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. O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food to the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints, to the beasts of the earth.
Their blood have they shed like water around Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are around us.
How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place.
O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily succor us: for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.
Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by avenging the blood of thy servants which is shed.
Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;
And render to our neighbors seven-fold into their bosom their reproach, with which they have reproached thee, O Lord.
So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations.