A Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 79, verses 6 to 13, tender mercies

 

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.