- Our God, foreign nations have taken your land, disgraced your temple, and left Jerusalem in ruins.
- They have fed the bodies of your servants to flesh-eating birds; your loyal people are food for savage animals.
- All Jerusalem is covered with their blood, and there is no one left to bury them.
- Every nation around us sneers and makes fun.
- Our LORD, will you keep on being angry? Will your angry feelings keep flaming up like fire?
- Get angry with those nations that don't know you and won't worship you!
- They have gobbled down Jacob's descendants and left the land in ruins.
- Don't make us pay for the sins of our ancestors. Have pity and come quickly! We are completely helpless.
- Our God, you keep us safe. Now help us! Rescue us. Forgive our sins and bring honor to yourself.
- Why should nations ask us, "Where is your God?" Let us and the other nations see you take revenge for your servants who died a violent death.
- Listen to the prisoners groan! Let your mighty power save all who are sentenced to die.
- Each of those nations sneered at you, our Lord. Now let others sneer at them, seven times as much.
- Then we, your people, will always thank you. We are like sheep with you as our shepherd, and all generations will hear us praise you.
This psalm is said to be a partner to psalm 74, and if that psalm was written on the occasion of Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem, psalm 79 would also have that occasion in mind. In psalm 74 the psalmist's question of God was WHY, "Why does Your anger burn against the sheep of Your pasture?" In this psalm the question is HOW LONG, "How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever?" The HOW LONG question is more to the point. The psalmist really knew that the Lord's anger was due to the sins of the nation, for in verse 8 of this psalm he asks God not to "hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come to us quickly." Maybe he thought their sins deserved more of a 'slap of the hands' punishment than what they experienced. Maybe he was shocked that God would even allow the devastation to go so far as the destruction of the temple. Whatever the thoughts of the psalmist, his general tone in this 79th psalm is concern for God's honor and the honor of His 'inheritance,' the Israelites. Israel had become a reproach to her neighbors and God's honor was in question. "Where is their God?" other nations were asking. Now the point of this question could concern the ability of God to protect His people or it could concern the reproach of Israel and why her God would not protect her.
Whichever the point, the psalmist's appeal to God is that His honor is at stake either way, whether the other nations mock Him or mock His inheritance, the nation of Israel. The psalmist says, "Pour out Your wrath on the nations that don't acknowledge You." In other words, we may have sinned but at least we acknowledge You. Why not turn Your wrath upon those who do not acknowledge you and don't call on Your name? History shows that God did indeed deal with these other nations, but at this point in time they were His instrument to deal with Israel's sin. They don't get any 'points' for it, however, for they didn't acknowledge God's hand in it at all. They thought their victory over Israel was their own accomplishment.
The psalmist promises that if God will bring vengeance upon Israel's tormentors, "Then we, Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will thank You forever." I have the benefit of history to know that however well-intentioned this promise on the part of the psalmist, it didn't take long after God avenged Israel before they again went their own way and forgot God. But we are all prone to bargain with God when the chips are down. We are also prone to return to our usual ways when the chips are coming our way. It is very much like another tendency most of us have to ask God WHY when bad things are happening but not asking WHY when things are going good. It is as if we credit God for causing bad that happens to us but not for the good that comes our way.
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