Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 79:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 79:5. How long, Lord? — Wilt thou continue thine anger against us, and suffer us to be insulted, and thyself blasphemed?

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 79-80 Cries from a conquered people

Like a previous psalm of Asaph, Psalms 79:0 is from the time of Jerusalem’s destruction and the taking of the people into captivity. (For an outline of events see introductory notes to Psalms 74:0.) The historical setting for Psalms 80:0 is not clear. Both psalms, 79 and 80, are cries to God for salvation after Israel has suffered defeat and desolation.

The scene around Jerusalem is one of horror. The temple has been destroyed, the city is in ruins, and the army is a mass of decaying corpses providing food for wild birds and animals. Shame is added to sorrow through the insults heaped on Israel by its neighbours (79:1-4).
True, the destruction of Jerusalem has been a judgment sent by God on the nation because of its sin, but, ask the people, is not that enough? Will not God now reverse his judgment and punish those who eat up his people (5-7)? They pray that God will forgive their sins and restore them to their land. In this way he will silence those nations who mock him as being powerless to save (8-10). God’s captive people cry out to him to rescue them and punish those who insult him (11-13).
Again the people cry to God for some decisive action that will save them from their present plight (80:1-3). They are weighed down with grief. God has apparently forgotten them and their enemies cruelly mock them (4-7).
When they think of the nation’s past glory they wonder why they must suffer such shame. Israel was like a vine transplanted from Egypt into Canaan, where it grew and spread. It covered the mountains, burst its boundaries, and reached to the Lebanon Ranges and the Euphrates River (8-11). Why then does God allow the wild beasts of the forest to plunder and destroy his vineyard? Why does he allow enemy nations to crush Israel (12-13)?
The people pray that God will rescue the suffering nation, that he will save the damaged vine and restore it to healthy growth (14-16). They pray that he will give back to Israel the strength it once had as his specially chosen nation (17-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“How long, O Jehovah? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?”

“How long…?” The Jewish people had already been told by Jeremiah that the captivity would last for seventy years; but there were many of the people who did not know this. There can be no doubt that they were in a big hurry to get the tragic experience behind them, as indicated by Psalms 79:8, where they cried for a “speedy” resolution of the problem. However, it was not the will of God that any quick end would come to Israel’s punishment.

“Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?” The psalmist here indicates that he knew the reason that lay back of the nation’s destruction; it was the jealousy of God, continually provoked by Israel throughout their previous history by their worshipping false gods in the pagan shrines of Canaan. God had already tried every other possible means of curing this shameful “sickness” of Israel, before bringing about their captivity.

The terrible defeat and captivity that followed it accomplished God’s purpose; because, Israel never again resorted to the worship of the pagan gods.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

How long, Lord? - See Psalms 74:1, note; Psalms 74:10, note; and Psalms 77:7-9, notes. This is the language, not of impatience, but of anxiety; not of complaining, but of wonder. It is language such as the people of God are often constrained to employ under heavy trials - trials which continue so long that it seems as if they would never end.

Shall thy jealousy, burn like fire? - That is, Shall it continue to burn like fire? Shall it utterly consume us? On the word jealousy, see the notes at Psalms 78:58.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

5How long, O Jehovah! wilt thou be wroth for ever? I have already observed that these two expressions, how long and for ever, when joined together, denote a lengthened and an uninterrupted continuance of calamities; and that there is no appearance, when looking to the future, of their coming to a termination. We may, therefore, conclude that this complaint was not ended within a month or two after persecution against the Church commenced, but at a time when the hearts of the faithful were almost broken through the weariness produced by prolonged suffering. Here they confess that the great accumulation of calamities with which they are overwhelmed, is to be traced to the wrath of God. Being fully persuaded that the wicked, whatever they may plot, cannot inflict injury, except in so far as God permits them — from this, which they regard as an indubitable principle, they at once conclude, that when he allows such ample scope to their heathen enemies in persecuting them, his anger is greatly provoked. Nor would they, without this persuasion, have looked to God in the hope that he would stretch forth his hand to save them; for it is the work of Him who hath given loose reins to draw in the bridle. Whenever God visits us with the rod, and our own conscience accuses us, it especially becomes us to look to His hand. Here his ancient people do not charge him with being unjustly displeased, but acknowledge the justice of the punishment inflicted upon them. God will always find in his servants just grounds for chastising them. He often, however, in the exercise of his mercy, pardons their sins, and exercises them with the cross for another purpose than to testify his displeasure against their sins, just as it was his will to try the patience of Job, and as he vouchsafed to call the martyrs to an honorable warfare. But here the people, of their own accord, summoning themselves before the Divine tribunal, trace the calamities which they endured to their own sins, as the procuring cause. Hence it may, with probability, be conjectured that this psalm was composed during the time of the Babylonish captivity. Under the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, they employed, as we have previously seen, a different form of prayer, saying,

“All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way,”
(Psalms 44:17.)

We are not to suppose that, in the passage now quoted, the faithful murmured against God, but they employ this language because they knew that he had another end in view than simply to punish their sins; for, by means of these severe conflicts, he prepared them for the prize of their high calling.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 79:1-13

O God, heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps ( Psalms 78:1 ).

So this goes out to the future to the time when the temple was laid waste, perhaps under the reign of Rehoboam by the Egyptians.

The dead bodies of thy servants have given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of the saints, the beast of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was no one to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them around about us. How long, O LORD? will you be angry forever? shall your jealously 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, laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let the 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 all our sins, for thy name's sake. Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in thy sight in the revenging of blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; and render to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. And so we thy people, the sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: and will show forth thy praise to all generations ( Psalms 79:2-13 ).

And so it begins, of course, with speaking of the desolation that was brought by their enemies upon the temple, upon the people, and asking God to take vengeance upon those that had wrought the destruction upon the nation Israel. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 79

In this national (communal) lament psalm: Asaph mourned Jerusalem’s destruction and pleaded with God to have mercy on His people, despite their sins, for His name’s sake (cf. Psalms 74). This Asaph may have lived after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. The writer’s viewpoint seems to be that of the survivors left in Jerusalem, rather than that of the deportees, which Psalms 137 reflects.

"This psalm repeats the themes of Psalms 74, but seemingly with more venom. The situation is the same: the temple is destroyed, Israel is bereft, and the conquering enemy gloats. Yahweh cannot afford to be a disinterested party. Appeal is made to the partisan holiness of God which works beyond visible religiosity. Israel here presses Yahweh to decide what counts with him." [Note: Brueggemann, p 71.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The psalmist wondered how long God would be angry with His people and allow them to suffer defeat and humiliation. Would He let His jealousy for Israel’s affection burn as a fire forever? Asaph urged God to direct His rage at Israel’s enemies who disregarded Him and devoured His habitation. He also asked God to forget the sins of the Israelites’ ancestors and show compassion on His lowly people. He based his petition on God’s glory as well as the Israelites’ need.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. A plea for deliverance 79:5-12

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry? for ever?.... That is, how long wilt thou be angry? shall it be for ever? see Psalms 85:4, for though what was done, or to be done, as before related, was or will be done by the enemies of the Lord's people, yet by his permission, and as a token of his anger and displeasure against them: at least it might be so understood, both by them and by their enemies; and hence this expostulation,

shall thy jealousy burn like fire? so jealousy does; its coals are coals of fire, Song of Solomon 8:6, there were, at the times referred to, such among the people, who did evil things, and provoked the Lord to jealousy and wrath: see the Apocrypha:

"And there was very great wrath upon Israel.'' (1 Maccabees 1:64)

"When this was done, and they had made a common supplication, they besought the merciful Lord to be reconciled with his servants for ever.'' (2 Maccabees 8:29)

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

A psalm of Asaph.

      1 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.   2 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.   3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.   4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.   5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

      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.

      I. They complain here of the anger of their enemies and the outrageous fury of the oppressor, exerted,

      1. Against places, Psalms 79:1; Psalms 79:1. They did all the mischief they could, (1.) To the holy land; they invaded that, and made inroads into it: "The heathen have come into thy inheritance, to plunder that, and lay it waste." Canaan was dearer to the pious Israelites as it was God's inheritance than as it was their own, as it was the land in which God was known and his name was great rather than as it was the land in which they were bred and born and which they and their ancestors had been long in possession of. Note, Injuries done to religion should grieve us more than even those done to common right, nay, to our own right. We should better bear to see our own inheritance wasted than God's inheritance. This psalmist had mentioned it in the foregoing psalm as an instance of God's great favour to Israel that he had cast out the heathen before them,Psalms 78:55. But see what a change sin made; now the heathen are suffered to pour in upon them. (2.) To the holy city: They have laid Jerusalem on heaps, heaps of rubbish, such heaps as are raised over graves, so some. The inhabitants were buried in the ruins of their own houses, and their dwelling places became their sepulchres, their long homes. (3.) To the holy house. That sanctuary which God had built like high palaces, and which was thought to be established as the earth, was now laid level with the ground: They holy temple have they defiled, by entering into it and laying it waste. God's own people had defiled it by their sins, and therefore God suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence.

      2. Against persons, against the bodies of God's people; and further their malice could not reach. (1.) They were prodigal of their blood, and killed them without mercy; their eye did not spare, nor did they give any quarter (Psalms 79:3; Psalms 79:3): Their blood have they shed like water, wherever they met with them, round about Jerusalem, in all the avenues to the city; whoever went out or came in was waited for of the sword. Abundance of human blood was shed, so that the channels of water ran with blood. And they shed it with no more reluctancy or regret than if they had spilt so much water, little thinking that every drop of it will be reckoned for in the day when God shall make inquisition for blood. (2.) They were abusive to their dead bodies. When they had killed them they would let none bury them. Nay, those that were buried, even the dead bodies of God's servants, the flesh of his saints, whose names and memories they had a particular spite at, they dug up again, and gave them to be meat to the fowls of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth; or, at least, they left those so exposed whom they slew; they hung them in chains, which was in a particular manner grievous to the Jews to see, because God had given them an express law against this, as a barbarous thing, Deuteronomy 21:23. This inhuman usage of Christ's witnesses is foretold (Revelation 11:9), and thus even the dead bodies were witnesses against their persecutors. This is mentioned (says Austin, De Civitate Dei, lib. 1 cap. 12) not as an instance of the misery of the persecuted (for the bodies of the saints shall rise in glory, however they became meat to the birds and the fowls), but of the malice of the persecutors.

      3. Against their names (Psalms 79:4; Psalms 79:4): "We that survive have become a reproach to our neighbours; they all study to abuse us and load us with contempt, and represent us as ridiculous, or odious, or both, upbraiding us with our sins and with our sufferings, or giving the lie to our relation to God and expectations from him; so that we have become a scorn and derision to those that are round about us." If God's professing people degenerate from what themselves and their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is well if a just reproach will help to bring us to a true repentance. But it has been the lot of the gospel-Israel to be made unjustly a reproach and derision; the apostles themselves were counted as the offscouring of all things.

      II. They wonder more at God's anger, Psalms 79:5; Psalms 79:5. This they discern in the anger of their neighbours, and this they complain most of: How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry? Shall it be for ever? This intimates that they desired no more than that God would be reconciled to them, that his anger might be turned away, and then the remainder of men's wrath would be restrained. Note, Those who desire God's favour as better than life cannot but dread and deprecate his wrath as worse than death.