Psalms 79

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about 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 prevent 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.

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of 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 unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.

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Psalms 79:1

“O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.”

Psalm 79 opens with a communal lament describing national catastrophe: "O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins." The violation of the divine inheritance (the land) and the defilement of the temple represent the most profound form of covenantal crisis. The mention of the temple's defilement evokes imagery of foreign contamination of the sacred space; the city's destruction represents not merely military loss but theological rupture. This psalm likely responds to a historical destruction (possibly the Babylonian siege of 586 BCE) from the perspective of survivors attempting to articulate the theological meaning of catastrophe.

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Psalms 79:1

“O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.”

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