10 Why do the nations say, `Where `is' their God?' Let be known among the nations before our eyes, The vengeance of the blood of Thy servants that is shed.
With a sword in my bones Have mine adversaries reproached me, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where `is' thy God?'
My tear hath been to me bread day and night, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where `is' thy God?'
and have taken you to Me for a people, and I have been to you for God, and ye have known that I `am' Jehovah your God, who is bringing you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians;
Jehovah hath been known, Judgment He hath done, By a work of his hands Hath the wicked been snared. Meditation. Selah.
And man saith: `Surely fruit `is' for the righteous: Surely there is a God judging in the earth!'
My wrong, and `that of' my flesh `is' on Babylon, Say doth the inhabitant of Zion, And my blood `is' on the inhabitants of Chaldea, Say doth Jerusalem.
And I have sanctified My great name, That is profaned among nations, That ye have polluted in your midst, And known have the nations that I `am' Jehovah, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, In My being sanctified in you before your eyes.
Between the porch and the altar weep let the priests, ministrants of Jehovah, And let them say: `Have pity, O Jehovah, on Thy people, And give not Thy inheritance to reproach, To the ruling over them of nations, Why do they say among peoples, Where `is' their God?'
And see doth mine enemy, And cover her doth shame, Who saith unto me, `Where `is' Jehovah thy God?' Mine eyes do look on her, Now she is for a treading-place, As mire of the out-places.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 79
Commentary on Psalms 79 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 79
This psalm, if penned with any particular event in view, is with most probability made to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the woeful havoc made of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. It is set to the same tune, as I may say, with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and that weeping prophet borrows two verses out of it (v. 6, 7) and makes use of them in his prayer, Jer. 10:25. Some think it was penned long before by the spirit of prophecy, prepared for the use of the church in that cloudy and dark day. Others think that it was penned then by the spirit of prayer, either by a prophet named Asaph or by some other prophet for the sons of Asaph. Whatever the particular occasion was, we have here,
In times of the church's peace and prosperity this psalm may, in the singing of it, give us occasion to bless God that we are not thus trampled on and insulted. But it is especially seasonable in a day of treading down and perplexity, for the exciting of our desires towards God and the encouragement of our faith in him as the church's patron.
A psalm of Asaph.
Psa 79:1-5
We have here a sad complaint exhibited in the court of heaven. The world is full of complaints, and so is the church too, for it suffers, not only with it, but from it, as a lily among thorns. God is complained to; whither should children go with their grievances, but to their father, to such a father as is able and willing to help? The heathen are complained of, who, being themselves aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, were sworn enemies to it. Though they knew not God, nor owned him, yet, God having them in chain, the church very fitly appeals to him against them; for he is King of nations, to overrule them, to judge among the heathen, and King of saints, to favour and protect them.
Psa 79:6-13
The petitions here put up to God are very suitable to the present distresses of the church, and they have pleas to enforce them, interwoven with them, taken mostly from God's honour.