Psalms 79

God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. Both see: both camps hear invasion of holy space as outrage against God's claim, not mere politics.

The plain grief stands—inheritance, temple, and city ruined. Lament the desecration before God who owns the land and the house.

Calvin: when the heathen came into God's heritage, the order of nature seemed inverted; destruction of the temple extinguished earthly service; Jerusalem reduced to heaps is hideous overthrow. He begins with heaven-daring impiety that should provoke wrath, then turns to the slaughter of the saints.

Inheritance invaded, temple defiled, city ruined. The Church's ruin is first measured by what it does to God's name and worship.

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. Undisputed: servants and faithful are God's own; exposure of the dead is barbarity.

Name the cruelty without hardening into hatred of persons. The faithful remain "yours" even when birds and beasts are fed.

Calvin: almost every word expresses cruelty—not only death, but bodies given to fowls and beasts instead of burial. Men usually shrink from denying even enemies sepulture; those who delight in torn corpses more resemble beasts than humans. Temporal punishments may fall on elect and reprobate alike; the difference is in the issue—God converts what signals wrath into means of his children's salvation.

The bodies of God’s servants lie exposed. Death of the saints is still precious in his sight; he will avenge.

They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. No dispute here: indiscriminate slaughter; burial denied.

Blood like water marks cheapened life around the holy city. Cry the fact to God; do not aestheticize the horror.

Calvin: blood shed like water shows insatiable thirst for slaughter; none to bury applies to brethren stricken with terror. God intended burial as a testimony to resurrection; deprivation is double indignity—yet the faithful, rising by faith, suffer no final loss toward blessed immortality.

Blood poured out, none to bury.

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. Both affirm: surrounding scorn heaps shame on the people and, indirectly, on their God.

Neighbor mockery is suffering. Bring the taunt into prayer rather than answering scorn with scorn.

Calvin: another complaint to excite mercy. The more the ungodly mock, the more confidently deliverance may be expected—God will not bear insolence that redounds to reproach of his name. The faithful complain not only of personal derision but of what is leveled against God and his law.

Israel suffers taunts and derision. Zeal for the name outranks wounded pride.

Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Prolonged anger and jealousy named before God.

"how long" is the cry of worn faith, not a denial of justice. Ask the duration; confess the burn; keep praying.

Calvin: how long and forever joined mark lengthened, uninterrupted calamity—complaint not ended within a month or two. They confess the accumulation is from God's wrath; the wicked injure only as he permits. They do not charge him with unjust displeasure but acknowledge the justice of the punishment.

Anger and jealousy burned. Look to his hand when conscience also accuses.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name! The plea redirects wrath toward those who neither know nor call on God—nations that have assaulted his people.

Imprecation here is prayer for public justice, not a private license to hate. Desire that God, not the flesh, pour out anger; keep mercy (vv. 8–9) in the same breath as judgment.

Calvin: the prayer seems to clash with charity, yet it is right only under zeal for the public welfare—forgetting individual injury, regarding the Church's salvation, imploring discretion, and setting eyes chiefly on Christ against enemies whose repentance is hopeless. They do not rashly break forth nor anticipate judgment; they desire the reprobate involved in deserved condemnation while patiently waiting for God to separate elect from reprobate. They do not cast aside charity; they know some reformation is hopeless.

Pour out anger on unknowing nations. Imprecation disciplined by the Spirit is zeal for God's cause, not carnal revenge.

For they have devour Jacob, and destroyed his habitation. Where they meet: reason for the plea—Jacob eaten, dwelling wasted.

Name the devouring as ground of appeal. The habitation laid waste is covenant people under assault.

Calvin: they arraign the cruelty of enemies who have eaten up Jacob and made his dwelling desolate. The argument presses how inconsistent it would be if God afflicted those who call on his name and spared heathen who despise him—yet judgment may begin at the house of God.

Jacob has been devoured and his homeland laid waste. Plead without prescribing God's timetable.

Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. Wesley: Prevent—prevent our utter extirpation. Confession of old sins; mercy must meet the low before ruin is total.

Ask that tender mercies arrive first—prevent means get ahead of destruction. Former iniquities are owned; compassion is begged as the only path out.

Calvin: they confirm they justly deserved chastisement; relief comes only by reconciliation. Former iniquities may mean long continued stubbornness with the fathers—not one or two recent faults. Make haste contrasts with ages of sin; compassions must speedily prevent them.

Do not remember former iniquities; compassion meet us. Low estate is confession, not excuse.

Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake! Both traditions hear: help, deliverance, and atonement sought for the name's glory—not self-credit.

Salvation's God is addressed; purge of sins is joined to deliverance. Plead the name; bring no bargain of merit.

Calvin: afflictions traced to anger; comfort only if God is reconciled. God of our salvation; they bring nothing of their own—only his glory. Sinners are reconciled by free, unmerited forgiveness. Chief concern is God pacified, not mere relief of symptoms. Be merciful/purge (kpr) points toward cleansing and sacrifice—without shedding of blood, no remission.

Help and atone for the name's sake. Grace is the source; the name is the plea.

Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let vengeance for the blood of your servants that has been poured out be known among the nations in our sight! God's honor and servants' blood stand together in the plea.

The taunt "Where is their God?" must be answered by God himself. Desire visible vindication of shed blood without craving cruelty for its own sake.

Calvin: the name is urged so sacred honor not be exposed to blasphemy. Prayer joins concern for salvation with zeal for God's glory. This form is not for all men driven by passion, but under the Spirit for the Church's cause. They do not desire to be glutted with bloodshed; they want confirmation that God avenges wrongs to his people. Servants may be justly chastened yet not cast off—their blood still precious.

Silence the taunt; avenge servants' blood. Pure zeal, not personal bloodlust.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to die! Wesley: The prisoner—of thy poor people now in captivity. Common reading: captive groan and death-sentence need great power to reverse.

Bring the sighing of the captive before God. Preserve the doomed by arm-strength that matches the low of v. 8.

Calvin: the people were so shut up that to stir was death; children of death means appointed or condemned. Greatness of arm—signal interposition—is implored; without extraordinary help, restoration is hopeless. Proud spirits once vaunting are now broken.

Prisoners' groans; preserve the doomed. Great power answers deep captivity.

Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom the reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord! Both confess: the taunt was against the Lord; sevenfold return is asked into their bosom.

Measure the offense as blasphemy against God, not only insult to us. Sevenfold is fullness of just recompense prayed, not a private feud scored in flesh.

Calvin: the faithful show they are moved less by personal injuries than inflamed with holy zeal when God's name is blasphemed. If this affection reigns, it moderates fleshly ungovernableness; with the Spirit's wisdom, prayers accord with just judgment.

Sevenfold return of taunts aimed at Jehovah. Fair hearing of imprecation: both camps refuse carnal revenge and own the prayer as zeal for the blasphemed name.

So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to generation we will recount your praise. Shared close: identity as people and sheep issues in endless thanks and recounted praise.

Vow of praise is the fruit of hoped deliverance. Teach the next generation the Lord's praise—do not end the lament without the sheep's song.

Calvin: fruit of deliverance is that God's name be celebrated; preservation is not desired for any other end. Grateful acknowledgement will not be brief but transmitted from age to age. Thy people and sheep of thy pasture—if that people were destroyed, memory of the name would perish.

The sheep live to show forth his praise.