Fathers

Psalms 79

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God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland. Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 79:1

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

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? …

Exposition on Psalm 79 ↗