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Reflections on The Psalms |
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Psalm 79
(NKJV) O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance;
Your holy temple they have defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
{2} The dead bodies of Your servants
They have given as food for the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
{3} Their blood they have shed like water
all around Jerusalem,
And there was no one to bury them.
{4} We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and derision to those who are around us.
{5} How long, LORD?
Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
{6} Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You,
And on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.
{7} For they have devoured Jacob,
And laid waste his dwelling place.
{8} Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us!
Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us,
For we have been brought very low.
{9} Help us, O God of our salvation,
For the glory of Your name;
And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,
For Your name's sake!
{10} Why should the nations say,
"Where is their God?"
Let there be known among the nations in our sight
The avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed.
{11} Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You;
According to the greatness of Your power
Preserve those who are appointed to die;
{12} And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom
Their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
{13} So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture,
Will give You thanks forever;
We will show forth Your praise to all
generations.
This composer of this Psalm sounds like a contemporary
of Jeremiah. You can read it in parallel with the book of Lamentations.
It is a hard, hard time for Israel, and yet they could still hope in God. I
hadn’t thought about it, but it is prayer that grants one hope. What we pray for
is immediate relief, but I think we all know that we will likely have to wait.
Sin takes a toll and, while forgiveness is immediate, the consequences are often
allowed to endure. Why? Sometimes justice demands it. In Jeremiah’s Jerusalem,
the bodies would be buried, and the survivors would have nightmares about it for
years to come. Meanwhile, it was revealed to Jeremiah that the petition of this
prayer would not be granted for seventy years.
It must have him given a sinking feeling to realize that the consequences would
endure beyond the lives of all that generation. The only sane response to this
bad news is, in the modern vernacular, to “get a life.” Our task is to live the
life we have been given—to overcome, to win against all odds.