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.
O God, nations, Have entered thine inheritance, Have profaned thy holy temple,—Have laid Jerusalem in heaps:
They have given, The dead bodies of thy servants, As food for the birds of the heavens, The flesh of thy men of lovingkindness, Unto the wild beast of the earth:
They have poured out their blood like water, Round about Jerusalem, With none to bury.
We have become, A reproach to our neighbours,—A mockery and a derision, to them who are round about us.
How long, O Yahweh, wilt thou be angry utterly? Shall thy jealousy, burn like fire?
Pour out thy wrath, Upon the nations that have not known thee—and, Upon the kingdoms that, on thy Name, have not called.
For he hath devoured Jacob,—And, his dwelling-place, have they laid waste.
Do not remember against us former iniquities,—Haste thee, let thy compassions, come to meet us, For we have been brought very low!
Help us, O God of our salvation, on account of the glory of thy Name,—Rescue us then, and put a propitiatory-covering over our sins, For the sake of thy Name.
Wherefore should the nations say—Where is their God? Let him be known among the nations before our eyes! [Yea! By] the avenging of the blood of thy servants which hath been shed!
Let the groaning of the prisoner, come in before thee,—According to the greatness of thine arm, Set free them who are appointed to death.
Return, therefore, unto our neighbours—Sevenfold, into their own bosom, The reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Adonay!
So, we, thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks unto thee, to times age-abiding,—To generation after generation, will we recount thy praise.