Psalms · psalm 79 of 150
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Psalm 79 is a lament of Asaph over the invasion of Jerusalem: the nations have defiled the temple, left the city in ruins and left the bodies of God's servants unburied. The people have become an object of scorn and ask how long God's anger will last. They plead for forgiveness and help for the glory of his name and promise to give thanks forever as the sheep of his pasture.
The title calls it a psalm of Asaph. It is in Book III and follows Psalm 78, which told how God forsook Shiloh and chose Zion. Here Zion itself has been invaded. Many link the psalm with the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC, although the text does not name the invaders. It is a communal prayer that mixes grief, confession of sin and a plea for justice.
The psalm begins with the complaint: O God, the nations have come into your inheritance, they have defiled your holy temple and have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
Verses 5 to 7 ask: how long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? It asks him to pour out his anger on the nations that do not know him and on the kingdoms that do not call on his name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
Verses 8 and 9 turn to confession. It asks him not to remember against them the iniquities of their fathers, to let his compassion come speedily to meet them, for they are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake.
Verses 10 to 13 ask for justice and end in praise. Why should the nations say: where is their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations. Let the groans of the prisoners come before you, and according to your great power preserve those doomed to die. Return to our neighbors sevenfold into their lap the taunts with which they have taunted you. And we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The nations have entered God's inheritance, defiled his temple and laid Jerusalem in ruins. The psalm does not sugarcoat reality: it begins by naming the disaster before God.
The people ask that God not remember against them the iniquities of their fathers and that his compassion come quickly to meet them. The prayer acknowledges that suffering is tied to a historic sin and asks for grace, not merit.
They beg God to help them, deliver them and atone for their sins for the glory of his name. Their final appeal is God's honor, not their own cause.
The people, the sheep of God's pasture, promise to give him thanks forever and to recount his praise from generation to generation. The lament ends with a promise of praise and teaching.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: They have defiled his holy temple and laid Jerusalem in ruins. — Psalm 79:1
Answer: They have become food for birds and beasts, with no one to bury them. — Psalm 79:2-3
Answer: A taunt, a derision and a scorn. — Psalm 79:4
Answer: The iniquities of their fathers. — Psalm 79:8
Answer: For the glory of God's name. — Psalm 79:9
Answer: To give thanks forever and recount his praise from generation to generation. — Psalm 79:13
Psalm 79 teaches us to pray in community in a crisis that overwhelms us. It does not stop at asking for relief: it confesses, asks for justice and appeals to God's honor. In a small group you can pray with this psalm for persecuted churches, for regions struck by violence and for situations of injustice affecting others.
There is also an invitation to corporate confession. Sometimes a community's problems have roots that come from further back, and the church is called to acknowledge them humbly. And the psalm ends with a promise that holds for every crisis: even in the midst of pain, God's people will keep praising.
Psalm 79 ends with a people who commit to praising God forever. Psalm 80 continues with a new plea to the Shepherd of Israel, with a refrain that asks God to restore his people.
It is an ancient expression meaning to repay abundantly. In the psalm it is a request for justice, left in God's hands, and not an invitation to personal revenge. Christians remember that Jesus taught us to love our enemies, but they also recognize that God is a just judge.
The psalm does not say. The description of a defiled temple and a ruined Jerusalem fits the destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC, told in 2 Kings 25. Some scholars think of other attacks. In either case the text is a prayer that can be made before any destruction.