember such low points in
our own lives when we cried out for help from our Creator. I can also see this
as a plea made by the tormented Jews in the Tribulation at the end of human
history as they face the wrath of the Beast. See Revelation, chapter 12.
So in conclusion, this Psalm as a prayer for
us in our lowest times can be a template we might use making it apply to us.
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