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Commentary on Psalms 79 verses 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.
I. They complain here of the anger of their enemies and the outrageous fury of the oppressor, exerted,
1.Against places, Psa 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, Psa 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 (Psa 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, Deu 21:23. This inhuman usage of Christ's witnesses is foretold (Rev 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 (Psa 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, Psa 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.
If you shut the heavens, who will open them? And if you let loose your torrents, who will restrain them? It is an easy thing in your eyes to make some people poor and others rich, to make some alive and to kill others, to strike some with illness and to heal others. Whatever you do according to your will is perfect. You are angry, and we have sinned, someone said long ago, in making confession. Now it is time for me to say the opposite, “We have sinned, and you are angry”; therefore “we have become a reproach to our neighbors.” You turned your face from us, and we were filled with dishonor. But stay, Lord; cease, Lord; forgive, Lord; deliver us not up forever because of our iniquities, and let not our chastisements be a warning for others, when we might learn wisdom from the trials of others.
Further still, we are reminded that in such a carnage as then occurred, the bodies could not even be buried. But godly confidence is not appalled by so ill-omened a circumstance; for the faithful bear in mind that assurance has been given that not a hair of their head shall perish, and that, therefore, though they even be devoured by beasts, their blessed resurrection will not hereby be hindered. The Truth would nowise have said, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,” if anything whatever that an enemy could do to the body of the slain could be detrimental to the future life. Or will some one perhaps take so absurd a position as to contend that those who kill the body are not to be feared before death, and lest they kill the body, but after death, lest they deprive it of burial? If this be so, then that is false which Christ says, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do;” for it seems they can do great injury to the dead body. Far be it from us to suppose that the Truth can be thus false. They who kill the body are said “to do something,” because the deathblow is felt, the body still having sensation; but after that, they have no more that they can do, for in the slain body there is no sensation.And so there are indeed many bodies of Christians lying unburied; but no one has separated them from heaven, nor from that earth which is all filled with the presence of him who knows whence he will raise again what he created. It is said, indeed, in the Psalm: “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. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.” But this was said rather to exhibit the cruelty of those who did these things, than the misery of those who suffered them. To the eyes of men this appears a harsh and doleful lot, yet “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Wherefore all these last offices and ceremonies that concern the dead, the careful funeral arrangements, and the equipment of the tomb, and the pomp of obsequies, are rather the solace of the living than the comfort of the dead. If a costly burial does any good to a wicked man, a squalid burial, or none at all, may harm the godly. His crowd of domestics furnished the purple-clad Dives with a funeral gorgeous in the eye of man; but in the sight of God that was a more sumptuous funeral which the ulcerous pauper received at the hands of the angels, who did not carry him out to a marble tomb, but bore him aloft to Abraham’s bosom.
"They have defiled Your holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples." "They have made the dead bodies of Your servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Your saints for the beasts of the earth" [Psalm 79:2]. "They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them" [Psalm 79:3]. If in this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection and Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it does not occur to me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him, and even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even the Lord Himself says, "I am not sent but to the sheep which have been lost of the house of Israel," [Matthew 15:24] the same are they that out of them are the sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed; [Romans 9:8] the same do belong to the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin Mary who bore Christ: [Matthew 1:16] hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom, and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth: [Luke 1:5] hence Symeon the old, [Luke 2:25] and Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not: [John 1:47] hence the other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God: hence that so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord:" [Matthew 21:9] among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise." Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized, welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common. [Acts 4:32] Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles. [Acts 7:59] Hence so many Churches of Judæa, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face, [Galatians 1:22] but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ's most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, "a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the evening dividing morsels;" [Genesis 49:27] that is, first as persecutor carrying off unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that are out of that people the inheritance of God....So then even at this time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out of that nation does belong to the inheritance of God: not those concerning whom a little below he says, "But the rest have been blinded." For thus he says. "What then? That which Israel sought, this he has not obtained: but the election has obtained it: but the rest have been blinded." [Romans 11:7] This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which God has not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which has not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the time of Titus the Emperor, "O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Your inheritance," and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been foretold concerning the destruction of both the temple and city belonging to that people.
"They have poured forth their blood like water," that is, abundantly and wantonly, "in the circuit of Jerusalem" [Psalm 79:3]. If we herein understand the earthly city Jerusalem, we perceive the shedding of their blood in the circuit thereof, whom the enemy could find outside the walls. But if we understand it of that Jerusalem, concerning whom has been said, "many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband," [Isaiah 54:1] the circuit thereof is throughout the universal earth. For in that lesson of the Prophet, wherein is written, "many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband:" a little after unto the same is said, "and He that has delivered you, shall be called the God of Israel of the universal earth." [Isaiah 54:5] The circuit then of this Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as follows: so far as at that time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the great gain of the celestial treasuries. But as to that which has been added, "and there was no one to bury:" it either ought not to seem to be an incredible thing that there should have been so great a panic in some places, that not any buriers at all of holy bodies came forward: or certes that unburied corpses in many places might lie long time, until being by the religious in a manner stolen they were buried.
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SUMMARY
Psalm 79:3 offers a profoundly distressing depiction of the aftermath of a devastating foreign invasion of Jerusalem, most likely referring to the Babylonian destruction of 586 BC. This verse, a poignant element within a communal lament, vividly portrays the indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, whose blood is shed in such overwhelming abundance that it is likened to water, and underscores the profound indignity of their unburied bodies, a stark violation of deeply held ancient Near Eastern burial customs. It powerfully communicates the catastrophic scale of the disaster and the deep anguish experienced by the survivors.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalm 79:3 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its message of desolation and horror. The most prominent is simile, specifically "Their blood have they shed like water." This comparison is incredibly effective, transforming the sacred and vital substance of blood (representing life) into something common, abundant, and easily discarded, powerfully conveying the casual cruelty and vast scale of the slaughter. The phrase also functions as hyperbole, exaggerating the quantity of blood to emphasize the overwhelming number of casualties and the intensity of the violence, creating a vivid and shocking image. The entire verse is an example of pathos, designed to evoke deep pity, grief, and indignation from the reader, highlighting the profound suffering and indignity inflicted upon the people. The stark contrast between the sanctity of life (represented by blood) and its treatment as valueless "water" creates a powerful emotional impact, amplifying the sense of tragedy and injustice. Additionally, "blood" here serves as a metonymy for life itself, as its shedding signifies the violent taking of life.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalm 79:3, with its vivid portrayal of desecration and unburied dead, connects deeply with the biblical understanding of God's covenant, the sanctity of life, and the consequences of both human sin and divine judgment. The outrage expressed by the psalmist is rooted in the belief that God's people, though chastised, should not be utterly abandoned or dishonored in such a way. The unburied bodies are not just a physical indignity but a spiritual affront, challenging the very notion of God's care for His covenant people and the land He promised. This lament becomes a desperate plea for God to act, not just for the sake of His people, but for the vindication of His own holy name among the nations, who might otherwise conclude that Israel's God is powerless or uncaring. The psalm's cry for God to remember His covenant and avenge the blood of His servants highlights the enduring biblical theme of divine justice for the oppressed.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalm 79:3 serves as a sobering reminder of the horrific consequences of unchecked violence, injustice, and the desecration of human life. It compels us to confront the reality of suffering in our world, whether from war, persecution, or systemic oppression. The psalmist's anguish over the unburied dead highlights the profound human need for dignity, even in death, and the deep pain when that dignity is denied. For us today, this verse invites us to cultivate a profound empathy for those who endure unimaginable loss and indignity, prompting us to lament with them and to pray fervently for justice and peace. It also challenges us to consider our own responses to suffering: Do we turn away, or do we allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action? The psalm, ultimately, is a model for bringing our deepest pain and questions before a God who hears, even when circumstances seem utterly bleak, trusting that He is sovereign and will ultimately bring justice and restoration. It reminds us that God is not indifferent to the suffering of His people or the injustice in the world, and that our laments are a vital part of our faith.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was proper burial so important in ancient Israel, and what does the lack of it signify in Psalm 79:3?
Answer: In ancient Israel, proper burial was a deeply significant religious and cultural practice. It was seen as an act of profound respect for the deceased, a fulfillment of familial and communal duty, and a way to ensure the deceased's peaceful rest with their ancestors in the family tomb. To be denied burial was considered one of the greatest indignities and curses, often associated with divine judgment for severe sin (e.g., Deuteronomy 28:26, Jeremiah 8:2). In Psalm 79:3, the statement "none to bury them" signifies not only the overwhelming scale of the massacre, leaving too many dead for the living to inter, but also the complete breakdown of social order, the terror of the survivors who were unable or unwilling to perform the rites, and the profound dishonor inflicted upon the victims by their enemies. It emphasizes the utter devastation and the depth of the enemy's contempt for God's people, leaving them exposed and unmourned, a stark symbol of national humiliation and divine abandonment.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Psalm 79:3 describes a moment of profound national humiliation and death, its lament for the shedding of innocent blood and the indignity of unburied bodies finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the passion and death of Jesus. The "blood shed like water" foreshadows the abundant, sacrificial blood of Christ, which was poured out not in judgment against His people, but for His people, to cleanse them from sin and establish a new covenant. John 19:34 describes blood and water flowing from Jesus' pierced side, a powerful image of the complete outpouring of His life for redemption, a life given freely and fully. Unlike the unburied victims of Jerusalem, Jesus, though suffering the ultimate indignity of a criminal's death on a cross, was granted a proper burial, albeit hastily, by Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-60). More profoundly, His burial was not a final indignity but a necessary step towards His glorious resurrection, conquering death and the grave itself. Through His death and resurrection, Christ transforms the curse of unburied bodies and the shedding of blood into the promise of eternal life and resurrection for all who are united with Him (1 Corinthians 15:20-22). He is the ultimate answer to the lament of Psalm 79, bringing hope and vindication where there was once only desolation and dishonor.