seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Psalm 79 A psalm of Asaph.
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.
This is from the easy English site.Something bad had happened to the Jews. They had not obeyed God, so he let their enemies beat them. Bible students think that this happened 600 years before Jesus came to the earth. A country called Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and took many people away as prisoners. Maybe this psalm is by one of the prisoners. He asks God to do to the Babylonians what they had done to the Jews, only worse. We call psalms like this "Psalms of Imprecation". You can read about them at the end of Psalm 69 in this series of psalms. Psalm 69 is in Book 2 of The Psalms of David.
The reason that he gives is this. If God does nothing, people will think that God is weak, or even that there is no God! That is why he says in verse 9 "For the *glory of your name, save us. So that your name will always be famous, forgive us our sins". And in verse 10 "Where is their God?"
"The countries that do not love God" in verses 1, 6, 10, 12 translates just one Hebrew word, "countries" or "*nations". Here it means just Babylon, but it could mean any country that hurts God’s people.
David did not write all the Psalms. Man... I had a Sunday school teacher who had it wrong. I wonder how many Sunday school teachers have had it wrong. I wonder what else I've been wrong about?
The author of this poem is begging for God to intervene. When God does intervene.... will I get a pass because my Sunday school teacher taught me something that is wrong or will I get a demerit because I should have read my Bible and figured it out a few decades ago?
