O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance. Psalm 79 The inhumanity of man and the mixture of good and evil Homilist. I. Here is a fact revealing the INHUMANITY OF MAN AND THE PERMISSIVE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1. What inhumanity is here! (vers. 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 (vers. 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 (vers. 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 Homilist. 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. ) O remember not against us former iniquities . Psalm 79:8 The hereditary principle in God's moral government of mankind Homilist. The proper translation of this would be, "Remember not to us the iniquities of former men." The text recognizes the fact that men suffer for the iniquities of their fathers and their forefathers. This is an undoubted fact. We may just state five practical purposes which this principle of the Divine government serves to answer. I. It serves to show the RIGHT WHICH EVERY PHILANTHROPIST HAS TO PROTEST AGAINST THE SINS OF INDIVIDUALS. If evil is handed down from sire to son, the sinner has no right to say, How does my sin concern you? To such we may say, You have no right to do that which injures your brethren; and, in the name of humanity, every man has a right to protest against your sine and to endeavour to restrain you by all moral means from their commission. II. It serves to show the SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PARENTAL CHARACTER. As our dispositions will be reproduced, and our deeds re-transacted, our actions will vibrate on the hearts of unborn men and women. Man lives, thinks, and throbs in the life of posterity. III. It serves to show that THE BEST WAY TO ELEVATE THE RACE IS TO TRAIN THE YOUNG. As one generation so forms another, the best way to serve the whole race is to make a generation, physically, intellectually, and morally, what it ought to be. But there is no chance of thus forming a generation, except in the first stages of its life. Concentrate your efforts on the young. IV. It serves to THROW SOME LIGHT UPON WHAT IS CALLED "ORIGINAL SIN." V. It serves to INDICATE THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRIST'S INCARNATION. "To destroy sin in the flesh." To do this, not merely in theories, books, or speech, but in actual human life, is the grand condition of the world's salvation. But inasmuch as sin, by this hereditary principle, is transmitted through physical relationship and social influences, it seems necessary that He who would destroy it, should become a link in the' great chain of humanity, identify Himself with the race, and originate the counteracting influences of truth and righteousness. Hence the world's great Deliverer became the Son of Man. ( Homilist. ) Help us, O God of our salvation. Psalm 79:9 The highest Divine title, and the highest human privilege Homilist. I. The highest DIVINE TITLE. "God of our salvation." God in creation appears transcendently great; but in salvation we see — 1. A higher kind of power: moral power; the power to manage, master, and mould free rebellious intelligences. 2. A higher love. The love of compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. II. The highest HUMAN PRIVILEGE. To be saved involves the restoration oral. 1. A lost moral life. 2. Lost harmony. 3. Lost usefulness. ( Homilist. ) A nation's prayer in time of distress Bp. Gardiner. I. THE PETITION ITSELF. 1. It is very fit for nations under heavy pressures and calamities to confess their sins to God publicly. 2. It is very proper for such an afflicted nation to pray earnestly to God for help and deliverance. II. THE MOTIVE OR ARGUMENT USED. 1. By the Name of God, in Scripture, is frequently to be understood God Himself in all His excellences, attributes and perfections; and the glory of His name is the rendering those perfections conspicuous and observable; so that to move God for His name's sake, or the glory of His name, is to move Him, that the effects of His Divine attributes may be made visible and illustrious in the sight of men, so that they may be had in just esteem and veneration. 2. What particular reasons the Jewish nation had to petition God, to glorify those His attributes on their behalf.(1) As they were a nation selected from the rest of the world, and made the peculiar people of God.(2) As the people of the Jews were politically united to God, their Sovereign in a national bond, or covenant, so He expressed Himself frequently to have a particular kindness for them, giving them many repeated promises of establishing their government and the succession of their kings in the royal line of David to perpetual generations. 3. Inquire what general encouragement there is for other nations to address to God upon the same motive. And the encouragement is sufficient, in that God has upon occasions declared by His holy prophets that He is not a little concerned for His own honour, He would have His name known and published in all the world, He would have that honour given to Him, which is due unto His name, to all His names; for He is styled in Scripture by many names, not only with respect to His essence, and existence, but also to His supereminent attributes and properties. 4. Inquire, as far as it is fit for us, upon what occasions, and at what seasons it may be proper for a nation to use this motive in their addresses to God.(1) When the existence and providence of God is called in question, denied by some, and exposed and profaned by others.(2) When they themselves or others, whom common humanity and Christian charity oblige to commiserate, lie under great oppressions; in this case men may confidently apply themselves to God, for the sake of His honour and for His holy name. III. APPLICATION. 1. If Almighty God have such a respect to the honour of His name, as to accept the addresses that are made to Him upon that motive, it is a great encouragement to us to make use of it upon all occasions; especially upon occasion of using some extraordinary offices of devotion. 2. Let us be careful that we do not as publicly dishonour Him by our sins as we pretend publicly to honour Him by our devotions. ( Bp. Gardiner. ) Deliver us, and purge away our sins Sins forgiven for Jesu's sake There is an old book in Paris called the "Chancellerie Book." It is like our own "Doomsday Book," in which all the records are inscribed — all the records of William the Conqueror's division of the land of England. The Chancellerie Book does likewise for France. It has the record of the cities, towns, and villages, with the amount of taxes to be paid by each. As you turn over the old pages of that book, you come to "Domremy," and, behold! there are no taxes to be paid by Domremy. Across the page there is written in bold writing, "Free, for the maid's sake." No taxes for the sake of Joan of Arc, the heroine who flung the English out. Ah, me! when those books are opened when the Lord takes His place on the great white throne, and He comes to my life on earth, behold! across the otherwise condemning page there is written, with letters of His own atoning blood, "Sins forgiven for His name's sake." Man's need of cleansing from sin met in Christ A rough parable of Luther , grafted on an older legend, runs somewhat in this fashion: — A man's heart is like a foul stable. Wheelbarrows and shovels are of little use, except to remove some of the surface filth, and to litter all the passages in the process. What is to be done with it? "Turn the Elbe into it," says he. The flood will sweep away all the pollution. Not my own efforts, but the influx of that pardoning, cleansing grace which is in Christ will wash away the accumulation of years, and the ingrained evil which has stained every part of my being. We cannot cleanse ourselves. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Psalm 79:10 A bad spirit and a theological error Homilist. I. A BAD SPIRIT. "Where is their God?" 1. There is a tendency in wicked men to deal in it. This spirit always indicates — (1) A mean nature. (2) A malignant nature. (3) A haughty nature. 2. There is a susceptibility even in good men to be pained by it. This is no sign of strength and greatness, but the reverse; the really great and strong man will feel no more the most cutting gibes of scorners than granite the drops of morning dew. II. A THEOLOGICAL ERROR. The question implies that the true God would not allow His people to suffer oppression and death at the hands of others. 1. The creatures whom God has created with an inner sovereignty, He allows to act freely both for good and evil. 2. All the evil that comes into the universe in this' way He overrules for good. ( Homilist. ) Let the sighing of the prisoner come before Thee. &&& Psalm 79:11 The prisoner's sigh P. B. Power, M. A. How difficult is it in earthly courts for the poor and sick to get access to the monarch's earl There is a fearful contrast between the king thus surrounded with magnificence and pomp, and the prisoner alone in his sad dungeon, the prey of hunger, of nakedness, and cold — the music of the monarch's court, the silence of the captive's cell, the monarch's prospects of power and glory for to-morrow, and the prisoner's that the morrow will be even as wretched as to-day. But what we cannot contemplate in things temporal is oftentimes plainly shown in things spiritual. The court of the Most High is unlike all others, for there the poor, the wretched, and the sad have entrance when they will. I. THE PRISONER. 1. There is the prisoner under forced bondage to sin, who is held in degrading thraldom against his will, perhaps by some peculiar effort of the devil, perhaps by some evil habit which he has allowed to become ascendant in his heart. Be encouraged, we say to such an one, with all your sins you are not shut out from life and hope, your state is dangerous but it is not desperate, provided that you make God's throne the destination of these sighs. 2. The prisoner under the bondage of conviction. Whilst you are sighing in your captivity, our message is to sustain you, not to do away with your convictions, or bid you cease to sigh, but to make your convictions lead you to the Cross, and to tell you that your sighs are surely heard. 3. The prisoner in the dungeon of despair. We approach such an one and say, "How earnest thou in hither? Who has denied the entrance of hope into thy cell, and fast bound thy soul in iron? Why shouldest thou at one time rage, and at another time be sullen? Hast thou ever petitioned for thy relief?" We tell this man of Christ, and of the free love of God, and of mercy shown to such sinners as David and myriads more, and exalting the power of the Cross; we show how "Jesus is able to save even to the very uttermost all that, come unto God by Him"; but what the immediate effect of this might be none can tell. At the sound of this Gospel's trump, the walls of some men's dungeons will immediately fall fiat, as Jericho's fell prostrate at the sounding of the priests. Then the captive of despair, seeing that there is salvation in Christ, will be set free by the Son, and so be free indeed. II. THE PRISONER'S APPLICATION FOR RELIEF. 1. A sigh is an unexpected declaration. Although we do not speak, still we can tell a long tale of sorrow with a sigh. 2. An unexpressed with for deliverance. A sigh indicates a condition of the mind: it tells us that there is sorrow there. Do you indeed feel this? If you do, is it possible that you can thus express your sadness without God's being well acquainted with it all? Surely not; and if God knows this, is His heart hardened that He will not feel; is His hand shortened that it cannot save? III. THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THIS PRISONER LOOKED FOR HELP. "According to the greatness of Thy power." This preservation shall be vouchsafed to every one of you who sigh for it to God. He Will deliver you from the place where you are confined with a sentence of death upon you, and will altogether reverse the sentence itself. It were of no use to escape from the prison-house with our sentence still impending over us; we might be apprehended again, and lose our life at last. Deliverance, however, and remission, shall both be yours; and the greatness of the power you have invoked shall be seen in each. And who will come forth, and bring you from your captivity, but Jesus Christ Himself? ( P. B. Power, M. A. ) The condemned prisoner Anon. I. OUR SAD AND GLOOMY CONDITION AS FALLEN CREATURES. There are many sorts of prisoners; some are so from debt, some by being taken captive in battle, some for criminal offences. The sinner is all these. He is, as the word may be rendered, a son of death; a criminal, respited, but not pardoned. He is as one waiting for execution. His doom is delayed, but not averted. II. WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES TO DELIVERANCE? In the King who can reprieve he sees the adversary whom he has wronged, and the Judge who has appointed him to die. Omnipotent power, injured dignity, and immutable justice are leagued against him. What can the prisoner do? III. That there is A WAY OF ESCAPE. In the face of every obstacle, deliverance is attainable. In proof of this we may notice — 1. The infinite knowledge of God. "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee." From whatever depth of guilt and misery you breathe the prayer of a broken and contrite heart, that prayer is heard by a gracious God. 2. The Almighty power on which the plea is founded — "According to the greatness of Thy power." This must be exercised. ( Anon. ) And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach. Psalm 79:12 Vengeance Homilist. — This is the same spirit as is breathed out in ver. 6. It is revenge. We have here two things. I. A NOBLE instinct. It is an instinct of justice, a cry against wrong. As an instinct, it is a spark from the Divine nature, a spark that reveals the justice which is at the head of the universe. Observe, the revenge here was not breathed for personal enemies, nor for bad men in the neighbourhood, the land, or the ago, but for bad men in a distant land and in a remote time. It was the breaking forth of that instinct of revenge which is in all our natures. II. A noble instinct WRONGLY DEVELOPED. It was a prayer that God would punish with "sevenfold" the sufferings which their enemies had inflicted on them. 1. It was a personal, not a public, development. We are commanded not to return evil for evil, etc. 2. It was an exaggerated development. It is not merely, treat, them as they are treating us, but with seven times the cruelty. 3. It was an impious development. It was asking the God of Infinite Love to act cruelly, it was to dictate to Infinite Justice the method of avenging the wrong. " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." "If," says Sir T. Browne, "thou must needs have thy revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones, heap coals of fire on his head, forgive him, and enjoy it." ( Homilist. ) We will show forth Thy praise to all generations. Psalm 79:13 God's people should speak God's praise Amos R. Wells. Dr. Parkhurst says he loves to think that every man is sent. into the world with something to tell. "That is what makes of any man a prophet, being filled with a story too big for his own soul to house," a story he cannot, dare not, keep to himself. This truth God has given you to utter makes you a witness. You may be a false witness, and no witness is more than he who says nothing; or you may be a true and faithful witness, testifying to the best you know by your face and hands, your smiles and deeds and words. That is a startling thought of Andrew Murray's: "God does not ask us to hide Christ away in our impure hearts." Christ gives Himself to us constantly, but in order that we may as constantly give Him to others. Truth is like the water pressed upon the foul garments, that cleanses them if it is forced out again, but rots them all the more if it is allowed to remain. So is the religion that we selfishly cherish unexpressed. Indeed, is there a worse form of selfishness than that? ( Amos R. Wells. ).

Benson Commentary Psalm 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Psalm 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.” Psalm 79:2 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. Psalm 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. Psalm 79:3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them . Psalm 79:4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. Psalm 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. Psalm 79:5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Psalm 79:6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. Psalm 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 . Psalm 79:7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. Psalm 79:8 O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Psalm 79:8 . Remember not against us former iniquities — The sins committed by our forefathers, and by us who have filled up the measure of their sins, for which we confess thou hast most righteously brought this desolating judgment upon us. Let thy tender mercies — Upon which all our confidence is fixed; for merit and righteousness we have none; see Daniel 9:7 ; Daniel 9:9 . Speedily prevent us — Prevent our utter extirpation, which we have deserved, and have great reason to expect; for we are brought very low — Past the hopes of all human help, and therefore the glory of our deliverance will be wholly thine. Psalm 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. Psalm 79:9-10 . Help us, O God of our salvation — From whom we have often received, and from whom alone we now expect salvation, that is, deliverance, or protection; for the glory of thy name — Which is now obscured by the insolence and blasphemy of thine enemies, who ascribe their conquest to their idols, and triumph over thee, no less than over thy people, as one unable to deliver them out of their hands: see Daniel 3:15 . Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God — He whom they served, and of whom they boasted? He is lost and gone, or grown impotent or idle. Let him be known among the heathen — By the execution of his judgments upon them, according to Psalm 9:16 ; in our sight — That we may live to see it, and praise thy name for it; by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed — Or, rather, Let the vengeance (Hebrew, ???? ?? , nikmath dam ) of thy servants’ blood which is shed be known among the heathen that are in our sight. “It is for the glory of God’s name to deliver his church; because, while she is in trouble, that name is blasphemed by the enemy, as if he wanted either power or will to prevent or remove the calamities of his servants. Prayer is therefore here made by the faithful, that God, not to gratify any vindictive spirit of theirs, but to vindicate his own attributes, would break the teeth of the oppressor, and work a public and glorious salvation for his chosen; at beholding which the very adversaries themselves might possibly be converted.” — Horne. Psalm 79:10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Psalm 79:11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; Psalm 79:11-12 . Let the sighing of the prisoner — Of thy poor people now in prison, or, at least, in captivity; come before thee — Be taken cognizance of by thee, and be as prevalent with thee as these prayers; according to the greatness of thy power — Hebrew, ?????? , zerognacha, of thine arm; with which no creature can contend; preserve thou those that are appointed to die — Hebrew, ??? ????? , benee temutha, the children of death, that is, which were either designed for death, or were in manifest danger of it, as being wholly in the power of their cruel and barbarous enemies. Thus, “next to those who had been slain, the case of such as groaned in captivity, lying bound in chains and fetters, under sentence of death, to be inflicted at the will of their cruel and insulting conquerors, is recommended to God.” And render unto our neighbours sevenfold — That is, either, 1st, Abundantly, as this phrase signifies, Isaiah 65:6-7 ; Jeremiah 32:18 ; Luke 6:38 . Or, 2d, Sensibly, so that it may come home to them, and fall heavily upon them in their own persons. The reproach wherewith they have reproached thee — As impotent, or unfaithful, or unmerciful to thy people. As if he had said, “As they have reproached thee with weakness, so manifest to others their weakness, who are but sinful dust and ashes; as they have endeavoured to make thee contemptible, so let the world have just cause to despise them, who have thus presumptuously offended; according as it is written, Them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed,” 1 Samuel 2:30 . And be assured, reader, however different the appearance of things may now be, this will certainly be found true in every instance at the last day. Psalm 79:12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. Psalm 79:13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. Psalm 79:13 . So we thy people will give thanks for ever — “Such is the resolution of a church under persecution; and such ought to be the practice of every church when delivered out of it, and restored to the favour and protection of her God. The same is the duty of every soul with regard to afflictions and mercies of a private kind. But how glorious will be the day, when, triumphant over sin and sorrow, over every thing that exalteth itself, the church universal shall behold the adversary disarmed for ever.” When the Lord God, having swallowed up death in victory, will wipe away tears from off all faces, and take away the rebuke of his people from off all the earth: when it shall be said, Lo! this is our God, we have waited for him, and he hath saved us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation, Isaiah 25:8-9 . Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Psalm 79:1-13 THE same national agony which was the theme of Psalm 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" ( Psalm 74:10 ; Psalm 79:5 ); the desecration of the Temple ( Psalm 74:3 ; Psalm 74:7 ; Psalm 79:1 ) the giving over to wild beasts ( Psalm 74:19 ; Psalm 79:2 ); the reproach of God ( Psalm 74:10 ; Psalm 74:18 ; Psalm 74:22 ; Psalm 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 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. Not 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. A second argument against the Maccabean date is based upon the quotation of Psalm 79:3 in RAPC 1Ma 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. Psalm 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 79:1 rendered "heathen" is usually translated "nations," but here evidently connotes idolatry ( Psalm 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, Psalm 79:3 is quoted in RAPC 1Ma 7:16-17 , and Psalm 79:4 is found in Psalm 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." The closing verse of the strophe ( Psalm 79:8 ) is intimately connected with the next, which we take as beginning the third strophe; but this connection does not set aside the strophical division, though it somewhat obscures it. The distinction between the similar petitions of Psalm 79:8-9 , is sufficient to warrant our recognition of that division, even whilst acknowledging that the two parts coalesce more closely than usual. The psalmist knows that the heathen have been hurled against Israel because God is angry; and he knows that God’s anger is no arbitrarily kindled flame, but one lit and fed by Israel’s sins. He knows, too, that there is a fatal entail by which the iniquities of the fathers are visited on the children. Therefore, he asks first that these ancestral sins may not be "remembered," nor their consequences discharged on the children’s heads. "The evil that men do lives after them," and history affords abundant instances of the accumulated consequences of ancestors’ crimes lighting on descendants that had abandoned the ancient evil, and were possibly doing their best to redress it. Guilt is not transmitted, but results of wrong are; and it is one of the tragedies of history that "one soweth and another reapeth" the bitter fruit. Upon one generation may, and often does, come the blood of all the righteous men that many generations have slain. { Matthew 23:35 } The last strophe ( Psalm 79:9-12 ) continues the strain begun in Psalm 79:8 , but with significant deepening into confession of the sins of the existing generation. The psalmist knows that the present disaster is no case of the fathers having eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth being set on edge, but that he and his contemporaries had repeated the fathers’ transgressions. The ground of his plea for cleansing and deliverance is the glory of God’s name, which he emphatically puts at the end of both clauses of Psalm 79:9 . He repeats the same thought in another form in the question of Psalm 79:10 , "Why should the heathen say, Where is their God?" If Israel, sinful though it is, and therefore meriting chastisement, is destroyed, there will be a blot on God’s name and the "heathen" will take it as proof, not that Israel’s God was just, but that He was too feeble or too far off to hear prayers or to send succours. It is bold faith which blends acknowledgment of sins with such a conviction of the inextricable intertwining of God’s glory and the sinners’ deliverance. Lowly confession is wonderfully wedded to confidence that seems almost too lofty. But the confidence is in its inmost core as lowly as the confession, for it disclaims all right to God’s help, and clasps His name as its only but sufficient plea. The final strophe dwells more on the sufferings of the survivors than the earlier parts of the psalm do, and in this respect contrasts with Psalm 74:1-23 , which is all but entirely silent as to these. Not only does the spilt blood of dead confessors cry for vengeance since they died for their faith, as "Thy servants," but the groans and sighs of the living who are captives, and "sons of death"- i.e ., doomed to die, if unrescued by God-appeal to Him. The expressions "the groaning of the captive" and "the sons of death" occur in Psalm 102:20 , from which, if this is a composition of Maceabean date they are here quoted. The strophe ends with recurring to the central thought of both this and the companion psalm-the reproach on God from His servants’ calamities-and prays that the enemies’ taunts may be paid back into their bosoms sevenfold- i.e. , in fullest measure. The epilogue in Psalm 79:13 has the image of a flock, so frequent in the Asaph psalms, suggesting tender thoughts of the shepherd’s care and of his obligations. Deliverance will evoke praise, and, instead of the sad succession of sin and suffering from generation to generation, the solidarity of the nation will be more happily expressed by ringing songs, transmitted from father to son, and gathering volume as they flow from age to age. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.