BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Psalms 79 — A Community Lament Over the Desecrated Temple
A communal lament in which Asaph describes the nations' invasion of the temple land, asks how long God will be angry, and pleads for mercy, deliverance, and vindication of God's name among the nations.
Scripture
1A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
2The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food unto the birds of the heavens, The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
3Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; And there was none to bury them.
4We are become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us.
5How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
6Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.
7For they have devoured Jacob, And laid waste his habitation.
8Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers: Let thy tender mercies speedily meet us; For we are brought very low.
9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; And deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake.
10Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed Be known among the nations in our sight.
11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee: According to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to death;
12And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture Will give thee thanks for ever: We will show forth thy praise to all generations.
What this passage means
Psalm 79 is structured as a community lament. Verses 1–4 recount the catastrophe: foreign nations have entered the Lord's own land, defiled the temple, turned Jerusalem into rubble, and left the corpses of the faithful unburied so that the surrounding peoples mock Israel. The complaint is not private grief but a national disaster in which God's honor is visibly at stake.
Verses 5–12 press God with three urgent requests. The people ask how long the divine anger will last (v. 5), demand that wrath be poured out on the nations that do not know God (vv. 6–7, 10, 12), and plead that ancestral sins not be held against them but that pardon and rescue come quickly for the sake of God's own name (vv. 8–9, 11). The repeated phrase "for thy name's sake" (vv. 9) makes the theological argument explicit: Israel's survival is tied to the reputation of Israel's God before the watching nations.
Verse 13 closes the psalm with a vow. If God will answer, then the sheep of his pasture will give thanks forever and declare his praise to every generation. The psalm therefore moves from catastrophe, through complaint and petition, to a renewed commitment of praise—an arc typical of lament psalms where worship itself becomes the proper response even before the answer arrives.
Context
The chapter is identified as "A Psalm of Asaph," linking it to the Asaphite collection (Psalms 73–83) in which several psalms address the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The psalm does not name a specific king or historical event; instead it speaks in generalized terms of nations entering the "inheritance," defiling the "holy temple," and leaving Jerusalem in heaps—language that the cross-references connect to Jeremiah's descriptions of Jerusalem's fall and to other communal laments such as Psalms 89 and 142.
Within the surrounding canonical context provided, Psalms 79 is paired with Psalms 102 (prayer for the captive and those appointed to death), 25 (pleading for pardon for God's name's sake), and 95 (calling God's people the sheep of his hand). The chapter note supplied describes Psalm 79 as a backfilled entry from outside the P0/P1 priority list, indicating that the page covers the remainder of the Psalter rather than a specially curated passage.
Key words in the original
- H2930 Hebrew ṭimməʾû, "defiled" (verb, root טמא). In Psalm 79:1 the verb is applied to the temple, presenting the sanctuary's contamination as the core outrage of the invasion. Strong's notes that the root covers both ceremonial and moral uncleanness.
- H5038 Hebrew niḇlaṯ, "bodies / carcases." The noun comes from a root connoting something flabby or fallen and is used in Psalm 79:2 for the corpses of God's servants given to the birds. Strong's flags its figurative extension to idol-carcasses as well.
- H2623 Hebrew ḥăsîdî, "faithful / pious." In Psalm 79:2 it designates the loyal covenant worshippers whose bodies are exposed. Strong's defines the root as "kind," hence religiously pious — a saint in the sense of covenant devotion rather than sinless perfection.
Related verses
- Jeremiah 10:25 Jeremiah 10:25 echoes Psalm 79:6–7 almost verbatim, asking God to pour out his wrath on the nations that do not know him and have devoured Jacob. The overlap shows that later prophets reused this psalm's wording when describing the same catastrophe of Jerusalem's fall.
- Psalms 89:46 Psalms 89:46 shares Psalm 79:5's question, "How long, O Jehovah?" and its image of wrath burning like fire. The two laments belong to the same post-collapse stream of prayer, where God's apparent silence becomes the very thing the community protests.
- Isaiah 48:9 Isaiah 48:9 grounds God's restraint in "my name's sake" and "my praise," the same rationale Psalm 79:9 uses when pleading, "for thy name's sake." Both texts tie Israel's preservation to the honor of God's name rather than to Israel's merit.
Common questions
What kind of psalm is Psalm 79?
It is a communal lament: it begins by describing a national disaster (the temple defiled, Jerusalem ruined, the dead unburied), moves into complaint and urgent petition, and ends with a vow of perpetual thanksgiving. The vocabulary and structure match other community laments such as Psalms 74 and 89.
Who is Asaph, and does Asaph authorship place Psalm 79 in a particular historical setting?
Asaph is named in the superscription. The chapter itself does not name a king or event, but it is grouped with the Asaphite psalms (Psalms 73–83) that repeatedly mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The provided material does not commit to a specific date, so the safest reading is to treat it as a communal lament for that kind of catastrophe without fixing it to one campaign.
Why does the psalm ask God to "pour out wrath" on the nations and also to forgive Israel?
The psalm holds two theological claims together: the nations have attacked God's inheritance and deserve judgment, while Israel is also guilty and in need of pardon. Both requests are justified by the same reason—"for thy name's sake" (v. 9)—so that God's honor among the nations (v. 10) and Israel's restoration become two sides of the same plea for God's name to be vindicated.