PSALM 79

How long…will Your jealousy burn like fire?

Description of the temple and Jerusalem’s defilement (vv.1-4)

1 O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance;	They have defiled Your holy temple;		They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. (Jer.9:11; Micah 3:12)
2 They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens,		The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem;		And there was no one to bury them.[1]
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,		A scoffing and derision to those around us. (Psalm 44:13)

How long? (vv.5-9)

5 How long, O Yahweh?	Will You be angry forever?		Will Your jealousy[2] burn like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, (Jer.10:25)		And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob		And laid waste his habitation.
8 Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us;	Let Your compassion come quickly to meet us,		For we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;		And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake.

Why and where? (vv.10-13)

10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”[3] (Psalm 115:2)	Let there be known among the nations in our sight,		Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been poured out/shed.
11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; (Psalm 102:20a)		According to the greatness of Your arm ~~power~~ preserve those who are doomed to die.
12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom		The reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
13 So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture	Will give thanks to You forever;		To all generations we will tell of Your praise.

[1] Verses 2-3 are quoted in 1 Maccabees 7:16-17, “…But he arrested sixty of them and killed them in one day, according to the text of Scripture: 17 ‘The flesh of your saints they have strewn, and their blood they have shed round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.’”

[2] God’s jealousy is mentioned 2x in the Psalter. Here and in Psalm 78:58.

[3] During the Diocletian persecution in 288 AD the two brothers, Crispin and Crispinian, suffered torture and death. In their suffering they were sustained by verses 9-10 (Prothero, 12,13).