Psalms 79

Psalms 79THIS psalm belongs to the same period with Ps. lxxiv., perhaps that of the Babylonish conquest, and contains a description of the sufferings of the chosen people, Psalms 79:1-4, a prayer for deliverance, Psalms 79:5-12, and a promise of thanksgiving, Psalms 79:13.

1. (Psalms 79:1) A Psalm. By Asaph. 0 God, gentiles have come into thy heritage;they have defiled thy holy temple; they have turned Jerusalem to heaps. The intrusion of heathen into the sanctuary was its worst dishonour, They have placed Jerusalem for heaps, or as a heap of ruins. This includes the destruction of the temple. Compare Psalms 74:4.

2. (Psalms 79:2) They have given the corpse of thy servants (as) food to the bird of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints to the (wild) beast of the earth. A common description of extensive and promiscuous carnage. The words translated corpse, bird, beast, are all collectives. The last has here its most specific and distinctive sense as denoting beasts of prey. See above, on Psalms 68:10; Psalms 74:19.

3. (Psalms 79:3) They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there is none burying, or none to bury them. There is no period in the history of ancient Israel to which these terms can be applied without extravagance, except that of the Babylonian conquest.

4. (Psalms 79:4) We have been (or become) a contempt to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to those round about us. See above, on Psalms 44:13, where the very same expressions are employed.

5. (Psalms 79:5) Unto what (point), until when, how long, Jehovah, wilt thou be angry for ever, will burn like fire thy zeal (or jealousy)? With the first clause compare Psalms 13:1; Psalms 74:1; Psalms 74:10; with the second, Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 29:20, Psalms 78:58.

6. (Psalms 79:6) Pour out thy wrath against the nations which have not known thee, and upon kingdoms which thy name have not invoked. This is commonly explained as a prayer for divine judgments on the nations which combined for the destruction of Judah (2 Kings 24:2). But it seems to be rather an expostulation and complaint that God had made no difference between his own people and the heathen. As if he had said, If thou must pour out thy wrath, let it rather be on those who neither know nor worship thee than on thine own peculiar people.

7. (Psalms 79:7) For he hath devoured Jacob, and his dwelling (or his pasture-ground) they have laid waste. The singular verb in the first cause relates to the chief enemy, the plural in the last to his confederates. The wide sense of dwelling and the narrower one of pasture are both authorised by usage. See above, on Psalms 23:2; Psalms 65:12; Psalms 74:20.

8. (Psalms 79:8) Remember not against us the iniquities of former (generations); make haste, let thy compassions meet us, for we are reduced exceedingly. Against us, literally, as to us, respecting us, which, in this connection, must mean to our disadvantage or our condemnation. Former iniquities is scarcely a grammatical construction of the Hebrew words usually so translated. The adjective, when absolutely used, always refers to persons, and means ancestors or ancients. Personal and hereditary guilt are not exclusive but augmentative of one another. The sons merely fill up the iniquities of their fathers.

The verb for hasten may be either imperative or infinitive. If the latter, it qualifies the following verb, as in the English version, let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us. For the meaning of this last verb, see above, on Psalms 21:3. Reduced, weakened, brought low, both in strength and condition. See above, on Psalms 40:1, where the cognate adjective is used. It was probably the verse before us that determined the position of this psalm, in close connection with Psalms 78, the great theme of which is the iniquity of former generations.

9. (Psalms 79:9) Help us, 0 God of our salvation, on account of the glory of thy name; and set us free and pardon our sins for the sake of thy (own) name. The title, God of our salvation, is expressive of a covenant obligation to protect his people, as well as of protection and deliverance experienced already. On, account, literally for the word, or as we say in English, for the sake, which is used above, however, to translate a different Hebrew word. The glory of thy name, to maintain and vindicate the honour of thy attributes as heretofore revealed in act. See above, on Psalms 5:11; Psalms 23:3. Set us free, deliver us, from our present sufferings and the power of our enemies.

Pardon our sins, literally make atonement for them, i.e. forgive them for the sake of the expiation which thou hast thyself provided. See above, on Psalms 78:38. It is characteristic of the ancient saints to ask God’s favour, not for their own sake merely, but for the promotion of his glory.

10. Wherefore should the nations say, Where (is) their God ? Known among the nations, in our sight, be the avenging of the blood of thy servants, the (blood) poured out, (or shed), as was described above, in Psalms 79:3. This argument in favour of God’s interposition, founded on the false conclusions which his enemies would draw from his refusal, is of frequent occurrence in the Pentateuch. See Exodus 32:12, Numbers 14:13-16, Deuteronomy 9:28, and compare Joe 2:17, from which the words before us are directly borrowed. Where is their God, the invisible, spiritual being whom they worship, but who cannot save them from external dangers?

Or the meaning may be, Where is the proof of that almighty power, and that love for his own people, of which they have so often and so loudly boasted? The English Bible makes the verb in the second clause agree with God (let him be known), and supplies a preposition before vengeance (by the revenging).

But the ancient versions, followed by the Prayer Book and the best modern interpreters, construe the verb and noun together (known be the avenging). The diversity of gender may be easily reduced to the general law of Hebrew syntax, that when the verb precedes its subject, and especially when separated from it, the former may assume the masculine form, not as such, but as the primitive and simplest form. In our sight, literally to our eyes, just as we say in English, to our faces. This aggravating circumstance is borrowed from Deuteronomy 6:22, and the idea of avenging blood from Deuteronomy 32:43. 11. (Psalms 79:11) Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee, according to the greatness of thine arm, suffer to survive the sons of death (or of mortality). The nation is here viewed as an individual captive, not without reference to the literal captivity and exile occasioned by the Babylonian conquest, and with evident historical allusion to the bondage of Israel in Egypt, from the account of which (Exodus 23-25) some of the expressions here are borrowed. Come before thee, reach thee, and attract thy notice.

Compare the opposite expression in Isa.i. 23. The arm, as usual, is the symbol of exerted strength.

See above, on Psalms 10:15; Psalms 37:17; Psalms 44:3. The whole phrase is a Mosaic one. See Exodus 15:16, and compare Numbers 14:19, Deuteronomy 3:24. The last verb in the sentence means to leave behind or over, to cause or suffer to remain. See Exodus 10:15; Exodus 12:10, Isaiah 1:9. The last noun in Hebrew occurs only here, but is an obvious derivative from (tUm) death, bearing perhaps the same relation to it that mortalitas sustains to mors. According to a well-known oriental idiom, the whole phrase denotes dying men, or those about to die, or more specifically, those condemned or doomed to death.

12. (Psalms 79:12) And render to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their contempt (with) which they have contemned thee, Lord! The first verb is a causative, and means to bring back or cause to return. See above, on Psalms 72:10. The neighbours are those mentioned in Psalms 79:4, and the allusion here at least includes the expression of contemptuous incredulity in Psalms 79:10. Sevenfold, a common idiomatic term denoting frequent repetition or abundance. See above, on Psalms 12:6.

Into the bosom, an expression which originally seems to have had reference to the practice of carrying and holding things in the lap or the front fold of the flowing oriental dress, has in usage the accessory sense of retribution or retaliation. See my note on Isaiah 65:6-7, and compare Jeremiah 32:18, Luke 6:38. The cognate noun and verb, translated contempt and contemned, denote not the mere internal feeling, but the oral expression of it by revilings, scoffs, and insults. See above, on Psalms 42:10; Psalms 49:9. The Lord at the conclusion is by no means a mere expletive, but aggravates the sin of these despisers by describing it as 9committed against their rightful sovereign.

13. (Psalms 79:13) And we, thy people and flock of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever, to generation and generation will we recount thy praise. Some interpreters needlessly make two distinct propositions, we (are) thy people (and therefore) will give thanks, etc. The flock of thy pasture, that which thou feedest, that of which thou art the shepherd. See above, on Psalms 74:1; Psalms 78:70-72. For ever, literally to eternity. The following words, though thrown into the first clause by the masoretic interpunction, belong to the second, as appears from the parallel structure of the sentence.