How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
The psalm opens on a ruined city, a defiled temple, and dead left unburied. In verse 5 the sufferers turn from that wreckage and ask God how long His anger will last.
The question is not a complaint that God has abandoned them. He is still angry with them, and that means the bond is still there.
They see Jehovah's anger, and so far there is faith to say — How long? That is, the remnant do not enjoy covenant mercies — quite the opposite. Yet faith looks to those mercies, and sees Jehovah angry with His people. If that is so, and He stands in this relationship with them, He cannot give them up. It is only "How long?"
The name they use here carries that confidence. Earlier they said "O God"; now they use the covenant name.
To this "how long" — the prophetic word of faith on the earth — the name "Lord" comes in at once. That is Jehovah, the faithful God of continuance and promise.
The word is not petty resentment. It describes a love that will not share what belongs to it.
qana means "to be inflamed." It is the warm affection that cannot bear to see its loved one enticed by another. A man is jealous of his wife (Numbers 5:14). Paul felt this for the Corinthian saints (2 Corinthians 11:2). And God so regarded the people and the land which He had chosen, and on which He had placed His name (Psalm 79:5; Ezekiel 39:25; Joel 2:18). "The LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14).
The fire has a cause, and those praying know it.
This is a strong appeal of the Spirit of Christ to the faithfulness of the God of Jacob. With it goes a full recognition of the national sin which had kindled the fire of His jealousy among the palaces of Jerusalem (Amos 2:4 onwards). The faithful remnant, whose cry is so clearly heard in this Psalm, freely acknowledge their sin.
They hold two things together. The hand striking them is God's hand, yet they also name what the invaders are.
(verses 5-7) The godly rightly feel that an attack against God, and His possessions, must have a limit. God cannot allow it to go on for ever. So they ask, "How long, O LORD?" They also own that they are suffering under the chastening anger and jealousy of the Lord. But they plead that the instruments of His chastening are only expressing their hatred against God. They have not known God or called upon His Name.
One writer sets out the reasoning behind the two questions, and the answer they met.
If the enemy's persecution was due to God's anger against His people, must that anger last for ever? Must His jealousy burn like unquenchable fire? Why not pour out that anger instead on the nations that show cold ignorance of God — those kingdoms that refuse to call on the name of the Lord? … God was aware of all this, and would deal with those nations in His own time. But just now He was dealing with Israel.
The wording itself is a clue to when this prayer belongs.
"How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?" is a plea that no one could make when Israel was only just beginning to feel God's wrath.
Another writer presses the question of who is speaking here.
Take Psalm 79, and assume what seems self-evident to many readers: in its full import it tells of a day not yet come. The Holy Spirit there provides words for a suffering people. But for what people? Is there a single sentiment here that is characteristic of the church of God? Is there one that does not breathe Jewish affections and hopes?
The same "How long?" runs through other psalms, and on into an hour of suffering still to come.
With a loud voice they cry "How long?" the well-known cry of the suffering Jew in the coming hour of unequalled sorrow. Anguish and faith are expressed in the cry (Psalm 74:9-10; Psalm 79:5; Psalm 89:46; Psalm 94:3-4). The appeal is to God as "Sovereign Ruler." … The cry is to One Who has right and power to avenge the blood so cruelly shed. He is holy in His nature and true to His Word and promise. … The cry for vengeance is heard, but the answer is deferred.
- Relationship — The anger itself proves the bond. Faith reasons that a God still angry with His people has not finished with them, so the question can only be "How long?"
- Name — At that question they name Him Jehovah: the faithful God of continuance and promise.
- Jealousy — The burning is love, not cold rage. The word means "to be inflamed" — warm affection that cannot bear a rival.
- Limit — God will not let an attack on His own possessions run on for ever. The sufferers own the anger as chastening, while the invaders only vent their hatred of God.
- Delay — God hears the cry, but the answer waits. He will deal with the nations in His own time. For now He is dealing with His people.
Pour out thy fury upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name
Psalm 79 is the prayer of people standing in the ruins of their city — temple defiled, dead unburied — asking God how long His anger will burn. Verse 6 is the turn: they admit the blow came from God, then ask Him to turn it on invaders who never knew Him.
Verse 5 traces the disaster to God's own anger. Verse 6 asks whether that anger belongs somewhere else.
They now rightly attribute this to Jehovah's anger. But will it then go on for ever? These are foreigners who disown Him altogether — will He not rather pour it out on them? On those who have shown their hostility by devouring Jacob and laying waste his home?
Another writer sets out the two charges in the verse, and why judgment waited.
Why not pour out that anger instead on the nations that show cold ignorance of God — those kingdoms that refuse to call on the name of the Lord? Of course God was fully aware of all this, and would deal with those nations in His own time; but just now He was dealing with Israel.
Commentators differ on who the invaders are. One points to an army coming from the north:
Psalm 79 refers, in the plainest terms, to the invasion by the nations, especially the northern army, who had laid waste Jerusalem and the temple, and shed the blood of the servants of Jehovah. There is the owning of former sins, and mercy looked to.
Another looks to a final disaster still ahead, and names powers from Daniel 7:
While Jerusalem and the temple have seen such desolations more than once, we must view these predicted calamities as the final disaster still to overtake the city. And in that day of calamity, where shall the faithful turn? They cry to Him whose faithfulness is proved by His dealings in the past and assured by the Davidic covenant. How long, Lord? Pour out Your wrath on the nations and the kingdoms — the ten kingdoms and the little horn of Daniel 7.
God sent the chastening, yet He still holds the instrument guilty. He ties Himself to His people, so an attack on them is an attack on Him.
From the moment God is in Israel He identifies Himself with His people. As a result, the nations are treated according to how they treated Israel. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," says the King. The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye. The nations are judged by God because they trod down His people, though He also used them to punish His people.
A reader today may wonder whether to pray this at all. Commentators answer by showing where such words belong.
The Christian is called to suffer the reproach of Christ; he is to repay evil with good. Grace is both the source of his own blessing and the measure of his walk. But in the Psalms we have the utterance of the Spirit of truth according to the righteous judgment of God in His estimate of human conduct.
Another writer traces the difference to the way God is acting now:
It is the difference in God's dealing that clears it all up without violence. When God is judging enemies, as of old and by and by, His people share in it to some degree. Now He is displaying sovereign grace, and a different spirit of action suits them. For all that, the Psalms are a divinely rich treasure to the believer.
"Pour out" is not a mild word. One writer weighs it and hears the answer to this prayer:
"Pour out," not sprinkle: the phrase refers to the fulness of divine wrath. Each vessel overflows, and is poured out without limit or measure, one after another, until all are emptied. These seven plagues seem like an answer to the prayer of the suffering Jewish remnant in the coming crisis.
Their appeal rests on something other than their own record:
So, for the glory of His name, they can appeal to Him to step in. They acknowledge the sins of their fathers and their own, but the glory of His name still pleads for their salvation. The nations taunt Him as One who cannot be found in the day of need — let the avenging of the blood of His servants make Him known.
- Known. The charge against the nations is simple: they neither know God nor call on His name.
- Owned. The prayer first admits the blow is God's anger, then asks that it fall where it truly belongs.
- Identified. God ties Himself to His people. Those who devoured Jacob touched the apple of His eye, even while He used them to chasten.
- Answered. "Pour out" means without limit or measure, and writers hear the answer in the seven final plagues.
- Placed. The Christian repays evil with good, so this is not his prayer to pray. Yet the psalm stays a treasure, because God's way of dealing changes while His righteous judgment does not.
For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation.
Psalm 79 is the prayer of a people whose land invaders have overrun, whose temple they have defiled, and whose dead lie unburied. Verse 7 opens with the word "for": it gives God the reason for the plea just before it.
In this verse Jacob stands for God's own people, and his habitation for their home. The sufferers first admit whose anger struck them. Then they ask where that anger ought to fall:
They now rightly trace this to Jehovah's anger: but will it then be perpetual? These are foreigners who disown Him altogether: will He not rather pour it out on these? — these who have shown their hostility by devouring Jacob, and laying waste his habitation?
These sufferers read their ruin as God's own discipline. That reading becomes their claim on Him:
But this is no mere effect of chance, nor of the superior power of the foe. It is the hand of God in chastening for the iniquities of their forefathers. But if so, their God is Jehovah. He must stand up for His people against those who have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
If the crime is so plain, why has God not answered it yet? One writer points to God's timing, not to any ignorance on His part:
Why not pour out that anger instead upon the nations that show a cold ignorance of God? Why not upon those kingdoms that refuse to call upon the name of the Lord (v. 6)? For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation (v. 7). Of course, God was fully aware of all this. He would deal with those nations in His own time. But just now He was dealing with Israel.
Commentators differ on which invasion the psalm describes. One reads it as an army from the north:
Psalm 79 refers, in the plainest terms, to the invasion by the nations, especially the northern army. They had laid waste Jerusalem and the temple, and shed the blood of the servants of Jehovah. There is the owning of former sins, and mercy looked to — tender mercies.
Another looks past every earlier crisis to one final invasion:
In its general outline, this Psalm applies to more than one historical crisis. Its true fulfilment, I have no doubt, waits for the times of the last Antichrist. Then the idol-worshipping armies of the nations will be permitted to lay their hands for the last time upon the dwelling-place of Jacob.
One writer tests the verse by asking who could pray it and mean it:
Suppose the nations invade Judea. Suppose they defile God's holy temple in Jerusalem and lay the city in heaps. We can understand how such things may, and will, deeply affect the heart of an Israelite. Suppose the Gentiles shed the blood of God's saints like water around Jerusalem, and give their flesh to the beasts of the earth. Then he may rightly pray, "Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation." But is this the language of the heavenly bride?
Still, the verse is not closed to us. Another writer sorts the Psalms by whom they belong to:
The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us. Some parts of the Psalms belong to the Lord Jesus only. Other parts belong to Him and the remnant. And some parts may be applied to the Christian now, and to the remnant later on.
- Cause. Verse 7 names the crime: these nations devoured Jacob and wrecked his home. That is why the psalm asks God to turn His anger onto them instead.
- Chastening. The ruin came from God's own hand, correcting His people's sin. It was not chance, and not a stronger enemy.
- Timing. God knows every wrong these nations did. He will settle with them in His own time. Just now He is dealing with Israel.
- Reach. Commentators differ on the invader: a northern army, or the idol-worshipping nations of the last Antichrist's day. One writer holds that the psalm's true fulfilment is still ahead.
- Result. The prayer fits a suffering people on earth, not the church. The whole Bible is for us, yet not every part is about us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of [our] forefathers; let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us for we are brought very low.
Psalm 79 is the prayer of a people whose city lies in ruins and whose dead lie unburied. At verse 8 the prayer turns from what enemies have done to what the people deserve, and asks God to forget it.
Psalm 79 comes after a long record of failure. It answers that record with confession, not excuses.
Psalm 78 had set out the complete ruin of God's people, and that their only hope lies in the sovereign grace of God. This psalm is the proper response of the godly. They own their sin and cast themselves upon God and His mercy.
The "former iniquities" reach back beyond the generation praying. One writer traces their ruin to a hand behind the enemy.
But this is no mere effect of chance, nor of the greater power of the enemy. It is the hand of God chastening them for the iniquities of their forefathers. But if so, their God is Jehovah. He must stand up for His people against those who have devoured Jacob and laid waste his home.
Why confess sins you did not commit? One writer answers from a later point in Israel's history.
They also confessed the iniquities of their fathers. They did so because the Lord's hand had been upon them for this very reason. Their fathers' sins had brought them captivity in Babylon. God in His tender mercy had restored them to their own land. Even so, they were in bondage to a Gentile ruler. So they went down to the root of all the evil, and told out before God their fathers' sins as well as their own.
Older English Bibles read "let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us." Today "prevent" sounds like the opposite of the psalm's plea. One writer lists this psalm among the places where a word has shifted:
To change old English words whose meaning was once different from what it is now. The old word now misleads… So "prevent" (Ps. 21:3; Ps. 59:10; Ps. 79:8; Ps. 88:13; Ps. 119:147-148) is the same as our modern word "anticipate."
So the plea is that God's mercy would run ahead and meet them. One translation reads: "let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us."
Notice what the sufferers do not do. Crushed, they neither strike back nor claim they deserve rescue.
The only point I have to notice is the way, when brought very low, the heart turns to God. Even here it does not avenge itself. The worst of the evil has come upon it, and it turns to God, and so remembers its own sins. Nor has it any plea but God's own name… Such is the effect of chastisement. It produces lowliness of heart and true confession. It leaves no claim to any right to deliverance except God's own goodness and name — what He is. Yet the soul rests on that.
Does this prayer ever get its answer? One writer points to the New Testament, and to what it cost.
They ask that God would not remember against them their former iniquities (v. 8). The answer to this comes in Hebrews 8:12: "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." But this will only be the result of Israel receiving the Lord Jesus as the One who died for them and rose again. … Asaph at this time knew nothing of what that atonement would involve, but the important matter was that it should be for God's own name's sake.
The confession belongs to Israel. One writer took the same words for anyone who must own failure instead of defending it.
I recognise that all have broken down… and that our only hope is to own our failure and cast ourselves upon the Lord. … And we can say, as in that same Psalm, "We are brought very low" (verse 8)… But taking this place, shall we not find the "greatness of the Lord's power" to "preserve those appointed to die"? There we discover that despite all failure we are His sheep, and He is the Shepherd.
- Low — the trouble is not chance or enemy strength. It is God's chastening hand, and it turns the heart back to Him.
- Owned — the confession reaches back to the forefathers. Real confession goes to the root, not just to today's sins.
- Met — "prevent" in older Bibles means anticipate: they ask God's mercy to run ahead and come to meet them.
- Named — they claim no right to rescue; their only plea is God's own name and goodness — what He is.
- Answered — Christ answers the prayer that God remember sin no more, at a cost in atonement Asaph could not yet see.
Help us, O God of our salvation, because of the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake.
Psalm 79 is the prayer of a people whose city lies in ruins and whose enemies are asking where their God has gone. Verse 9 is the turning point: they ask for help, for rescue, and for cleansing — and rest the whole plea on God's own name.
The psalm has already laid the disaster before God. What is striking is where the sufferers turn instead of hitting back:
The one point I have to notice is the way the heart turns to God when it is brought very low. It does not avenge itself, even here. Now that the worst evil has come upon it, it turns to God, and so remembers its own sins. Nor has it any plea but God's own name… Such is the effect of chastisement. It supposes that we know God. It produces lowliness of heart, true confession, no claim to any right to deliverance except God's own goodness and name — what He is. Yet the soul rests on that.
That is the shape of the verse: two things asked — rescue and cleansing — and one reason given twice, His name.
Praying "for the glory of Your name" can sound like flattery until you see what stands behind it. God has linked His name to this people. So their sin touches His glory, and forgiveness becomes something faith can ask for:
Faith sees the sins of the people because the glory of God identifies itself with such a people. That faith can claim deliverance from the results of those sins. This very glory makes the forgiveness necessary, for God has identified Himself in goodness with the people. All the more so, since this glory is what faith feeds on and dwells on — and, as said before, it is this glory that makes us feel how far sin and failure have gone.
Notice the order. God's glory is what makes sin look as bad as it is. Then that same glory is the only thing left to plead.
Where the ESV reads "atone for our sins," older translations say "purge away our sins." Both render one Hebrew verb:
The godly people of Israel in a future day will want restoration to their land and to God's favour. The Spirit of prophecy has provided them with fitting words to take up before God (Ps. 65:3; 79:9). They will look to God to purge away their sins. As a sinful people they will confess that God alone can do it. Under the law, atonement took place once a year as a picture, but the real atonement was still in the future… Nothing short of atonement by blood can give a sinful people a standing before the throne of God, and the conscious enjoyment of it… Keep in mind that the original meaning of the verb is to cover. Translators have rendered it at times as reconcile, purge, forgive, cleanse and pardon, as well as make atonement.
The prayer assumes something humbling. The offender does not set the terms of his own forgiveness.
Sin is a serious thing. The consequences for those who commit it are terrible, unless God provides a way to make atonement for the offence. The sinner is therefore entirely in the hands of Him against whom he has sinned. If God appoints that which can make atonement, well and good. If He does not, the iniquity of the offender can never be purged.
Verse 8 asks God not to hold former sins against them. Verse 9 asks Him to take them away. The answer comes far later, and far larger, than the one praying could have guessed:
The answer to this is plain in Hebrews 8:12: "I will remember their sins no more." But this will only come as the result of Israel receiving the Lord Jesus as the One who died for them and rose again… They keep crying to Him for salvation. God delights to provide it for His own glory, by making atonement for these sins (v. 9). Asaph at this time knew nothing of what that atonement would involve. The important matter was that it should be for God's own name's sake.
The plea does not stop with the people. How the watching nations see God is bound up in it too:
So for the glory of His Name they can appeal to Him to come in. They acknowledge the sins of their fathers and their own. But the glory of His Name still appeals for their salvation. The nations taunt Him as One not to be found in the day of need: let the avenging of the blood of His servants make Him known.
- Stripped — Deep trouble takes away every other argument. The heart stops defending itself, owns its own sin, and pleads nothing but what God is.
- Named — God has tied His name to this people, so their guilt touches His glory. That is what makes "for Your name's sake" a real plea and not a polite phrase.
- Covered — The word behind "purge away" means to cover. The once-a-year covering under the law pointed forward. Only atonement by blood gives a sinful people a standing before God.
- Granted — Only God can appoint a way to cover sin. The sinner sets no terms; he takes the remedy God gives.
- Known — The name pleaded for pardon is the name the taunting nations must come to know. The prayer ends not in relief only, but in God made known.