Psalm 79 commentary

PSALM 79 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
A psalm of Asaph.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "Title and Subject. A Psalm of Asaph. A Psalm of complaint such as
Jeremiah might have written amid the ruins of the beloved city. It evidently treats of
times of invasion, oppression, and national overthrow. Asaph was a patriotic poet,
and was never more at home than when he rehearsed the history of his nation.
Would to God that we had national poets whose song should be of the Lord.
Division. From Psalms 79:1-4 the complaint is poured out, from Psalms 79:5-12
prayer is presented, and, in the closing verse, praise is promised.
ELLICOTT, "The relation of this psalm to Psalms 74 is so close, notwithstanding
some points of difference, that commentators are almost unanimous in assigning
them to the same period, if not the same author. Psalms 79:1, indeed, by itself seems
to point to a profanation of the Temple, such as that by Antiochus, and not a
destruction like ebuchadnezzar’s. To one of these events the psalm must refer.
Great importance is attached to the similarity of Psalms 79:6-7, with Jeremiah
10:25, and it certainly looks as if the latter were an adaptation and expansion of the
psalmist. Again, Psalms 79:3 (see ote) appears to be quoted in 1 Maccabees 7:17.
On the other hand, every one allows that the best commentary on the psalm is the
1st chapter of 1 Maccabees. A Maccabæan editor may have taken a song of the
Captivity period and slightly altered it to suit the events before his eyes. The psalter
affords other instances of such adaptation. (See, e.g., Psalms 60) The verse flows
smoothly, now in triplets, now in couplets.
COKE, "Title. ‫מזמור‬ ‫ףּלאס‬ mizmor leasaph.— This psalm was probably occasioned
by the destruction of the Jewish nation by ebuchadnezzar. The author describes in
it the calamities of the times, and prays God to put an end to them at length. As the
prophet Jeremiah lived at this time, and as more than one whole verse of it (see
Psalms 79:6-7.) is found in Jeremiah 10:25 it is not unlikely that it was written by
him.

1 O God, the nations have invaded your
inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
BAR ES, "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance - The
nations; a foreign people. See Psa_2:1, note; Psa_2:8; note; Psa_78:55, note. The term is
one that would be applicable to the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, and the probable allusion
here is to their invasion of the holy land under Nebuchadnezzar. 2Ch_36:17-21.
Thy holy temple have they defiled - They have polluted it. By entering it; by
removing the sacred furniture; by cutting down the carved work; by making it desolate.
See 2Ch_36:17-18. Compare the notes at Psa_74:5-7.
They have laid Jerusalem on heaps - See 2Ch_36:19 : “And they burnt the house
of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire,
and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.”
CLARKE, "The heathen are come into thine inheritance - Thou didst cast
them out, and take thy people in; they have cast us out, and now taken possession of the
land that belongs to thee. They have defiled the temple, and reduced Jerusalem to a heap
of ruins; and made a general slaughter of thy people.
GILL, "O God, the Heathen are come into thine inheritance,.... The land of
Canaan, divided among the children of Israel by lot and line for an inheritance, out of
which the Heathen were cast, to make room for them; but now would come into it again;
see Psa_89:35, and this is called the Lord's inheritance, because he gave it as such to the
people of Israel, and dwelt in it himself; and the rather this is observed as something
marvellous, that he should suffer Heathens to possess his own inheritance; or the city of
Jerusalem, which was the place the Lord chose to put his name in; or the temple, where
he had his residence, called the mountain of his inheritance, Exo_15:17, and into which
it was always accounted a profanation for Heathens to enter; see Act_21:28, into each of
these places the Heathen came; the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar; the Syrians
under Antiochus, as in the Apocrypha:
"Insomuch that the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them: whereupon the city
was made an habitation of strangers, and became strange to those that were born in her;
and her own children left her.'' (1 Maccabees 1:38)

"Now Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness, there was none of her children that went in or
out: the sanctuary also was trodden down, and aliens kept the strong hold; the heathen
had their habitation in that place; and joy was taken from Jacob, and the pipe with the
harp ceased.'' (1 Maccabees 3:45)
the Romans under Pompey, Vespasian, and Titus; and the Papists have since entered
among the people of God, who are his heritage or inheritance, and have lorded it over
them, and made havoc of them, and who are called Heathens and Gentiles, Psa_10:16,
thy holy temple have they defiled: this was done in the times of Antiochus, by
entering into it, taking away the holy vessels out of it, shedding innocent blood in it, and
setting up the abomination of desolation on the altar, and sacrificing to it, as in the
Apocrypha:
"Every bridegroom took up lamentation, and she that sat in the marriage chamber was
in heaviness,'' (1 Maccabees 1:27)
"Thus they shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and defiled it:'' (1
Maccabees 1:37)
"And pollute the sanctuary and holy people:'' (1 Maccabees 1:46)
"And whosoever was found with any the book of the testament, or if any committed to
the law, the king's commandment was, that they should put him to death.'' (1 Maccabees
1:57)
"For thy sanctuary is trodden down and profaned, and thy priests are in heaviness, and
brought low.'' (1 Maccabees 3:51)
"And they called upon the Lord, that he would look upon the people that was trodden
down of all; and also pity the temple profaned of ungodly men;'' (2 Maccabees 8:2)
and by burning it in the times of Nebuchadnezzar and Titus; see Psa_74:7, and the
church, which is the holy temple of God, has been defiled by antichrist sitting in it, and
showing himself there as if he was God, by his dreadful blasphemies, idolatrous worship,
and false doctrines, 2Th_2:4,
they have laid Jerusalem on heaps; the walls and buildings being pulled down, and
made a heap of stones and rubbish: in the times of Antiochus and of the Maccabees, it
was set on fire, and the houses and the walls pulled down on every side, and was greatly
defaced, and threatened to be laid level with the ground, as in the Apocrypha:
"And when he had taken the spoils of the city, he set it on fire, and pulled down the
houses and walls thereof on every side.'' (1 Maccabees 1:31)
"And that he would have compassion upon the city, sore defaced, and ready to be made
even with the ground; and hear the blood that cried unto him,'' (2 Maccabees 8:3)
"That the holy city (to the which he was going in haste to lay it even with the ground, and
to make it a common buryingplace,) he would set at liberty:'' (2 Maccabees 9:14)

and this was thoroughly done in the times of Nebuchadnezzar and Titus, when the city
was broke up and burnt with fire, and laid utterly desolate; so the Targum renders the
word for "desolation"; it sometimes signifies a grave; see Job_30:24, and the sense may
be here, that the city of Jerusalem was made graves to many; and multitudes were
buried under the ruins of it. Aben Ezra interprets it, low places which were dug to find
hidden things; the Septuagint translate it "a watch", or cottage "for apple orchards", and
so the versions that follow it; signifying to what a low condition the city was reduced.
Jarchi and Kimchi interpret the word as we do, "heaps": this, as it is true of Jerusalem,
which has been trodden under foot by the Gentiles, and remains so to this day, Luk_
21:24, so likewise of mystical Jerusalem, the holy city, given to the Gentiles or Papists, to
be trodden down for the space of forty and two months, the exact time of the reign of
antichrist, Rev_11:2.
HE RY, "We have here a sad complaint exhibited in the court of heaven. The world
is full of complaints, and so is the church too, for it suffers, not only with it, but from it,
as a lily among thorns. God is complained to; whither should children go with their
grievances, but to their father, to such a father as is able and willing to help? The
heathen are complained of, who, being themselves aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, were sworn enemies to it. Though they knew not God, nor owned him, yet, God
having them in chain, the church very fitly appeals to him against them; for he is King of
nations, to overrule them, to judge among the heathen, and King of saints, to favour and
protect them.
I. They complain here of the anger of their enemies and the outrageous fury of the
oppressor, exerted,
1. Against places, Psa_79:1. They did all the mischief they could, (1.) To the holy land;
they invaded that, and made inroads into it: “The heathen have come into thy
inheritance, to plunder that, and lay it waste.” Canaan was dearer to the pious Israelites
as it was God's inheritance than as it was their own, as it was the land in which God was
known and his name was great rather than as it was the land in which they were bred
and born and which they and their ancestors had been long in possession of. note,
Injuries done to religion should grieve us more than even those done to common right,
nay, to our own right. We should better bear to see our own inheritance wasted than
God's inheritance. This psalmist had mentioned it in the foregoing psalm as an instance
of God's great favour to Israel that he had cast out the heathen before them, Psa_78:55.
But see what a change sin made; now the heathen are suffered to pour in upon them. (2.)
To the holy city: They have laid Jerusalem on heaps, heaps of rubbish, such heaps as are
raised over graves, so some. The inhabitants were buried in the ruins of their own
houses, and their dwelling places became their sepulchres, their long homes. (3.) To the
holy house. That sanctuary which God had built like high palaces, and which was
thought to be established as the earth, was now laid level with the ground: They holy
temple have they defiled, by entering into it and laying it waste. God's own people had
defiled it by their sins, and therefore God suffered their enemies to defile it by their
insolence.
JAMISO , "Psa_79:1-13. This Psalm, like the seventy-fourth, probably depicts the
desolations of the Chaldeans (Jer_52:12-24). It comprises the usual complaint, prayer,
and promised thanks for relief.
(Compare Psa_74:2-7).

CALVI , "1.O God! the heathen have come into thy inheritance. Here the prophet,
in the person of the faithful, complains that the temple was defiled, and the city
destroyed. In the second and third verses, he complains that the saints were
murdered indiscriminately, and that their dead bodies were cast forth upon the face
of the earth, and deprived of the honor of burial. Almost every word expresses the
cruelty of these enemies of the Church. When it is considered that God had chosen
the land of Judea to be a possession to his own people, it seemed inconsistent with
this choice to abandon it to the heathen nations, that they might ignominiously
trample it under foot, and lay it waste at their pleasure. The prophet, therefore,
complains that when the heathen came into the heritage of God, the order of nature
was, as it were, inverted. The destruction of the temple, of which he speaks in the
second clause, was still less to be endured; for thus the service of God on earth was
extinguished, and religion destroyed. He adds, that Jerusalem, which was the royal
seat of God, was reduced to heaps. By these words is denoted a hideous overthrow.
The profanation of the temple, and the destruction of the holy city, involving, as
they did, heaven-daring impiety, which ought justly to have provoked the wrath of
God against these enemies — the prophet begins with them, and then comes to
speak of the slaughter of the saints. The atrocious cruelty of these persecutions is
pointed out from the circumstance that they not only put to death the servants of
God, but also exposed their dead bodies to the beasts of the field, and to birds of
prey, to be devoured, instead of burying them. Men have always had such a sacred
regard to the burial of the dead, as to shrink from depriving even their enemies of
the honor of sepulture. (370) Whence it follows, that those who take a barbarous
delight in seeing the bodies of the dead torn to pieces and devoured by beasts, more
resemble these savage and cruel animals than human beings. It is also shown that
these persecutors acted more atrociously than enemies ordinarily do, inasmuch as
they made no more account of shedding human blood than of pouring forth water.
From this we learn their insatiable thirst for slaughter. When it is added, there was
none to bury them, this is to be understood as applying to the brethren and relatives
of the slain. The inhabitants of the city were stricken with such terror by the
indiscriminate butchery perpetrated by these ruthless assassins upon all who came
in their way, that no one dared to go forth. God having intended that, in the burial
of men, there should be some testimony to the resurrection at the last day, it was a
double indignity for the saints to be despoiled of this right after their death. But it
may be asked, Since God often threatens the reprobate with this kind of
punishment, why did he suffer his own people to be devoured of beasts? We must
remember, what we have stated elsewhere, that the elect, as well as the reprobate,
are subjected to the temporal punishments which pertain only to the flesh. The
difference between the two cases lies solely in the issue; for God converts that which
in itself is a token of his wrath into the means of the salvation of his own children.
The same explanation, then, is to be given of their want of burial which is given of
their death. The most eminent of the servants of God may be put to a cruel and
ignominious death — a punishment which we know is often executed upon
murderers, and other despisers of God; but still the death of the saints does not
cease to be precious in his sight: and when he has suffered them to be unrighteously
persecuted in the flesh, he shows, by taking vengeance on their enemies, how dear

they were to him. In like manner, God, to stamp the marks of his wrath on the
reprobate, even after their death, deprives them of burial; and, therefore, he
threatens a wicked king, “He shall be buried with the burial of all ass, drawn and
cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem,”(Jeremiah 22:19; see also Jeremiah 36:30.)
(371) When he exposes his own children to the like indignity, he may seem for a time
to have forsaken them; but he afterwards converts it into the means of furthering
their salvation; for their faith, being subjected to this trial, acquires a fresh triumph.
When in ancient times the bodies of the dead were anointed, that ceremony was
performed for the sake of the living whom they left behind them, to teach them,
when they saw the bodies of the dead carefully preserved, to cherish in their hearts
the hope of a better life. The faithful, then, by being deprived of burial, suffer no
loss, when they rise by faith above these inferior helps, that they may advance with
speedy steps to a blessed immortality.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. It is the
cry of amazement at sacrilegious intrusion; as if the poet were struck with horror.
The stranger pollutes thine hallowed courts with his tread. All Canaan is thy land,
but thy foes have ravaged it.
Thy holy temple have they defiled. Into the inmost sanctuary they have profanely
forced their way, and there behaved themselves arrogantly. Thus, the holy land, the
holy house, and the holy city, were all polluted by the uncircumcised. It is an awful
thing when wicked men are found in the church and numbered with her ministry.
Then are the tares sown with the wheat, and the poisoned gourds cast into the pot.
They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. After devouring and defiling, they have come to
destroying, and have done their work with a cruel completeness. Jerusalem, the
beloved city, the joy of the nation, the abode of her God, was totally wrecked. Alas!
alas! for Israel! It is sad to see the foe in our own house, but worse to meet him in
the house of God; they strike hardest who smite at our religion. The psalmist piles
up the agony; he was a suppliant, and he knew how to bring out the strong points of
his case. We ought to order our case before the Lord with as much care as if our
success depended on our pleading. Men in earthly courts use all their powers to
obtain their ends, and so also should we state our case with earnestness, and bring
forth our strong arguments.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is, in every respect, the pendant of Psalms 74:1-23. The
points of contact are not merely matters of style (Psalms 79:5, "how long for ever?"
with Ps 74:1,10 79:10, edwy, with Ps 74:5 79:2, the giving over to the wild beasts,
with Ps 74:19,14 79:13, the conception of Israel as of a flock, in which respect
Psalms 79:1-13 is judiciously appended to Psalms 78:70-72, with Psalms 74:1 and
also with Psalms 74:19.) But the mutual relationships lie still deeper. Both Psalms
have the same Asaphic stamp, both stand in the same relation to Jeremiah, and both
send forth their complaints out of the same circumstances of the time, concerning a
destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, such as only the age of the Seleucidae (1
Maccabees 1:31 3:45 2 Maccabees 8:3), together with the Chaldean period can
exhibit, and in conjunction with a defiling of the Temple and a massacre of the
servants of God, of the Chasidim (1 Maccabees 7:13 14:6), such as the age of the
Seleucidae exclusively can exhibit. The work of the destruction of the Temple which

was in progress in Psalms 74:1-23, appears in Psalms 79:1-13 as completed, and
here, as in the former Psalm, one receives the impression of the outrages, not of
some war, but of some persecution: it is straightway the religion of Israel for the
sake of which the sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are massacred. Franz
Delitzsch.
Ver. 1. Thy holy temple have they defiled. This was not only the highest degree of
the enemy's inhumanity and barbarity, ...but also a calamity to the people of God
never to be sufficiently deplored. For by the overthrow of the temple the true
worship of God, which had been instituted at that temple alone, appeared to be
extinguished, and the knowledge of God to vanish from among mankind. o pious
heart could ponder this without the greatest grief. Mollerus.
Ver. 1. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. They have made Jerusalem to be nothing
but graves. Such multitudes were cruelly slain and murdered, that Jerusalem was,
as it were, but one grave. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 1-4. In the time of the Maccabees, Demetrius, the son of Seleuces, sent
Bacchides to Jerusalem; who slew the scribes, who came to require justice, and the
Assideans, the first of the children of Israel who sought peace of them. Bacchides
"took of them threescore men, and slew them in one day, according to the words
which he wrote, the flesh of thy saints have they cast out, and their blood have they
shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them." And in that last
and most fearful destruction, when the eagles of Rome were gathered round the
doomed city, and the temple of which God had said, "Let us depart hence; "when
one stone was not to be left upon another, when the fire was to consume the
sanctuary, and the foundations of Sion were to be ploughed up; when Jerusalem
was to be filled with slain, and the sons of Judah were to be crucified round her
walls in such thick multitudes that no more room was left for death; when insult,
and shame, and scorn was the lot of the child of Israel, as he wandered an outcast, a
fugitive in all lands; when all these bitter and deadly things came upon Jerusalem, it
was as a punishment for many and long repeated crimes; it was the accomplishment
of a warning which had been often sent in vain. Yea, fiercely did thy foes assault
thee, O Jerusalem, but thy sins more fiercely still! "Plain Commentary."
Ver. 1,4-5. Entering the inhabited part of the old city, and winding through some
crooked, filthy lanes, I suddenly found myself on turning a sharp corner, in a spot of
singular interest; the "Jews' place of Wailing." It is a small paved quadrangle; on
one side are the backs of low modern houses, without door or window; on the other
is the lofty wall of the Haram, of recent date above, but having below five courses of
bevelled stones in a perfect state of preservation. Here the Jews are permitted to
approach the sacred enclosure, and wail over the fallen temple, whose very dust is
dear to them, and in whose stones they still take pleasure. Psalms 102:14. It was
Friday, and a crowd of miserable devotees had assembled--men and women of all
ages and all nations dressed in the quaint costumes of every country of Europe and
Asia. Old men were there, --pale, haggard, careworn men tottering on pilgrim
staves; and little girls with white faces, and lustrous black eyes, gazing wistfully now
at their parents, now at the old wall. Some were on their knees, chanting mournfully
from a book of Hebrew prayers, swaying their bodies to and fro; some were
prostrate on the ground, pressing forehead and lips to the earth; some were close to
the wall, burying their faces in the rents and crannies of the old stones; some were

kissing them, some had their arms spread out as if they would clasp them to their
bosoms, some were bathing them with tears, and all the while sobbing as if their
hearts would burst. It was a sad and touching spectacle. Eighteen centuries of exile
and woe have not dulled their hearts' affections, or deadened their feelings of
devotion. Here we see them assembled from the ends of the earth, poor, despised,
down trodden outcasts, --amid the desolations of their fatherland, beside the
dishonoured ruins of their ancient sanctuary, --chanting now in accents of deep
pathos, and now of wild woe, the prophetic words of their own psalmist, --O God the
heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled...We are
become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round
about us. How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? J. L. Porter, in "The Giant
Cities of Bashan." 1865.
COFFMA , "A LAME T OVER THE DESTRUCTIO OF JERUSALEM;
A D A PRAYER FOR VE GEA CE
George DeHoff called this psalm, "The Funeral Anthem of a ation."[1]
Charles M. Miller's analysis of this psalm points out that it exhibits several elements
found in other psalms: (1) Psalms 79:5,7,10a are lamentation; (2) Psalms 79:6,10b,12
are imprecations; (3) Psalms 79:8-9 are pleas for forgiveness; (4) Psalms 79:11
pleads for deliverance; and (5) Psalms 79:13 carries a pledge of praise and
thanksgiving following deliverance.[2]
Three possible occasions identified with this psalm were proposed by Halley,
namely, "The invasion of Shishak, the fall of the northern kingdom, and the
Babylonian captivity."[3] Delitzsch suggested the time of the desecration of the
Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes.[4]
To this writer, the only logical selection is that of the Babylonian destruction of
Jerusalem and the final captivity of the residue of the people that accompanied the
capture and deportation of Zedekiah to Babylon. There are many reasons for this
choice.
(1) There is the fact that for eighteen centuries, "The Jews have recited this psalm
upon the 9th day of the Jewish month Ab, commemorating the two destructions of
Jerusalem (by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and by the Romans in A.D. 70). This
practice may point to an old tradition associating this psalm with the Babylonian
period."[5]
(2) Shishak never entered Jerusalem. (2) Antiochus Epiphanes did not destroy either
the temple or the city of Jerusalem. (3) The mention of the people's captivity (Psalms
79:11) points squarely to the Babylonian era. (4) The complete destruction of
Jerusalem (Psalms 79:1) occurred only once in pre-Christian history, namely in 587
B.C.; and (5) many of the ablest scholars we have consulted agree on the Babylonian

date and occasion.
"The only time which adequately fits this description is the exilic period after the
burning of Jerusalem and the temple by ebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.[6] The
Babylonian destruction seems most appropriate.[7] `Jerusalem in heaps' is truer of
the Babylonian captivity than of the times of Antiochus Epiphanes.[8] It seems best
to assign it to the period of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.[9] The
general voice of commentators is that the psalm must be referred to the time of the
Babylonian conquest."[10]
The psalm naturally falls into two divisions. First, there is a description of the
disaster (Psalms 79:1-4). The remaining nine verses are a prayer for deliverance,
forgiveness, vengeance upon enemies, etc.
Psalms 79:1
"O God, the nations have come into thine inheritance;
Thy holy temple have they defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps."
"The nations, " "the Gentiles." It was an especially bitter thing for the Jews that a
pagan nation was permitted to triumph over them. "It is the height of reproach
when a father casts upon a slave the task of beating his son. Of all outward
judgments against Israel, this was the sorest."[11]
"They have laid Jerusalem in heaps." Some writers have made too much of the fact
that it is not stated here that the temple was destroyed, but `defiled.' However, the
destruction of it would have been indeed a defilement; and besides that, how could it
be imagined that with the whole city in "heaps" the temple would not have suffered
the same fate as the rest of the city?
BE SO , "Psalms 79:1. O God, the heathen are come — As invaders and
conquerors; into thine inheritance — Into Canaan and Judea, which thou didst
choose for thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled — By entering into
it, and touching and carrying away its holy vessels, and shedding blood in it, and
burning of it; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps — Made of the ruins of those
goodly houses which they have burned and thrown down. Thus, in this verse, the
psalmist enumerates three deplorable calamities which were come upon God’s
people: “the alienation of God’s inheritance, the profanation of his sanctuary, and
the desolation of the beloved city.”
WHEDO , "1. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance—True to his
Hebrew heart, the religious aspects of the desolation first meet his eye. The phrase,
“The heathen are come into thine inheritance,” means, they have possessed
themselves of what belonged to God, namely, the land and the people of the
covenant. This unveiled at once the greatness of their calamity, the severest point of

which was, they had defiled the temple of his holiness—a desecration implying utter
demolition. as in Psalms 74:7.
They have laid Jerusalem on heaps—Instead of the idea of waste masses thrown
together, the Septuagint reads, “They have made Jerusalem a storehouse of fruits;”
and the Vulgate has followed, in pomorum custodian: as if the idea were, that of
heaps of guarded commissary stores. But this, says Furst, is by an incorrect reading
of the Hebrew.
CO STABLE, "Verses 1-4
1. A lament over Jerusalem"s destruction79:1-4
Enemies had invaded Israel, defiled the temple, destroyed Jerusalem, and left the
bodies of Israel"s soldiers unburied. To lie unburied, like an animal for which no
one cared, was the final humiliation. Consequently, God"s inheritance had become
an object of derision for her neighbors.
"The issue here is not God"s justice in judging his people but the means used by the
Lord [cf. Habakkuk 1-2]. The pagans must be held accountable for their desecration
of the holy people and the holy temple so that they may be restored and God"s
people no longer experience defilement and disgrace (cf. Isaiah 35:8; Isaiah 52:1)."
[ ote: VanGemeren, p519
In this national (communal) lament psalm: Asaph mourned Jerusalem"s destruction
and pleaded with God to have mercy on His people, despite their sins, for His
name"s sake (cf. Psalm 74). This Asaph may have lived after the Babylonian
destruction of Jerusalem. The writer"s viewpoint seems to be that of the survivors
left in Jerusalem, rather than that of the deportees, which Psalm 137 reflects.
"This psalm repeats the themes of Psalm 74 , but seemingly with more venom. The
situation is the same: the temple is destroyed, Israel is bereft, and the conquering
enemy gloats. Yahweh cannot afford to be a disinterested party. Appeal is made to
the partisan holiness of God which works beyond visible religiosity. Israel here
presses Yahweh to decide what counts with him." [ ote: Brueggemann, p71.
EBC, "THE same national agony which was the theme of Psalms 74:1-23, forced the
sad strains of this psalm from the singer’s heart. There, the profanation of the
Temple and here, the destruction of the city, are the more prominent. There, the
dishonour to God; here, the distresses of His people, are set forth. Consequently,
confession of sin is more appropriate here, and prayers for pardon blend with those
for deliverance. But the tone of both psalms is the same, and there are similarities of
expression which favour, though they do not demand, the hypothesis that the author
is the same. Such similarities are the "how long" (Psalms 74:10; Psalms 79:5); the
desecration of the Temple (Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:7; Psalms 79:1) the giving over to
wild beasts (Psalms 74:19; Psalms 79:2); the reproach of God (Psalms 74:10; Psalms
74:18; Psalms 74:22; Psalms 79:12). The comparison of Israel to a flock is found in
both psalms, but in others of the Asaph group also.

The same remarks which were made as to the date of the former psalm apply in this
case. Two arguments have, however, been urged against the Maccabean date. The
first is that drawn from the occurrence of Psalms 79:6-7, in Jeremiah 10:25. It is
contended that Jeremiah is in the habit of borrowing from earlier writers, that the
verse immediately preceding that in question is quoted from Psalms 6:1, and that
the connection of the passage in the psalm is closer than in the prophet, and,
therefore, that the words are presumably in situ here, as also that the verbal
alterations are such as to suggest that the prophet rather than the psalmist is the
adapter. But, on the other hand, Hupfeld maintains that the connection in Jeremiah
is the closer. ot much weight can be attached to that point, for neither prophet nor
poet can be tied down to cool concatenation of sentences. Delitzsch claims the verbal
alterations as indubitable proofs of the priority of the prophet, and maintains that
"the borrower betrays himself" by changing the prophet’s words into less accurate
and elegant ones, and by omissions which impair "the soaring fulness of Jeremiah’s
expressions." The critics who hold that the psalm refers to the Chaldean invasion,
and that Jeremiah has borrowed from it, have to face a formidable difficulty. The
psalm must have been written after the catastrophe: the prophecy preceded it. How
then can the prophet be quoting the psalm? The question has not been satisfactorily
answered, nor is it likely to be.
PULPIT, "THIS is "a psalm of complaint, closely parallel to Psalms 74:1-23."
(Cheyne), and must, like that psalm, be referred to the time of the Babylonian
conquest. It shows us the Holy Land occupied by the heathen, the temple desecrated,
Jerusalem laid in ruins, the special servants of God put to death, and the whole
nation of the Israelites become an object of scorn and reproach to their neighbours
(Psalms 74:1-4). Some critics have supposed that it might have been written after the
invasion of Shishak; but the condition of things is far worse than can be reasonably
supposed to have been reached at that period. Others incline to assign it to the age
of the Maccabees; but Jerusalem was not then destroyed, much less "laid on heaps"
(Psalms 74:1). Hence the general voice of commentators is in favour of the date here
advocated.
The psalm consists of four strophes of four verses each, together with an epilogue
consisting of one verse only. In Psalms 74:1-4 the situation is described. In Psalms
74:5-8 and Psalms 74:9-12 prayer is made to God for deliverance, and for vengeance
upon the cruel enemy. Psalms 74:13 is an expression of confidence in God, and a
promise of perpetual thankfulness.
Psalms 79:1
O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance (comp. Psalms 74:2; Psalms
78:62). Israel—alike the people and the land—is "God's inheritance." Thy holy
temple have they defiled. The Babylonians defiled the temple by breaking into it,
seizing its treasures and ornaments (Jeremiah 52:17-23), and finally setting fire to it
(Jeremiah 52:13). They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. This was certainly not done
either by Shishak or by Antiochus Epiphanes; but was done, as prophesied

(Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 3:12), by the Babylonians.
K&D 1-4, "The Psalm begins with a plaintive description, and in fact one that makes
complaint to God. Its opening sounds like Lam_1:10. The defiling does not exclude the
reducing to ashes, it is rather spontaneously suggested in Psa_74:7 in company with
wilful incendiarism. The complaint in Psa_79:1 reminds one of the prophecy of Micah,
Mic_3:12, which in its time excited so much vexation (Jer_26:18); and Psa_79:2, Deu_
28:26. ָ‫יך‬ ֶ‫ד‬ ָ‫ב‬ ֲ‫ע‬ confers upon those who were massacred the honour of martyrdom. The lxx
renders ‫לעיים‬ by εᅶς ᆆπωροφυλάκιον, a flourish taken from Isa_1:8. Concerning the
quotation from memory in 1 Macc. 7:16f., vid., the introduction to Ps 74. The translator
of the originally Hebrew First Book of the Maccabees even in other instances betrays an
acquaintance with the Greek Psalter (cf. 1 Macc. 1:37, καᆳ ᅚξέχεαν αᅽµα ᅊθሬον κύκλሩ τοሞ
ᅋγιάσµατος). “As water,” i.e., (cf. Deu_15:23) without setting any value upon it and
without any scruple about it. Psa_44:14 is repeated in Psa_79:4. At the time of the
Chaldaean catastrophe this applied more particularly to the Edomites.
BI 1-13, "O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance.
The inhumanity of man and the mixture of good and evil
I. Here is a fact revealing the inhumanity of man and the permissive government of God.
1. What inhumanity is here! (Psa_79:1-3).
(1) It is opposed to our a priori ideas of God, as a Being of infinite love.
(2) It is repugnant to that moral sense that is implanted in every man.
2. What Divine permission is hotel Why does the Almighty allow such enormities to
occur?
(1) Perhaps because of the respect He has for that liberty of action with which He
has endowed mankind.
(2) Because of the existence of that state of retribution which He has appointed
to succeed the present life.
II. Here is a prayer revealing the mixture of good and evil in human piety.
1. Mark the good that is in this prayer (verses 8, 9, 11). In these sentences there is—
(1) A prayer to be delivered from the iniquities of froward men, that is, the bad
influence of their sinful lives.
(2) A prayer that Heaven would vouchsafe His compassion to us. “Let Thy tender
mercies speedily prevent us;” which means, “hasten to meet us with Thy mercy.”
(3) A prayer for these of our fellow-men who are in distress. “Let the sighing of
the prisoner come before thee.” All these aspirations command our admiration
and are worthy of our imitation.
2. Mark the evil that is in this prayer (verses 6, 10, 12). In all these clauses there is
the hot flame of revenge, and this certainly is an evil. (Homilist.)

Good men God’s inheritance
Good men are here, as in many other places in the Bible, spoken of as the inheritance of
God. They are His property, His portion.
I. He has no property to which He has a stronger right. Whilst good men are His, as all
things are His in the universe, by creation, they are His also—
1. By special restoration. They were lost as slaves, aye, as prisoners condemned to
death are lost; but He redeemed them by a stupendous sacrifice. “Ye are not your
own,” etc.
2. By voluntary consecration. They have given themselves up to Him, body, soul, and
spirit, which they felt to be their “reasonable service.” This is the one constant act of
religion.
II. He has no property that is more valuable.
1. A soul is more valuable in itself than the material universe. A soul can think upon
its Creator and love Him, can alter its course, can change its orbit, but matter cannot.
2. A soul is more serviceable to its Owner than the material universe.
(1) It gives Him a higher revelation. There is more of God seen in one soul than
in all the orbs of immensity.
(2) It renders Him a higher homage—of free-thought, conscience, heart, life.
(Homilist.)
2 They have left the dead bodies of your servants
as food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your own people for the animals of
the wild.
BAR ES, "The dead bodies of thy servants ... - They have slain them, and left
them unburied. See 2Ch_36:17. This is a description of widespread carnage and
slaughter, such as we know occurred at the time when Jerusalem was taken by the
Chaldeans. At such a time, it is not probable that the Chaldeans would pause to bury the
slain, nor is it probable that they would give opportunity to the captive Hebrews to
remain to bury them. That would occur, therefore, which often occurs in war, that the
slain would be left on the field to be devoured by wild animals and by the fowls of
heaven.

CLARKE, "The dead bodies of thy servants - It appears that in the destruction
of Jerusalem the Chaldeans did not bury the bodies of the slain, but left them to be
devoured by birds and beasts of prey. This was the grossest inhumanity.
GILL, "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the
fowls of the heaven,.... For such there were, both at the time of the Babylonish
captivity, and in the times of Antiochus, who were good men, and served the Lord, and
yet suffered in the common calamity. Nicanor, a general of Demetrius, in the time of the
Maccabees, seems to have been guilty of such a fact as this, since, when he was slain, his
tongue was given in pieces to the fowls, and the reward of his madness was hung up
before the temple, as in the Apocrypha:
"And when he had cut out the tongue of that ungodly Nicanor, he commanded that they
should give it by pieces unto the fowls, and hang up the reward of his madness before
the temple.'' (2 Maccabees 15:33)
the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth; this clause and the following
verse are applied to a case in the times of the Maccabees, when sixty men of the
Assideans were slain, religious, devout, and holy men, so called from the very word here
translated "saints";
"Now the Assideans were the first among the children of Israel that sought peace of
them:'' (1 Maccabees 7:13)
"The flesh of thy saints have they cast out, and their blood have they shed round about
Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.'' (1 Maccabees 7:17)
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat
unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth."
The enemy cared not to bury the dead, and there was not a sufficient number of
Israel left alive to perform the funeral rites; therefore, the precious relics of the
departed were left to be devoured of vultures and torn by wolves. Beasts on which
man could not feed fed on him. The flesh of creation's Lord became meat for
carrion crows and hungry dogs. Dire are the calamities of war, yet have they
happened to God's saints and servants. This might well move the heart of the poet,
and he did well to appeal to the heart of God by reciting the grievous evil. Such
might have been the lamentation of an early Christian as he thought of the
amphitheatre and all its deeds of blood. ote in the two verses how the plea is made
to turn upon God's property in the temple and the people: --we read "thine
inheritance, ""thy temple, ""thy servants, "and "thy saints." Surely the Lord will
defend his own, and will not suffer rampant adversaries to despoil them.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is, in every respect, the pendant of Psalms 74:1-23. The
points of contact are not merely matters of style (Psalms 79:5, "how long for ever?"
with Ps 74:1,10 79:10, edwy, with Ps 74:5 79:2, the giving over to the wild beasts,

with Ps 74:19,14 79:13, the conception of Israel as of a flock, in which respect
Psalms 79:1-13 is judiciously appended to Psalms 78:70-72, with Psalms 74:1 and
also with Psalms 74:19.) But the mutual relationships lie still deeper. Both Psalms
have the same Asaphic stamp, both stand in the same relation to Jeremiah, and both
send forth their complaints out of the same circumstances of the time, concerning a
destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, such as only the age of the Seleucidae (1
Maccabees 1:31; 1 Maccabees 3:45, 2 Maccabees 8:3), together with the Chaldean
period can exhibit, and in conjunction with a defiling of the Temple and a massacre
of the servants of God, of the Chasidim (1 Maccabees 7:13, 1 Maccabees 14:6), such
as the age of the Seleucidae exclusively can exhibit. The work of the destruction of
the Temple which was in progress in Psalms 74:1-23, appears in Psalms 79:1-13 as
completed, and here, as in the former Psalm, one receives the impression of the
outrages, not of some war, but of some persecution: it is straightway the religion of
Israel for the sake of which the sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are
massacred. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 1-4. See Psalms on "Psalms 79:1" for further information.
Ver. 2. "The dead bodies of thy servants, "etc. It is a true saying of S. Augustine,
The care of our funeral, the manner of our burial, the exequial pomp, all these
magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortuorum, are rather comforts for the
living than any way helps for the dead. To be interred profiteth not the party
deceased; his body feels it not, his soul regards it not; and we know that many holy
martyrs have been excluded from burial, who in a Christian scorn thereof bespoke
their persecutors in words of those which were slain at Pharsalia: "You effect
nothing by this anger; what matters it whether disease dissolve the body, or the
funeral pile!" But yet there is an honesty (i.e. a right, a proper respect) which
belongeth to the dead body of man. Jehu commanded Jezebel to be buried; David
thanked the people of Jabesh Gilead for burying of Saul. Peter, who commanded
Ananias and Sapphira, those false abdicators of their patrimony, to die, commanded
to have them buried being dead. It is an axiom of charity, Mortuo non prohibeas
gratiam, withhold not kindness from the dead. It shows our love and regard for men
in our own flesh to see them buried; it manifests our faith and hope of the
resurrection; and therefore when that body which is to rise again, and to be made
glorious and immortal in heaven, shall be cast to the fowls of the air or beasts of the
field, it argues in God great indignation against sin (Jeremiah 22:19, of Jehoiakim,
"He shall be buried as an ass is buried, and cast forth without the gates of
Jerusalem"); in man inhuman and barbarous cruelty. John Dunster, in
"Prodromus." 1613.
Ver. 2-3. (The following extract is from the writings of a godly monk who applies the
language of the Psalm to the persecutions of his time. He wrote at Rome during the
period of the Reformation, and was evidently a favourer of the gospel.) At this day
what river is there, what brook, in this our afflicted Europe, (if it is still ours) that
we have not seen flowing with the blood of Christians? And that too shed by the
swords and spears of Christians? Wherefore there is made a great wailing in Israel;
and the princes and elders mourn; the young men and virgins are become weak, and
the beauty of the women is changed. Why? The holy place itself is desolate as a
wilderness. Hast thou ever seen so dire a spectacle? They have piled up in heaps the
dead bodies of thy servants to be devoured by birds: the unburied remains of thy

saints, I say, they have given to the beasts of the earth. What greater cruelty could
ever be committed? So great was the effusion of human blood at that time, that the
rivulets, yea, rather, the rivers round the entire circuit of the city, flowed with it.
And thus truly is the form of our most beautiful city laid waste, and its loveliness;
and so reduced is it, that not even the men who carry forth dead bodies for burial
can be obtained, though pressed with the offer of large rewards; so full of fear and
horror were their minds: and this was all the more bitter, because "We are become
a reproach to those round about us, "and are spoken of in derision by the infidels
abroad and by enemies at home. Who is so bold as to endure this and live? How
long therefore shall this most bitter disquietude last? Giambattista Folengo. 1490-
1559.
Ver. 2. "Dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls."
With what unconcern are we accustomed to view, on all sides of us, multitudes,
"dead in trespasses and sins, "torn in pieces, and devoured by wild passions, filthy
lusts, and infernal spirits, those dogs and vultures of the moral world! Yet, to a
discerning eye, and a thinking mind, the latter is by far the more melancholy sight
of the two. George Horne.
Ver. 2. "Thy servants." "Thy saints." o temporal wrath, no calamities whatsoever
can separate the Lord's children from God's love and estimation of them, nor untie
the relation between God and them: for here, albeit their carcases fall, and be
devoured by the fowls of heaven and beasts of the earth, yet remain they the Lord's
servants and saints under these sufferings. David Dickson.
COFFMA , ""The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food unto the
birds of the heavens,
The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth."
The commentators who refer this to the murder of some sixty priests by Antiochus
Epiphanes overlook the fact that there is not a word here about any priests. Also,
the fact of there being no one available to bury the dead bodies speaks of a time
when the people were being deported to Babylon. Certainly, those pagan captors
would not have allowed any time for burying the dead. "Hyenas and jackals would
dispute the flesh of the slain with vultures and crows"[12]
BE SO , "Verse 2-3
Psalms 79:2-3. The dead bodies of thy servants — Either, 1st, Of thy faithful and
holy servants, whom they used as cruelly as the worst of the people. Or, 2d, Of the
Jews in general, whom, though most of them were wicked, he calls God’s servants
and saints, because they were such by profession; and some of them were really
such; and the Chaldeans neither knew nor regarded those that were so, but
promiscuously destroyed all that came in their way; have they given to be meat to
the fowls, &c. — By casting them out, like dung upon the earth, and not suffering
any to bury them. This is the fourth of those calamities which are bewailed in this
Psalm: and a dreadful one it is. For “to behold, or even imagine,” as Dr. Horne
observes, “the heaps of slaughtered bodies lying unburied, and exposed to birds and
beasts of prey, is inexpressibly shocking to humanity.” Their blood they shed like

water — Plentifully and contemptuously, valuing it no more than common water;
and there was none to bury them — Because their friends, who should have done it,
were either slain or fled, or were not permitted, or durst not undertake to perform
that office to them.
WHEDO , "2. Dead bodies—The slaughter was so great that the bodies were left
unburied, (Psalms 79:3,) to become food for birds and wild beasts. Even the flesh of
the saints, or truly pious, was given… unto the beasts of the earth. In national or
public calamities the righteous suffer with the wicked, and because of the wicked.
3 They have poured out blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury the dead.
BAR ES, "Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem -
They have poured it out in such quantities that it seems to flow like water - not an
uncommon occurrence in war. There was no event in the history of the Hebrews to
which this description would be more applicable than to the Babylonian invasion. The
language might indeed be applicable to the desolation of the city by Antiochus
Epiphanes, and also to its destruction by the Romans; but, of course, it cannot refer to
the latter, and there is no necessity for supposing that it refers to the former. All the
conditions of a proper interpretation are fulfilled by supposing that it refers to the time
of the Chaldean invasion.
And there was none to bury them - The Chaldeans would not do it, and they
would not suffer the Hebrew people to do it.
CLARKE, "There was none to bury them - The Chaldeans would not; and the
Jews who were not slain were carried into captivity.
GILL, "Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem,....
Without any concern of mind, or remorse of conscience; without any fear of God or man;
as if it had been so much water only; and this they shed in great abundance: from the
Apocrypha:
"And when he had taken all away, he went into his own land, having made a great

massacre, and spoken very proudly.'' (1 Maccabees 1:24)
"And spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him
credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much
people of Israel.'' (1 Maccabees 1:30)
"Thus they shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and defiled it:'' (1
Maccabees 1:37)
"So they rose up against them in battle on the sabbath, and they slew them, with their
wives and children and their cattle, to the number of a thousand people.'' (1 Maccabees
2:38)
in like manner the blood of the saints has been shed by the antichristian beast of Rome,
for which he and his followers will be righteously retaliated, Rev_17:6.
and there was none to bury them: either the number of the slain was so great, that
there were not left enough to bury the dead, or they that did remain were not suffered to
do it; this will be the case of the two witnesses, when slain, Rev_11:7.
HE RY, " Against persons, against the bodies of God's people; and further their
malice could not reach. (1.) They were prodigal of their blood, and killed them without
mercy; their eye did not spare, nor did they give any quarter (Psa_79:3): Their blood
have they shed like water, wherever they met with them, round about Jerusalem, in all
the avenues to the city; whoever went out or came in was waited for of the sword.
Abundance of human blood was shed, so that the channels of water ran with blood. And
they shed it with no more reluctancy or regret than if they had spilt so much water, little
thinking that every drop of it will be reckoned for in the day when God shall make
inquisition for blood. (2.) They were abusive to their dead bodies. When they had killed
them they would let none bury them. Nay, those that were buried, even the dead bodies
of God's servants, the flesh of his saints, whose names and memories they had a
particular spite at, they dug up again, and gave them to be meat to the fowls of the
heaven and to the beasts of the earth; or, at least, they left those so exposed whom they
slew; they hung them in chains, which was in a particular manner grievous to the Jews
to see, because God had given them an express law against this, as a barbarous thing,
Deu_21:23. This inhuman usage of Christ's witnesses is foretold (Rev_11:9), and thus
even the dead bodies were witnesses against their persecutors. This is mentioned (says
Austin, De Civitate Dei, lib. 1 cap. 12) not as an instance of the misery of the persecuted
(for the bodies of the saints shall rise in glory, however they became meat to the birds
and the fowls), but of the malice of the persecutors.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. "Their blood have they shed like water round about
Jerusalem." The invaders slew men as if their blood was of no more value than so
much water; they poured it forth as lavishly as when the floods deluge the plains.
The city of holy peace became a field of blood.
"And there was none to bury them." The few who survived were afraid to engage in
the task. This was a serious trial and grievous horror to the Jews, who evinced much
care concerning their burials. Has it come to this, that there are none to bury the
dead of thy family, O Lord? Can none be found to grant a shovelful of earth with
which to cover up the poor bodies of thy murdered saints? What woe is here! How

glad should we be that we live in so quiet an age, when the blast of the trumpet is no
more heard in our streets.
Whole Psalm. See Psalms on "Psalms 79:1" for further information.
COFFMA , ""Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem;
And there was none to bury them."
"There is no event in the history of the Hebrews to which this description would be
more applicable than to the Babylonian invasion."[13] With most of the population
being carried into captivity, there would have been no one left to bury the thousands
of the slain.
"This whole verse happens to be quoted in 1 Maccabees 7:17; but priority in point
of time obviously belongs to this psalm"[14]
ELLICOTT, "(3) Their blood.—In 1 Maccabees 7:17, we read “The flesh of thy
saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to
bury them,” introduced by “according to the word which he wrote.” This is
evidently a free quotation from this psalm, and seems to imply a reference to a
contemporary.
one to bury.—For this aggravation of the evil comp. Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah
22:18-19.
EBC, "A second argument against the Maccabean date is based upon the quotation
of Psalms 79:3 in RAPC 1 Maccabees 7:16, which it introduces by the usual formula
of quotation from Scripture. It is urged that a composition so recent as the psalm
would be, if of Maccabean date, would not be likely to be thus referred to. But this
argument confuses the date of occurrence recorded in 1 Maccabees with the date of
the record; and there is no improbability in the writer of the book quoting as
Scripture a psalm which had sprung from the midst of the tragedy which he
narrates.
The strophical division is not perfectly clear, but it is probably best to recognise
three strophes of four verses each, with an appended verse of conclusion. The first
spreads before God His people’s miseries. The second and third are prayer for
deliverance and confession of sin; but they differ, in that the former strophe dwells
mainly upon the wished for destruction of the enemy, and the latter upon the rescue
of Israel, while a subordinate diversity is that ancestral sins are confessed in the one,
and those of the present generation in the other. Psalms 79:13 stands out of the
strophe scheme as a kind of epilogue.
The first strophe vividly describes the ghastly sights that wrung the psalmist’s heart,

and will, as he trusts, move God’s to pity and help. The same thought as was
expressed in Psalms 74:1-23 underlies the emphatic repetition of "Thy" in this
strophe-namely, the implication of God’s fair name in His people’s disasters. "Thine
inheritance" is invaded, and "Thy holy Temple" defiled by the "heathen." The
corpses of "Thy servants" lie unburied, torn by vultures’ beaks and jackals’ claws.
The blood of "Thy favoured Ones" saturates the ground. It was not easy to hold fast
by the reality of God’s special relation to a nation thus apparently deserted, but the
psalmist’s faith stood even such a strain, and is not dashed by a trace of doubt. Such
times are the test and triumph of trust. If genuine, it will show brightest against the
blackest background. The word in Psalms 79:1 rendered "heathen" is usually
translated "nations," but here evidently connotes idolatry (Psalms 79:6). Their
worship of strange gods, rather than their alien nationality, makes their invasion of
God’s inheritance a tragic anomaly. The psalmist remembers the prophecy of Micah
[Micah 3:12] that Jerusalem should become heaps, and sadly repeats it as fulfilled at
last. As already noticed, Psalms 79:3 is quoted in RAPC 1 Maccabees 7:16-17, and
Psalms 79:4 is found in Psalms 44:13, which is by many commentators referred to
the Maccabean period.
The second strophe passes to direct petition, which, as it were, gives voice to the
stiffened corpses strewing the streets, and the righteous blood crying from the
ground. The psalmist goes straight to the cause of calamity-the anger of God-and, in
the close of the strophe confesses the sins which had kindled it. Beneath the play of
politics and the madness of Antiochus, he discerned God’s hand at work. He
reiterates the fundamental lesson, which prophets were never weary of teaching,
that national disasters are caused by the anger of God, which is excited by national
sins. That conviction is the first element in his petitions. A second is the twin
conviction that the "heathen" are used by God as His instrument of chastisement,
but that, when they have done their work, they are called to account for the human
passion-cruelty, lust of conquest, and the like-which impelled them to it. Even as
they poured out the blood of God’s people, they have God’s wrath poured out on
them, because "they have eaten up Jacob."
The same double point of view is frequently taken by the prophets: for example, in
Isaiah’s magnificent prophecy against "the Assyrian" (Isaiah 10:5 seq.), where the
conqueror is first addressed as "the rod of Mine anger," and then his "punishment"
is foretold, because, while executing God’s purpose, he had been unconscious of his
mission, and had been gratifying his ambition. These two convictions go very deep
into "the philosophy of history." Though modified in their application to modern
states and politics, they are true in substance still. The Goths who swept down on
Rome, the Arabs who crushed a corrupt Christianity, the French who stormed
across Europe, were God’s scavengers, gathered vulture-like round carrion, but
they were each responsible for their cruelty, and were punished "for the fruit of
their stout hearts."
PULPIT, "Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem. During
the long siege (eighteen months) the number slain in the neighbourhood of
Jerusalem would be very large. And there was none to bury them (compare the

prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:16). The population being for the most part
carried into captivity, and but few left in the land (Jeremiah 52:15, Jeremiah 52:16),
the bodies of the slain lay unburied, the few left not being able to bury them.
Compare the preceding verse.
4 We are objects of contempt to our neighbors,
of scorn and derision to those around us.
BAR ES, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours - See the language in
this verse explained in the notes at Psa_44:13. The words in the Hebrew are the same,
and the one seems to have been copied from the other.
CLARKE, "We are become a reproach to our neighbors - The Idumeans,
Philistines, Phoenicians, Ammonites, and Moabites, all gloried in the subjugation of this
people; and their insults to them were mixed with blasphemies against God.
GILL, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours,.... That is, those that
remained; so the Jews were to the Edomites, especially at the time of the Babylonish
captivity, Psa_137:7,
a scorn and derision to them that are round about us; as the Christians in all
ages have been to the men of the world, and especially will be insulted and triumphed
over when the witnesses are slain, Rev_11:10.
HE RY, " Against their names (Psa_79:4): “We that survive have become a
reproach to our neighbours; they all study to abuse us and load us with contempt, and
represent us as ridiculous, or odious, or both, upbraiding us with our sins and with our
sufferings, or giving the lie to our relation to God and expectations from him; so that we
have become a scorn and derision to those that are round about us.” If God's professing
people degenerate from what themselves and their fathers were, they must expect to be
told of it; and it is well if a just reproach will help to bring us to a true repentance. But it
has been the lot of the gospel-Israel to be made unjustly a reproach and derision; the
apostles themselves were counted as the offscouring of all things.
JAMISO , "(Compare Psa_44:13; Jer_42:18; Lam_2:15).

CALVI , "4We have been a reproach to our neighbors. Here another complaint is
uttered, to excite the mercy of God. The more proudly the ungodly mock and
triumph over us, the more confidently may we expect that our deliverance is near;
for God will not bear with their insolence when it breaks forth so audaciously;
especially when it redounds to the reproach of his holy name: even as it is said in
Isaiah,
“This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him, The virgin, the
daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and
blasphemed; and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes
on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.”
(Isaiah 37:22)
And assuredly their neighbors, (372) who were partly apostates, or the degenerate
children of Abraham, and partly the avowed enemies of religion, when they
molested and reproached this miserable people, did not refrain from blaspheming
God. Let us, therefore, remember that the faithful do not here complain of the
derision with which they were treated as individuals, but of that which they saw to
be indirectly levelled against God and his law. We shall again meet with a similar
complaint in the concluding part of the psalm.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. "We are become a reproach to our neighbours." Those who
have escaped the common foe make a mockery of us, they fling our disasters into
our face, and ask us, "Where is your God?" Pity should be shown to the afflicted,
but in too many cases it is not so, for a hard logic argues that those who suffer more
than ordinary calamities must have been extraordinary sinners. eighbours
especially are often the reverse of neighbourly; the nearer they dwell the less they
sympathize. It is most pitiable it should be so.
"A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us." To find mirth in others'
miseries, and to exult over the ills of others, is worthy only of the devil and of those
whose father he is. Thus the case is stated before the Lord, and it is a very
deplorable one. Asaph was an excellent advocate, for he gave a telling description of
calamities which were under his own eyes, and in which he sympathized, but we
have a mightier Intercessor above, who never ceases to urge our suit before the
eternal throne.
Ver. 1, 4-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 79:1" for further information.
Ver. 4. "We are become a reproach." If God's professing people degenerate from
what themselves and their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is
well if a just reproach will help to bring us to a true repentance. But it has been the
lot of the gospel Israel to be made unjustly a reproach and derision; the apostles

themselves were "counted as the off scouring of all things." Matthew Henry.
Ver. 4. "A scorn and derision to them that are round about us." This was more
grievous to them than stripes or wounds, saith Chrysostom, because these being
inflicted upon the body are divided after a sort betwixt soul and body, but scorns
and reproaches do wound the soul only. Habet quendam aculeum contumelia, they
leave a sting behind them, as Cicero observeth. John Trapp.
Ver. 4. It is the height of reproach a father casts upon his child when he commands
his slave to beat him. Of all outward judgments this is the sorest, to have strangers
rule over us, as being made up of shame and cruelty. If once the heathen come into
God's inheritance, no wonder the church complains that she is "become a reproach
to her neighbours, a shame and derision to all round about her." Abraham Wright.
COFFMA , ""We are become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us."
Psalms 79:10 should be noted in this connection. The object of the taunting
neighbors was to claim a triumph over the God of Israel. "Where is thy God?"
Among all the nations of antiquity, any disaster that overcame a people was always
considered as proof that the God or gods worshipped by that people had no power
to protect them. See more on this under Psalms 79:10, below.
BE SO , "Psalms 79:4. We are become a reproach, &c. — We, who were the
terror of our neighbours, and whom they stood in awe of, and were afraid to offend,
are now neither feared nor pitied, but are become the objects of their scoffs and
reproaches. For they study to abuse us and load us with contempt, upbraiding us
with our sins and sufferings, and giving the lie to our relation to God, and
expectations from him. If God’s professing people degenerate from what themselves
and their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is well if a just
reproach will help to bring them to a true repentance. But it has been the lot of the
gospel Israel to be unjustly made a reproach and derision. The apostles and
evangelists themselves, who were the wisest and best men that ever lived, and the
greatest friends and benefactors of the human race, were counted as the filth of the
world, and the offscouring of all things.
ELLICOTT, "(4) This verse occurs Psalms 44:13. Also possibly a Maccabæan
psalm. (See Introduction to that psalm.)
The scenes still witnessed by travellers at the Jews’ wailing-place offer a striking
illustration of the foregoing verses, showing, as they do, how deep-seated is the love
of an ancient place in the Oriental mind. (See a striking description in Porter’s
Giant Cities of Bashan.)

5 How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever?
How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
BAR ES, "How long, Lord? - See Psa_74:1, note; Psa_74:10, note; and Psa_77:7-
9, notes. This is the language, not of impatience, but of anxiety; not of complaining, but
of wonder. It is language such as the people of God are often constrained to employ
under heavy trials - trials which continue so long that it seems as if they would never
end.
Shall thy jealousy, burn like fire? - That is, Shall it continue to burn like fire?
Shall it utterly consume us? On the word jealousy, see the notes at Psa_78:58.
CLARKE, "How long, Lord? - Wilt thou continue thine anger against us, and
suffer us to be insulted, and thyself blasphemed?
GILL, "Psalms 79:5
How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry? for ever?.... That is, how long wilt thou be
angry? shall it be for ever? see Psa_85:4, for though what was done, or to be done, as
before related, was or will be done by the enemies of the Lord's people, yet by his
permission, and as a token of his anger and displeasure against them: at least it might be
so understood, both by them and by their enemies; and hence this expostulation,
shall thy jealousy burn like fire? so jealousy does; its coals are coals of fire, Son_
8:6, there were, at the times referred to, such among the people, who did evil things, and
provoked the Lord to jealousy and wrath: see the Apocrypha:
"And there was very great wrath upon Israel.'' (1 Maccabees 1:64)
"When this was done, and they had made a common supplication, they besought the
merciful Lord to be reconciled with his servants for ever.'' (2 Maccabees 8:29)
HE RY, " They wonder more at God's anger, Psa_79:5. This they discern in the
anger of their neighbours, and this they complain most of: How long, Lord, wilt thou be
angry? Shall it be for ever? This intimates that they desired no more than that God
would be reconciled to them, that his anger might be turned away, and then the
remainder of men's wrath would be restrained. Note, Those who desire God's favour as
better than life cannot but dread and deprecate his wrath as worse than death.
JAMISO , "How long — (Psa_13:1).
be angry — (Psa_74:1-10).

jealousy burn — (Deu_29:20).
CALVI , "5How long, O Jehovah! wilt thou be wroth for ever? I have already
observed that these two expressions, how long and for ever, when joined together,
denote a lengthened and an uninterrupted continuance of calamities; and that there
is no appearance, when looking to the future, of their coming to a termination. We
may, therefore, conclude that this complaint was not ended within a month or two
after persecution against the Church commenced, but at a time when the hearts of
the faithful were almost broken through the weariness produced by prolonged
suffering. Here they confess that the great accumulation of calamities with which
they are overwhelmed, is to be traced to the wrath of God. Being fully persuaded
that the wicked, whatever they may plot, cannot inflict injury, except in so far as
God permits them — from this, which they regard as an indubitable principle, they
at once conclude, that when he allows such ample scope to their heathen enemies in
persecuting them, his anger is greatly provoked. or would they, without this
persuasion, have looked to God in the hope that he would stretch forth his hand to
save them; for it is the work of Him who hath given loose reins to draw in the bridle.
Whenever God visits us with the rod, and our own conscience accuses us, it
especially becomes us to look to His hand. Here his ancient people do not charge him
with being unjustly displeased, but acknowledge the justice of the punishment
inflicted upon them. God will always find in his servants just grounds for chastising
them. He often, however, in the exercise of his mercy, pardons their sins, and
exercises them with the cross for another purpose than to testify his displeasure
against their sins, just as it was his will to try the patience of Job, and as he
vouchsafed to call the martyrs to an honorable warfare. But here the people, of their
own accord, summoning themselves before the Divine tribunal, trace the calamities
which they endured to their own sins, as the procuring cause. Hence it may, with
probability, be conjectured that this psalm was composed during the time of the
Babylonish captivity. Under the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, they employed, as
we have previously seen, a different form of prayer, saying,
“All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt
falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps
declined from thy way,”
(Psalms 44:17.)
We are not to suppose that, in the passage now quoted, the faithful murmured
against God, but they employ this language because they knew that he had another
end in view than simply to punish their sins; for, by means of these severe conflicts,
he prepared them for the prize of their high calling.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 5. "How long, Lord?" Will there be no end to these
chastisements? They are most sharp and overwhelming; wilt thou much longer
continue them?
"Wilt thou be angry for ever?" Is thy mercy gone so that thou wilt for ever smite?
"Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" There was great cause for the Lord to be

jealous, since idols had been set up, and Israel had gone aside from his worship, but
the psalmist begs the Lord not to consume his people utterly as with fire, but to
abate their woes.
Ver. 1, 4-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 79:1" for further information.
Ver. 5. "How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?" The voice of complaint says
not, How long, Lord, shall this wickedness of our enemy endure? How long shall we
see this desolation? But, How long, O Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever? We are
admonished, therefore, in this passage, that we should recognize the anger of God
against us in all our afflictions, lest as the nations are accustomed, we only accuse
the malice of our enemies, and never think of our sins and the divine punishment. It
cannot be that he who acknowledges the anger of God that is upon him, should not
at the same time acknowledge his fault also, unless he wishes to attribute the
iniquity to God of being angry and inflicting stripes upon the undeserving.
Musculus.
Ver. 5. The word "jealousy" signifies not mere revenge but revenge mingled with
love, for unless he loved, says Jerome, he would not be jealous, and after the manner
of a husband avenge the sin of his wife. Lorinus.
COFFMA , ""How long, O Jehovah? Wilt thou be angry forever?
Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?"
"How long ...?" The Jewish people had already been told by Jeremiah that the
captivity would last for seventy years; but there were many of the people who did
not know this. There can be no doubt that they were in a big hurry to get the tragic
experience behind them, as indicated by Psalms 79:8, where they cried for a
"speedy" resolution of the problem. However, it was not the will of God that any
quick end would come to Israel's punishment.
"Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" The psalmist here indicates that he knew the
reason that lay back of the nation's destruction; it was the jealousy of God,
continually provoked by Israel throughout their previous history by their
worshipping false gods in the pagan shrines of Canaan. God had already tried every
other possible means of curing this shameful "sickness" of Israel, before bringing
about their captivity.
The terrible defeat and captivity that followed it accomplished God's purpose;
because, Israel never again resorted to the worship of the pagan gods.
CO STABLE, "Verses 5-9
The psalmist wondered how long God would be angry with His people and allow
them to suffer defeat and humiliation. Would He let His jealousy for Israel"s
affection burn as a fire forever? Asaph urged God to direct His rage at Israel"s
enemies who disregarded Him and devoured His habitation. He also asked God to
forget the sins of the Israelites" ancestors and show compassion on His lowly people.

He based his petition on God"s glory as well as the Israelites" need.
PULPIT, "How long, Lord? i.e. "How long, O Lord, is this condition of things to
endure?" (comp. Psalms 6:5; Psalms 90:13; Revelation 6:10). An ellipse after "how
long?" is common. Wilt thou be angry forever? (see Psalms 13:1; Psalms 74:12;
Lamentations 5:20). Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? It was their worship of other
gods that God especially visited on his people by the Babylonish captivity (see
Jeremiah, passim).
K&D 5-8, "Out of the plaintive question how long? and whether endlessly God would
be angry and cause His jealousy to continue to burn like a fire (Deu_32:22), grows up
the prayer (Psa_79:6) that He would turn His anger against the heathen who are
estranged from the hostile towards Him, and of whom He is now making use as a rod of
anger against His people. The taking over of Psa_79:6-7 from Jer_10:25 is not betrayed
by the looseness of the connection of thought; but in themselves these four lines sound
much more original in Jeremiah, and the style is exactly that of this prophet, cf. Jer_
6:11; Jer_2:3, and frequently, Psa_49:20. The ‫ל‬ ֶ‫,א‬ instead of ‫ל‬ ַ‫,ע‬ which follows ְ‫ך‬ ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ is
incorrect; the singular ‫ל‬ ַ‫כ‬ፎ gathers all up as in one mass, as in Isa_5:26; Isa_17:13. The
fact that such power over Israel is given to the heathen world has its ground in the sins
of Israel. From Psa_79:8 it may be inferred that the apostasy which raged earlier is now
checked. ‫ים‬ִ‫ּנ‬‫שׁ‬‫א‬ ִ‫ר‬ is not an adjective (Job_31:28; Isa_59:2), which would have been
expressed by ‫חראשׁנים‬ ‫,עונותינו‬ but a genitive: the iniquities of the forefathers (Lev_26:14,
cf. Psa_39:1-13). On Psa_79:8 of Jdg_6:6. As is evident from Psa_79:9, the poet does
not mean that the present generation, itself guiltless, has to expiate the guilt of the
fathers (on the contrary, Deu_24:16; 2Ki_14:6; Eze_18:20); he prays as one of those
who have turned away from the sins of the fathers, and who can now no longer consider
themselves as placed under wrath, but under sin-pardoning and redeeming grace.
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
BAR ES, "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen - Punish, as they deserve, the
nations that have risen up against thy people, and that have brought; desolation upon

the land. The word rendered here pour out is used with reference to a cup or vial, as
containing a mixture for the people to drink - of intoxication, or of poison. See the notes
at Rev_16:1; notes at Psa_11:6; notes at Isa_51:17; compare Jer_25:15, Jer_25:17; Mat_
20:22; Mat_26:39, Mat_26:42.
That have not known thee - Who are strangers to thee; who are thy enemies. The
prayer that the wrath of God might be poured upon them was not because they were
ignorant of him, but on account of their wicked conduct toward the people of God. The
phrase “that have not known thee” is used merely to designate them, or to describe their
character. The prayer is not necessarily a prayer for vengeance, or in the spirit of
revenge; it is simply a prayer that justice might be done to them, and is such a prayer as
any man may offer who is anxious that justice may be done in the world. See remarks on
the imprecations in the Psalms. General Introduction Section 6. It is not proper,
however, to use this as a proof-text that God will punish the “pagan,” or will consign
them to destruction. The passage obviously has no reference to such a doctrine, whether
that doctrine be true or false.
And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name - The people
that do not worship thee; referring here particularly to those who had invaded the land,
and made it desolate.
CLARKE, "Pour out thy wrath - Bad as we are, we are yet less wicked than they.
We, it is true, have been unfaithful; but they never knew thy name, and are totally
abandoned to idolatry.
GILL, "Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that have not known thee,....
Who had poured out the blood of the saints like water, and therefore it was a righteous
thing with God to pour out the cup of wrath in his hands, and cause them to drink the
dregs of it: these words, though they are in the form of an imprecation, yet regard not
private revenge, but public justice, and the honour of God; and, besides, may be
considered as a prophecy of what would be, and particularly of God's pouring out the
vials of his wrath on the antichristian states; who, though they profess Christianity, are
no other than Heathens, and have no spiritual and serious knowledge of Christ:
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name; but upon their
idols of gold, silver, brass, and stone, on the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints departed;
for these, besides the kingdoms of Babylon, Syria, and Rome Pagan, are the kingdoms of
the ten kings, that gave their kingdoms to the beast, and committed fornication, i.e.
idolatry, with the whore of Rome; see Rev_17:2, these words are referred to in Jer_10:25
and also the following.
HE RY, "The petitions here put up to God are very suitable to the present distresses
of the church, and they have pleas to enforce them, interwoven with them, taken mostly
from God's honour.
I. They pray that God would so turn away his anger from them as to turn it upon those
that persecuted and abused them (Psa_79:6): “Pour out thy wrath, the full vials of it,
upon the heathen; let them wring out the dregs of it, and drink them.” This prayer is in
effect a prophecy, in which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Observe here, 1. The character of those he

prays against; they are such as have not known God, nor called upon his name. The
reason why men do not call upon God is because they do not know him, how able and
willing he is to help them. Those that persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of prayer,
are the ungodly, who live without God in the world. There are kingdoms that know not
God and obey not the gospel, but neither their multitude nor their force united will
secure them from his just judgments. 2. Their crime: They have devoured Jacob, Psa_
79:7. That is crime enough in the account of him who reckons that those who touch his
people touch the apple of his eye. They have not only disturbed, but devoured, Jacob,
not only encroached upon his dwelling place, the land of Canaan, but laid it waste by
plundering and depopulating it. (3.) Their condemnation: “Pour out thy wrath upon
them; do not only restrain them from doing further mischief, but reckon with them for
the mischief they have done.”
JAMISO , "(Compare Jer_10:25). Though we deserve much, do not the heathen
deserve more for their violence to us (Jer_51:3-5; Zec_1:14)? The singular denotes the
chief power, and the use of the plural indicates the combined confederates.
called upon — or, “by”
thy name — proclaimed Thy attributes and professed allegiance (Isa_12:4; Act_
2:21).
CALVI , "6.Pour out thy fury upon the heathen, who have not known thee. This
prayer is apparently inconsistent with the rule of charity; for, while we feel anxious
about our own calamities, and desire to be delivered from them, we ought to desire
that others may be relieved as well as ourselves. It would seem, therefore, that the
faithful are to be blamed in here wishing the destruction of unbelievers, for whose
salvation they ought rather to have been solicitous. But it becomes us to bear in
mind what I have previously stated, that the man who would offer up such a prayer
as this in a right manner, must be under the influence of zeal for the public welfare;
so that, by the wrongs done to himself personally, he may not suffer his carnal
affections to be excited, nor allow himself to be carried away with rage against his
enemies; but, forgetting his individual interests, he must have a sole regard to the
common salvation of the Church, and to what conduces thereto. Secondly, he must
implore God to grant him the spirit of discretion and judgment, that in prayer he
may not be impelled by an inconsiderate zeal: a subject which we have treated more
at large in another place. Besides, it is to be observed, that the pious Jews here not
only lay out of consideration their own particular advantage in order to consult the
good of the whole Church, but also chiefly direct their eyes to Christ, beseeching
him to devote to destruction his enemies whose repentance is hopeless. They,
therefore, do not rashly break forth into this prayer, that God would destroy these
or other enemies, nor do they anticipate the judgment of God; but desiring that the
reprobate may be involved in the condemnation which they deserve, they, at the
same time, patiently wait until the heavenly judge separate the reprobate from the
elect. In doing this, they do not cast aside the affection which charity requires; for,
although they would desire all to be saved, they yet know that the reformation of
some of the enemies of Christ is hopeless, and their perdition absolutely certain.

The question, however, is not yet fully answered; for, when in the seventh verse they
arraign the cruelty of their enemies, they seem to desire vengeance. But what I have
just now observed must be remembered, that none can pray in this manner but
those who have clothed themselves with a public character, and who, laying aside all
personal considerations, have espoused, and are deeply interested in, the welfare of
the whole Church; or, rather, who have set before their eyes Christ, the Head of the
Church; and, lastly, none but those who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have
elevated their minds to the judgment of God; so that, being ready to forgive, they do
not indiscriminately adjudge to death every enemy by whom they are injured, but
only the reprobate. With regard to those who make haste in demanding the
execution of the Divine vengeance before all hope of repentance is lost, Christ has
condemned them as chargeable with inconsiderate and ill-regulated zeal, when he
says,
“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,”
(Luke 9:55.)
Moreover, the faithful do not here simply wish the destruction of those who so
wickedly persecuted the Church, but, using that familiarity which God allows them
in their dealings with him, they set forth how inconsistent it would be did he not
punish their persecutors, (375) and reason thus: Lord, how is it that thou afflictest
us so severely, upon whom thy name is invoked, and sparest the heathen nations
who despise thee? In short, they mean to say, that God has sufficient ground for
executing his wrath elsewhere, since they were not the only people in the world who
had sinned. Although it does not become us to prescribe to God the rule of his
conduct, but rather patiently to submit to this ordination,
“That judgment must begin at the house of God”
(1 Peter 4:17;)
yet he permits his saints to take the liberty of pleading, that at least they may not be
worse dealt with than unbelievers, and those who despise him.
These two sentences, who have not known thee, and which call not upon thy name, it
is to be observed, are to be taken in the same sense. By these different forms of
expression, it is intimated that it is impossible for any to call upon God without a
previous knowledge of him, as the Apostle Paul teaches, in Romans 10:14,
“How, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14)
It belongs not to us to answer, “Thou art our God,” till He has anticipated us by
saying, “Thou art my people,” (Hosea 2:23;) but he opens our mouths to speak to
him in this manner, when he invites us to himself. Calling on the name of God is
often synonymous with prayer; but it is not here to be exclusively limited to that
exercise. The amount is, that unless we are directed by the knowledge of God, it is
impossible for us sincerely to profess the true religion. At that time the Gentiles

everywhere boasted that they served God; but, being destitute of his word, and as
they fabricated to themselves gods of their own corrupt imaginations, all their
religious services were detestable; even as in our own day, the human invented
religious observances of the blind and deluded votaries of the Man of Sin, who have
no right knowledge of the God whom they profess to worship, and who inquire not
at his mouth what he approves, are certainly rejected by Him, because they set up
idols in his place.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 6. "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known
thee." If thou must smite look further afield; spare thy children and strike thy foes.
There are lands where thou art in no measure acknowledged; be pleased to visit
these first with thy judgments, and let thine erring Israel have a respite.
"And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name." Hear us the
prayerful, and avenge thyself upon the prayerless. Sometimes providence appears to
deal much more severely with the righteous than with the wicked, and this verse is a
bold appeal founded upon such an appearance. It in effect says--Lord, if thou must
empty out the vials of thy wrath, begin with those who have no measure of regard
for thee, but are openly up in arms against thee; and be pleased to spare thy people,
who are thine notwithstanding all their sins.
Ver. 6. eglect of prayer by unbelievers is threatened with punishment. The
prophet's imprecation is the same in effect with a threatening, see Jeremiah 10:25,
and same imprecation, Psalms 79:6. The prophets would not have used such an
imprecation against those that call not upon God, but that their neglect of calling on
his name makes them liable to his wrath and fury; and no neglect makes men liable
to the wrath of God but the neglect of duty. Prayer, then, is a duty even to the
heathen, the neglect of which provokes him to pour out his fury on them. David
Clarkson.
COFFMA , ""Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not,
And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name."
As a nation, Israel had become one and the same as the pagan kingdoms around
them. Oh yes, they knew God's name; and, in times of emergency they loved to call
upon God for help; but the people as a whole had become even worse than Sodom
and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16). If God's moral character was to be established as a fact
in the minds of mankind, something drastic had to be done about Israel and their
gross wickedness.
The name of God could not be used merely as a charm to get Israel out of every
disaster; there positively had to be some moral integrity on the part of the people
themselves. There were, no doubt, a few devout souls who sincerely called upon God
and walked in his ways, among whom the psalmist here was surely numbered; but
such as he were so few that no observer in that day could have told any moral

difference between Israel and any other pagan nation of that era.
BE SO , "Psalms 79:6-7. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen — Though we
confess that we have deserved thy wrath, yet the heathen, by whom thou hast
scourged us, have deserved it much more, as being guilty of far greater impieties
than we, living in gross ignorance and contempt of thee and thy worship. And,
therefore, we pray thee to transfer thy wrath from us to them. But the prayer is
rather to be considered as a prophecy, in which the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. For they have devoured
Jacob — The posterity of Jacob, whom thou didst love, and with whom, and his
seed, thou madest a sure and everlasting covenant; whereby thou didst engage
thyself to be an enemy to their enemies, Exodus 23:22. Besides, thou hatest cruelty,
especially when the wicked devour those that are more righteous than themselves,
Habakkuk 1:13.
WHEDO , "6. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen—All such imprecations must
be viewed from the standpoint of justice between nation and nation, and the rights
of God in the land and people of his covenant as against the acts of hostile kings who
invade them. The rights of peace and virtue in the earth cry to God against the
perpetrators of crime and the authors of oppression. Humanly speaking, the
invasion of Palestine by ebuchadnezzar was without cause, and his treatment of
the Jewish religion without parallel of impiety. Justice would seem to reverse this
strange order of things. The kingdoms referred to in this verse were such as were
subject to and assisted ebuchadnezzar in his wars. Psalms 79:6-7 seem borrowed
from Jeremiah 10:25
PULPIT, "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee. It is not
the heathen that had never heard of God who are intended, but those who, having
heard of him, had refused to "know" him (comp. Exodus 5:2), as was the case with
all the nations round about Canaan. And upon the kingdoms that have not called
upon thy ame. ow that we are punished, go on to punish those who have
persecuted us, and who are at least as guilty as ourselves. "The prayer rests," as
Hengstenberg remarks, "upon what God does constantly. Judgment begins at the
house of God; but it proceeds thence to those whom God has employed as the
instrument of his punishment. The storm of the wrath of God always remains to fall
at last upon the world at enmity with his Church."
7 for they have devoured Jacob
and devastated his homeland.

BAR ES, "For they have devoured Jacob - literally, “They have eaten.” That is,
they have eaten up what the land produced.
And laid waste his dwelling-place - His home; his habitation; the residence of
Jacob, or of the people of Israel.
CLARKE, "Laid waste his dwelling-place - The Chaldee understands this of the
temple. This, by way of eminence, was Jacob’s place. I have already remarked that these
two verses are almost similar to Jer_10:25, which has led many to believe that Jeremiah
was the author of this Psalm.
GILL, "For they have devoured Jacob,.... The posterity of Jacob, the people of the
Jews, typical of the church of God, made havoc of by the Romish antichrist: and laid
waste his dwelling place; both Jerusalem and the temple, which was done both by the
Chaldeans and the Romans, and also in the times of Antiochus; see the Apocrypha:
"38 Insomuch that the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them: whereupon the
city was made an habitation of strangers, and became strange to those that were born in
her; and her own children left her. 39 Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness, her
feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into reproach her honour into
contempt.'' (1 Maccabees 1)
"4 In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey. 5 For He
pursued the wicked, and sought them out, and burnt up those that vexed his people.'' (1
Maccabees 3)
which were types of the Gospel church made desolate by the Papists: the word (d) used
signifies a sheepcote, the dwelling place of those sheep that are troubled by the beast of
Rome.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 7. "For they have devoured Jacob." The oppressor would quite
eat up the saints if he could. If these lions do not swallow us, it is because the Lord
has sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths.
"And laid waste his dwelling place, "or his pasture. The invader left no food for
man or beast, but devoured all as the locust. The tender mercies of the wicked are
cruel.
Ver. 7. "They have devoured Jacob." Like wolves who cruelly tear and devour a
flock of sheep. For the word which follows signifies not only a habitation in general,
but also a sheepcote. Mollerus.
COFFMA , ""For they have devoured Jacob,

And laid waste his habitation."
This and Psalms 79:6 occur almost word for word in Jeremiah 10:25. Many scholars
vex themselves almost endlessly trying to figure out who quoted whom; but it is our
opinion that in most cases, there is hardly any way to determine such questions. Is it
impossible that God, through the Spirit, could have led different writers to use the
same words? o one has ever proved such a proposition. As far as this particular
instance is concerned, Rawlinson stated that, "It is difficult to say which writer
quoted from the other?"[15]
ELLICOTT, "(7) Dwelling place.—Literally, pasture, as in Jeremiah 23:3;
Jeremiah 49:20; Jeremiah 1:19. The figure is a favourite one in the Asaphic group
of psalms.
Former iniquities.—Better, iniquities of former ones, i.e., of ancestors. (Comp.
Leviticus 26:45, “covenant of their ancestors,” and for the thought Exodus 20:5;
Leviticus 26:39.)
Prevent.—Better, come to meet. Daniel 9:16 seems to combine the language of this
verse and Psalms 79:4.
8 Do not hold against us the sins of past
generations;
may your mercy come quickly to meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
BAR ES, "O remember not against us forrmer iniquities - Margin, The
iniquities of them that were before us. The Hebrew may mean either former times, or
former generations. The allusion, however, is substantially the same. It is not their own
iniquities which are particularly referred to, but the iniquity of the nation as committed
in former times; and the prayer is, that God would not visit them with the results of the
sins of former generations, though their own ancestors. The language is derived from the
idea so constantly affirmed in the Scripture, and so often illustrated in fact, that the
effects of sin pass over from one generation to the next, and involve it in calamity. See
Exo_20:5; Exo_34:7; Lev_20:5; Lev_26:39-40; Num_14:18, Num_14:33; compare the
notes at Rom_5:12, et seg.

Psalm 79 commentary

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Psalm 79 commentary