“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.”
The petition deepens with theological reasoning: "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; and deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake." The motivation shifts from the people's worthiness to God's own reputation: rescue would demonstrate God's power to save, and forgiveness would vindicate God's name among the nations. The supplicants make their rescue instrumental to God's own honor.
Church Fathers on Psalms 79:9
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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