Psalm LXXIX

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance!

Thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

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.

3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; And there was none to bury them.

4 Wc are become a reproach to our neighbours,

A scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

5 How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn

like fire?

6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

8 O remember not against us former iniquities:

Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

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

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.

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;

12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

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.

Another of the “Asaph-Psalms” — the cry, evidently, of widowed Zion in the ear of the righteous Judge; such a cry as our Head (Luke xviii. 7) describes the Church at large as raising in the Latter Days. It suits alike the Church in Israel in Asaph’s time, and the Church scattered over earth in these Last Days, and not less will it suit Israel in the days of their final tribulation, (Zech. xiv. 1, &c.).

It tells of martyrdom (1-3), with a remnant left behind, appealing to the Lord with somewhat of the awful power we feel to be in the cry of the souls under the altar (Rev. vi. 9) — q. cl.,” Pour out thy wrath on Antichrist (see 2 Thess. i. 8), and on the nations that know thee not and that persecute thy people,

“Even as they poured out the blood of thy servants.” (Ver. 3.)

When they confess (ver. 8) “former iniquities,” is not this in the lips of Israel an acknowledgment of their forefathers’ unbelief, when Jerusalem rang with — “His blood be upon us and upon our children V It includes this, no doubt, and their idolatry, too, presenting the long-expected cry spoken of in Lev. xxvi. 45, on hearing which the Lord shall arise, and as “they are brought very low,” shall fulfil Deut. xxxiii. 1 6,when he seeth that their power is gone. “Let the avenging of thy servant’s blood be known,” (ver. 10).

When (ver. 11) we hear them plead, “Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee,” we call to mind Manasseh in his Assyian dungeon. We seem to see Israel taking Manasseh ’s position, and obtaining Manasseh’s wondrous pardon. Nor are they like IManasseh only, but are, besides, “children of death,” TMylt2r ““^Zl, that is, exposed to a continuing death; *0T rliy’12r is more than n)12 just as” vexuffig’^ is more than “6avarog” (see Beza on 2 Cor. iv. 10). And then there is “the reproach” that lay upon them, the essence of which (like the “reproach of Egypt,” Josh. v. 9, Num. xiv. 1 3) had been, “Is God able to accomplish his promises? Where is their Ood?” (Ver. 36.)

Melody from freed souls bursts on our ear at verse 1 3. The old pastures, Sharon, Carmel, Bashan, are repossessed by the long-lost sheep; and this is the burden of the praise of these ransomed of the Lord, returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy:

“And we are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture.’
We vill give thee praise for evermore ■’
We iriU record thy praise to all generations!”

We, too, belonging to the Church at large, shall join in this hallelujah, and take part in this eternal song to the faithful Jehovah — that same incarnate Jehovah who once wept on the Mount of Olives, over Jerusalem ready to become heaps. With them, therefore, let us join in raising this

Cry of widowed Zion to the Righteous Judge.