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79. Psalm 79

¹ O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance;
   they have defiled your holy temple,
   they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
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.
³ They have poured out blood like water
   all around Jerusalem,
   and there is no one to bury the dead.
⁴ We are objects of contempt to our neighbors,
   of scorn and derision to those around us.

    ⁵ How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever?
   How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations
   that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
   that do not call on your name;
⁷ for they have devoured Jacob
   and devastated his homeland.

    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.
⁹ Help us, God our Savior,
   for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins
   for your name’s sake.
¹⁰ Why should the nations say,
   “Where is their God?”

   Before our eyes, make known among the nations
   that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
¹¹ May the groans of the prisoners come before you;
   with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.
¹² Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times
   the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord.
¹³ Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
   will praise you forever;
from generation to generation
   we will proclaim your praise.

8 Remember not against us the iniquities of former times. The godly Jews here confirm the sentiment which they had before briefly and obscurely touched upon, namely, that they had justly deserved the chastisements which had been inflicted upon them. And they present this prayer, because they could only get relief from their calamities by obtaining reconciliation with God. This is the sovereign remedy for every kind of adversity; for so long as he is angry with even our prosperity turns out to be unproductive of advantage and happiness. By the iniquities of former times, some understand the sins committed by the fathers. Others think that the sins which the suppliants themselves committed in their childhood and youth are intended. But the expression, I presume, has a more extensive signification, containing a confession not only of one offense or two, and these only recently committed, but an acknowledgement that they had for a long time been involved, along with their fathers, in manifold and old transgressions. Thus they acknowledge a long continued stubbornness, in which they had hardened themselves against God. This acknowledgement corresponds with the rebukes which the prophets administered to them; for sacred history bears testimony that the punishment of the captivity was suspended until God had proved from experience that their perversity was incurable. Nor should it excite our surprise to find the children praying that God would not impute to them the iniquity of their fathers, when we consider that the law declares that God casts the sins of the fathers into the bosom of their children, and takes vengeance upon their iniquities unto the third and fourth generation, (Exodus 20:5.) The contrast between the expressions, make haste, and the iniquities of former times, is worthy of notice. Had God called the Israelites to a strict account for all the sins which they had committed during three or four hundred years before, the time of their deliverance would have been long delayed. The faithful, therefore, beseech him to forget their former offenses, and to make haste to succor them. As their sins proved the great obstacle and cause of delay, we may see the propriety with which they farther implore that the compassions of God might speedily meet them.