Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 79
The lxxix. PSALM.
The Psalmist sadly relates to God the condition of his people, the land, the holy Citie, the Temple, under either the Assyrian or Antiochus, what cruelty and devastation was every where executed, what reproch he and they were fallen into by it, and prayeth for redress, and remarkable judgement upon their cruel oppressours, and the blasphemers of his name, promising everlasting remembrance of his merciemercy and praise for it, if vouchsafed.Psalm lxxix. A Psalm of (or, for) Asaph.
A Psalm made either by Asaph himself in a prophetical prediction of Jerusalems calamities, or committed to his successours bearing his name by some man of God that made it after they fell out.
1 O God that didst chuse and set apart this land of Canaan,1O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy Temple have they defiled: they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. specially Judea for thy self, and Church to inhabit and to worship thee in, and didst drive out them that were not thy people, and tookest and keptst possession of it hitherto, till now, that the heathen no whit related to thee have re-assumed it, broken in with rage and cruelty, and dispossessed both thee and thy people, for now Jerusalem which thou hast formerly so wonderfully preserved from them, and the Temple there, that place of thy special presence and sacred worship, have they also mastered as well as the rest of the land of Israel and Judah, the one of them, they have done all manner of spight to for thy sake, defiled that sacred place with the bloud of thine own people that were wont there to worship thee, and introduced their prophane Idolatries into it; The other, they have devastated, the walls and houses are demolished, inhabitants slaughtred, all ruinated.
2 It is not to be expressed the outrages of the enemie and the miseries of thy poor people,2The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of heaven: the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. they torture them to death that adhere to thee, and will not apostatize and desert thy Laws and ordinances, to profess and practise their Idolatrie and superstition, and after death will not afford them burial, but expose them above ground as not worthie the common curtesie of nature, to have so much as a burying place on earth, whose souls are with thee in heaven, but lie like common carrion, and are suffered to rot and stink, and be torn in pieces and devoured by ravenous beasts and birds.
3Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem: and there was none to burie them.3 They have made havock of all thy faithful people, that for pietie sake resorted to and inhabited in and about thy holy Citie Jerusalem, shedding there the bloud of such holy Martyrs unmeasurably, and by strict watch and barbarous edicts kept the bodies of such precious souls unburied, nor would suffer without imminent peril of their lives, nay, certain ruine, any of their brethren that were left alive to do that office of charitie and humanitie for them, nor indeed could they if they would, the dead were so many, and the living so few.
4We are become a reproch to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.4 We, O Lord, that through thy grace and powerful assistance were wont to be the terrour of the heathen round about us, and by thy presence and worship amongst us were heretofore the glorie of all the World; now they that were our slaves and subjects are our Lords and masters, and use us not onelyonly cruelly, but abuse us scornfully, reproching and deriding us together with thee, and thy worship, because of our present condition, and theirs; none pitie us, no not our next neighbour-nations, but scornfully taunt us.
5How long, Lord, wilt thou be angrie for ever? shall thy jealousie burn like fire?5 O Lord, take notice of it and be moved to vindicate thine own dishonour, and have some compassion also upon thy distre…sed people; for, Lord, we know well enough that this could not befal us if our sins and thine anger were not the causes. But, Lord, remember thou hast been angrie heretofore, but never after this sort, thou wast wont to commix merciemercy with displeasure, Lord, be not less good to us than to our forefathers, let there be an end of our miserie and thy furie, and let not our whoredoms and thine enraged jealousie quite consume us as fire doth straw.
6 Lord,6Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the Kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. such furie would better become thee towards thine enemies than thy chosen people, these indeed for their sins may deserve punishments, but let utter destruction be the portion of them that neither know nor worship thee, that have neither relation to thee nor commerce with thee, nor thou knowest never will, but in their pride and ignorance contemne thee and serve other Gods.
7 And such are they that have thus cruelly butchered us thine onelyonly Israel,7For they have devoured Jacob, and laid wast his dwelling place. thy friends Jacobs posteritie, and by slaughter, captivitie, and devastations have unpeopled and ruinated the whole land where we have dwelt so long, and which thou promisedst to him and his posteritie after him, which yet now are cast out of it by these prophane heathen.
8 O for merciemercy sake muster not up the provocations of old,8O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. those murmurings against thee, mistrusts of thee, apostatizings from thee that we have ever been guiltie of from the very first, to make war upon us for them now, but forgive and forget them, for we shall never be able to stand under them. And instead of remembring them, call to mind thy tender mercies and bowels of compassion which thou hast ever professed to be in thee in thy peoples behalf when they have been in miserie, and greater never befel them than these we now are in, for we are at the very last gasp, to so low and miserable an estate are we brought, as thy people have scarce a beeing, but certainly will have none at all shortly, such sorrows and sufferings will make a final end of them, if thou in merciemercy speedily prevent it not by some redress.
9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glorie of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy names sake.9 Which, good Lord, vouchsafe us, Help us out of this miserable destructive condition, thou that onelyonly canst do it, and who we cannot chuse but hope wilt do it, because thy glorie is so much concerned in it, and thou as well as we sufferest so much by it: Though (we confess) we can not scarce hope by reason of our sins, which are greater than our sufferings, but, Lord, as our benefit will be great, so thy glorie will not be small, if thou wilt do away sins and sufferings by thy pardon and power, which therefore we beg of thee.
10Wherefore should the heathen say, where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight, by the revenging of the bloud of his servants which is shed.10 For as things now stand thou hast no honour, we are punished, but the heathen are not converted. Thy justice and terrour upon us hath no other operation upon them to drive them into contempt and insultation, not onelyonly over us, but thee, for they stick not to say where is the God of the Hebrews! he that was wont, he could deliver them. This, Lord, they say in derision of thee, and thou sufferest it to go unpunished, though thou thus punishest us. But, Lord, let us few that are left alive of the many thousands of Israel, though in captivitie, yet be remembered and pitied by thee, let our enemies know, and us see that thou art a God still and the same God too as able as heretofore, by some remarkable and just vindication of that deluge of bloud of thine own people, and precious servants that hath been shed, and cries for vengeance against them.
11 Yea,11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee, according to the greatness of thy power: preserve thou those that are appointed to die. Lord, let both the innocent bloud already shed, as also the unjust sufferings and miserable calamities of those of thy people that are yet alive, the imprisonments and cruelties practised upon them, and the heavie sighs and direful groans which in those pressures are forced from them, come all before thee to move with thee, as to revenge the one, so to preserve the other, which thou hast power enough to do, though they and death are not far asunder.
12 Put forth thy power accordingly in our behalfs,12And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom, the reproch wherewith they have reproched thee, O Lord. but chiefly in thine own, let them not escape thee for their cruelties; but, Lord, pay them home for their blasphemies, these wicked Idolatrous heathens, and those pitieless neighbouring nations, that notwithstanding all they have heard and seen of thee, since thou broughtest us among them, are no more knowing of thee, nor bear no more reverence to thee, than to scorn and reproch thee because of our miserie. Good Lord, let them smart for it.
13 Who are none of thy people,13So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. and we that are thine onelyonly peculiar shall thereby have cause given us for ever, to remember thy power and goodness, when thou shalt thus revenge the dead, preserve the living, and right thy self, and will never forget so great a merciemercy, but will be for ever thankfull to thee, and praise thee for it, yea, our children and childrens children through all generations will we instruct, and engage to do the like.