Each Day in the Word, Sunday, February 2, 2025

Psalm 79:1-13 NKJV

79 O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance;
Your holy temple they have defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
The dead bodies of Your servants
They have given as food for the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem,
And there was no one to bury them.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and derision to those who are around us.

How long, Lord?
Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You,
And on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.
For they have devoured Jacob,
And laid waste his dwelling place.

Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us!
Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us,
For we have been brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation,
For the glory of Your name;
And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,
For Your name’s sake!
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let there be known among the nations in our sight
The avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed.

11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You;
According to the greatness of Your power
Preserve those who are appointed to die;
12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom
Their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.

13 So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture,
Will give You thanks forever;
We will show forth Your praise to all generations.


Asaph laments the destruction of the Lord’s temple and the desolation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Lord allowed it as punishment for Judah’s sins. The psalmist asks God for tender mercy, atonement for sins, and restoration. He asks, not because Judah deserves it­— Judah only deserves wrath and punishment for her sins—but for the glory of God’s name. Without mercy and deliverance for God’s people and vengeance upon their enemies, the nations would continue to mock the Lord and imagine they can act as lords and masters over the sheep of the Lord’s pasture. He asks for God to take vengeance on their enemies and promises to give thanks to God and teach the next generation to praise Him. He asks God to avenge the blood of His servants who had been killed. He also prays that God would return sevenfold the derision with which Judah’s neighbors had derided the Lord. God’s people—the sheep of God’s pasture—look to their Good Shepherd to avenge them and God’s honor.

Asaph’s psalm is still applicable to God’s people in the New Testament. God’s people of the New Testament can still pray this psalm against those who persecute the church. When the church’s enemies physically demolish churches and murder Christians, we pray that God has mercy and avenges His martyrs. When false teachers arise in the church and harm the souls of God’s people by mixing the world’s priorities with God’s word, we pray that God avenges the sheep of His pasture by providing faithful shepherds who will preach God’s word in its truth and purity. But never does Christ’s church take matters into her own hands. She waits upon the one who has said, “Vengeance is mine” (Deut. 32:35). God’s people look to Him for their protection, their nourishment, and every good thing just as sheep look to their shepherd. We trust that although we do not deserve any good thing because of our sins, God still will act in mercy toward His church for her benefit and for the glory of His name.

Let us pray: Defend Your Church, O Lord, from all who rise up against her. Preserve us from false teaching and grant us mercy so that whatever we suffer for Your name’s sake, we suffer patiently to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.

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