Psalms 79 – Thy Holy Temple Have They Defiled
A grieving prayer over Jerusalem's ruin, pleading for mercy.
This chapter of the Psalms overview laments an invasion in which Jerusalem's temple is defiled and its people left as a reproach to their neighbours, a national catastrophe echoing the earlier warning in Psalms 78.
A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that refuse to call on Your name,
for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.
Do not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come quickly, for we are brought low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; deliver us and atone for our sins, for the sake of Your name.
Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
May the groans of the captives reach You; by the strength of Your arm preserve those condemned to death.
Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.
Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will thank You forever; from generation to generation we will declare Your praise.