Psalms 79:1

PSALM 79

A LAMENT OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM;

AND A PRAYER FOR VENGEANCE

George DeHoff called this psalm, "The Funeral Anthem of a Nation."[1]

Charles M. Miller's analysis of this psalm points out that it exhibits several elements found in other psalms: (1) Psalms 79:5,7,10a are lamentation; (2) Psalms 79:6,10b,12 are imprecations; (3) Psalms 79:8-9 are pleas for forgiveness; (4) Psalms 79:11 pleads for deliverance; and (5) Psalms 79:13 carries a pledge of praise and thanksgiving following deliverance.[2]

Three possible occasions identified with this psalm were proposed by Halley, namely, "The invasion of Shishak, the fall of the northern kingdom, and the Babylonian captivity."[3] Delitzsch suggested the time of the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes.[4]

To this writer, the only logical selection is that of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the final captivity of the residue of the people that accompanied the capture and deportation of Zedekiah to Babylon. There are many reasons for this choice.

(1) There is the fact that for eighteen centuries, "The Jews have recited this psalm upon the 9th day of the Jewish month Ab, commemorating the two destructions of Jerusalem (by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and by the Romans in A.D. 70). This practice may point to an old tradition associating this psalm with the Babylonian period."[5]

(2) Shishak never entered Jerusalem. (2) Antiochus Epiphanes did not destroy either the temple or the city of Jerusalem. (3) The mention of the people's captivity (Psalms 79:11) points squarely to the Babylonian era. (4) The complete destruction of Jerusalem (Psalms 79:1) occurred only once in pre-Christian history, namely in 587 B.C.; and (5) many of the ablest scholars we have consulted agree on the Babylonian date and occasion.

"The only time which adequately fits this description is the exilic period after the burning of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.[6] The Babylonian destruction seems most appropriate.[7] `Jerusalem in heaps' is truer of the Babylonian captivity than of the times of Antiochus Epiphanes.[8] It seems best to assign it to the period of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.[9] The general voice of commentators is that the psalm must be referred to the time of the Babylonian conquest."[10]

The psalm naturally falls into two divisions. First, there is a description of the disaster (Psalms 79:1-4). The remaining nine verses are a prayer for deliverance, forgiveness, vengeance upon enemies, etc.

Psalms 79:1

"O God, the nations have come into thine inheritance;

Thy holy temple have they defiled;

They have laid Jerusalem in heaps."

"The nations, " "the Gentiles." It was an especially bitter thing for the Jews that a pagan nation was permitted to triumph over them. "It is the height of reproach when a father casts upon a slave the task of beating his son. Of all outward judgments against Israel, this was the sorest."[11]

"They have laid Jerusalem in heaps." Some writers have made too much of the fact that it is not stated here that the temple was destroyed, but `defiled.' However, the destruction of it would have been indeed a defilement; and besides that, how could it be imagined that with the whole city in "heaps" the temple would not have suffered the same fate as the rest of the city?