Scripture Daily

Context No. 1693 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 79:1-13: in context

1God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. 2They 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. 3They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. 4We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. 5How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? 6Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name, 7for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland. 8Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. 9Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. 10Why 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. 11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. 12Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. 13So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.

This psalm is a raw lament over a devastated Jerusalem. The nations have invaded God's inheritance, defiled the temple, left the city in ruins and the bodies of the faithful unburied, food for birds and beasts. The people are mocked by their neighbors. How long, LORD, the psalmist cries; will you be angry forever? And then he turns to plea: help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins, for your name's sake. So we, your people, will give you thanks forever.

What is striking in this lament is the ground of its appeal. The people are in ruins, and they confess that their own sins are part of the reason; they do not come pleading their innocence or their merit, for they have none to plead. Instead they appeal to God on a different ground entirely: for the glory of your name; for your name's sake. Help us, not because we deserve it, but for the honor of your own name; deliver us, forgive us, for your name's sake. They ask God to act for the sake of his own reputation and glory, since the nations are mocking, saying, where is their God? There is a form of prayer here worth learning, especially for the times when we have nothing in ourselves to plead. When we come to God burdened by our own failures, unable to claim that we deserve his help, we are not left without a ground of appeal; we can pray, as this psalm does, for your name's sake. God's own glory, his faithfulness, his reputation as a God who saves and forgives, is a ground of prayer that does not depend on our worthiness at all. When we cannot say, help me because I have been good, we can still say, help me for the glory of your name, forgive me for your name's sake. And this is not a lesser prayer but in some ways a purer one, for it rests everything on God and nothing on ourselves. The psalmist, amid ruin and with sins confessed, pleads God's name, and it is a plea God honors, for his name's sake.

When I come to God burdened by my own failures, with nothing in myself to plead, can I learn from this psalm to appeal not to my own worthiness but to the glory of God's name, praying, help me and forgive me for your name's sake, resting everything on God and nothing on myself?

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