Psalms

Chapter 79

A Prayer for Deliverance

This psalm is a communal lament after devastating judgment has come upon Jerusalem and God's people have been humiliated before the nations. The singer describes the defilement of God's inheritance, the ruin of the temple, the slaughter and shame of the people, and then cries out over how long God's jealous wrath will continue. The prayer asks that divine wrath be turned instead upon the nations that do not know God, while also pleading that the community's former sins not be held against them and that God would help, forgive, and vindicate his own name. The psalm ends by asking God to hear the groans of captives, repay the taunts of neighbors, and restore his flock to perpetual thanksgiving.

Psalm 79 is a national prayer for deliverance that joins honest recognition of deserved judgment with an urgent appeal to God's mercy and reputation among the nations. It teaches the covenant community to lament catastrophe in a way that seeks both forgiveness and public vindication of God's name.

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Psalms 79

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vv. 1-13

A Prayer for Deliverance

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A¹ Psalm of Asaph. ²They have given the corpses of Your servants ³They have poured out their blood like water ⁴We have become a reproach to our neighbors,

⁵How long, O LORD? ⁶Pour out Your wrath on the nations ⁷for they have devoured Jacob

⁸Do not hold past sins against us; ⁹Help us, O God of our salvation, ¹⁰Why should the nations ask,

¹¹May the groans of the captives reach You; ¹²Pay back into the laps of our neighbors ¹³Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture,

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01vv. 1-13A Prayer for DeliveranceThe psalm begins by describing the invasion and desecration of Jerusalem: the nations have defiled God's inheritance, ruined the temple, shed the blood of his servants, and left the people a reproach to their neighbors. It then asks how long the LORD's jealous anger will burn and petitions him to pour out wrath instead on the nations that do not know him and that have devoured Jacob. From there the prayer turns inward, asking God not to remember former sins but to help, forgive, and deliver for the sake of his name. The closing requests ask that captive groans be heard, reproach be repaid, and God's people be restored to lifelong praise.