Psalms 79
Big idea: The aftermath, told without euphemism: dead bodies given to the birds, blood shed like water around Jerusalem, and no one left to bury them. The psalm's request is double and the two halves sit awkwardly together — forgive our sins, and pay back our neighbors seven times. What holds it is the phrase repeated three times: for the glory of your name; for your name's sake; why should the nations say, Where is their God? The appeal is not to Israel's innocence but to God's reputation.
Psalm 79 pleads for a ruined city. Psalm 80 pleads for a vineyard with its walls broken down.
79:1–7 — There was no one to bury them
Written from the same ruin as Psalm 74, and where that one counted the axe-marks this one counts the bodies. The detail that carries it is administrative rather than emotional: there was NO ONE TO BURY THEM. In a culture where burial was the last duty owed to anybody, the absence of gravediggers means the community itself has stopped functioning.
1 A Psalm by Asaph. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. 2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. 3 They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. 5 How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? 6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name, 7 for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.
79:8–13 — For the glory of your name
The second half is built on a single argument, repeated: do it for your NAME. Help us for the glory of your name, deliver us for your name's sake, and answer the question the nations are asking — where is their God? The psalm has stopped claiming to deserve anything. It concedes the sins in verse 9 and pleads reputation instead.
8 Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. 9 Help us, God of our salvation, 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?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out. 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. 12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. 13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).