“Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.”
The supplicant distinguishes between God's anger and the nations' actions: "Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name." This petition asks God to distinguish between Israel (whom God knows and who has received divine instruction) and foreign nations (who lack such relationship). The prayer assumes a moral hierarchy: the nations, lacking covenant relationship with God, may be held to different standards than the covenant people.
Church Fathers on Psalms 79:6
1. Over the title of this Psalm, being so short and so simple, I think we need not tarry. But the prophecy which here we read sent before, we know to be evidently fulfilled. For when these things were being sung in the times of King David, nothing of such sort, by the hostility of the Gentiles, as yet had befallen the city Jerusalem, nor the Temple of God, which as yet was not even built. For that after the death of David his son Salomon made a temple to God, who is ignorant?…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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