Psalm 79[1]
1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the air for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbours,
mocked and derided by those around us.
5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry for ever?
Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not know you, and on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes.
11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.
12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbours
the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,
will give thanks to you for ever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
How polite do you feel you have to be in your God talk – as you talk to God? What niceties constrain you? What circumstances might push you into brutal honesty? And it is only in those extremes that you feel the gloves can come off? What if God wanted our passionate cries more often? What if God’s heart is torn by tragedy all the day long and somehow we are way off base with our careful religious language?
Elsewhere in the scriptures, in Isaiah 1.13 and in Amos 5.21 we hear how much God ‘hates’ religious festivals that gloss over the truth of the suffering of the oppressed or conveniently ignore that all is not well with the world. God hates delusion and illusion – God loves truth.
So here, in Psalm 79, the psalmist is wanting God to face unbearable truth. Scholars believe this psalm was written in the wake of the horrendous destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC by the Babylonians. It may even have been written by one how was carried off in captivity.
It begins with reportage. Sparing no detail (just as a TV news presenter might say ‘some viewers may find the scenes are upsetting’), the poet tells of the horrors – the bloodshed, the destruction of the holy city, the desolation, the city laid waste and the prisoners groaning as they carried off into captivity. ‘How long?’ is the familiar cry (vs5) to God. ‘Help us!’ is the desperate plea (vs9). Even as all the captives are hauled off by the new empire, the new reality, hear cries out one believer, one God follower, who is not willing to take this ‘new normal’ lying down. Even as he or she is manacled and led off to a very uncertain future, the psalmist calls God to account. At least spare the prisoners, those doomed to die, he cries. And ‘return sevenfold’ on those how have taunted the remnant those same taunts (vs12). And then, only then, will the chosen ones of God know safe pasture as a shepherd leads his flock of sheep (vs13).
Even after all the honesty and the cries and the questions, the psalmist still hopes for a better future. One that centres on the nature of God, the good shepherd, who knows the paths to wholeness and does not give up on lost causes.
Central to the psalmist’s hope is his knowledge of God’s character. This is a God of immense emotion and profound depths. References are made to God’s jealous wrath (vs5), anger (vs6), compassion (vs8), salvation and glory (vs9), vengeance (vs10) and great arm (vs11). The bulk of these are boiling emotions. Anger balanced by compassion, wrath weighed against salvation, vengeance and glory. Fire and fury.
Oh that we might not baulk at the passion of God. Indeed, may we be drawn by God’s passionate heart into speaking and acting truthfully. May our thoughts and actions be informed by emotion which last longer than knee-jerk short-term responses. But may this passionate wisdom shape our God talk and our own rule of life so that we are agents of transformation rather than armchair critics or complainants.
[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New
Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
If I’m honest I find being polite with God seems to be my default mode when leading public intercessions. It is a challenge to lead a congregation in prayer, drawing people into prayer with you, finding words that speak on behalf of many. But in personal prayer raw honesty speaks from the heart.
ReplyDeleteOnly a few days ago I heard the familiar newsreader’s warning, ”some viewers may find some scenes upsetting”, to then watch the most dreadful scenes of suffering from Yemen. So when I read the words of Ps 79 I find images that remind me of that war torn country. How long, Lord, must the people suffer? So much death and destruction, and terrible malnutrition amongst her children, after 5 years of conflict, and now coronavirus is causing a huge drop in aid. How can people treat one another so appalling? What is wrong with the human race? There is an endless cry for help from God.
The request in v13 for a seven fold return of taunts is problematic. The Old Testament view of justice is “an eye for any eye” but no more than that and certainly not 7 eyes for an eye. It certainly does not reflect Jesus’s teaching on offering forgiveness 70 times 7 times (Matthew 18: 21-22). My commentary by John Eaton (“Psalms for Life”) informs me that the early monks, who recited psalms, were aided by the 5th century commentary of Cossiodorus, who suggests this sevenfold repayment be turned into a prayer for the sevenfold gift of the Spirit as found in the Greek and Latin versions of Isaiah 11. The prayer then becomes a prayer for our enemies to receive the spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of fear of the Lord. It is hard to pray for any who oppose us or who pull us down in any way but, in Cossiodorus’ view, we can pray that the Spirit of God fills them with such gifts to transform them. And that in turn leads to praise.