Psalm 79 is a corporate lament unto God for what has fallen on Judah. It is most likely that the Psalmist is referring to how the Babylonians had conquered Judah. They attacked the city, desecrated the temple, took away its treasures and exiled the Jews out of Jerusalem into Babylon.

The Psalmist described the brutal defeat of the Jews in the city by the ruthless Babylonians. In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet in the same way cried out and questioned God why He allowed such wicked Babylonians to attack His own chosen people. In verse 2, the enemies fed the birds of the air and beasts of the earth with the corpses; and verse 3 describes many Jews who were being killed had their blood poured out all over the city (verse 3).

The Psalmist then writes in verse 5 about the anger and jealousy of God. God was angry with the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah for being unfaithful to Him. The twenty kings each in the two kingdoms were mostly evil. Under their reign, the Jews committed blatant acts of spiritual idolatry, prostitutions, violence and even cruelty to their own people in the land. The evil ways the people followed the gods of the pagans such as Baals, Asherah and Molech unleashed the wrath of God. Over and over again, God raised up one prophet after prophet to speak against these disobedient rulers, but the message usually fell on deaf ears without repentance of the hearts. Therefore when enough is enough, God raised up the Assyrians to first destroy Israel in 722BC and years later in 586 BC, He also led the Babylonians to overthrow Judah. This latter incident constituted the background setting in Psalm 79. All these failings of the Jews are what the Psalmist describes as “our former iniquities” in verse 8, and “our sins” in verse 9.

The Israelites had to eventually pay a hefty cost for their rebellion against God. Their sins had greatly grieved God’s heart and triggered His wrath to punish them so severely. But God’s desire is so that they would repent and return to Him. And they finally responded. God raised up leaders like Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah one hundred years later to bring the exiles back to rebuild Jerusalem.

Dear brothers and sisters, there are consequences when we have sinned against God. May the story of the Israelites in Psalm 79 be a solemn reminder that sin does not pay. Let us be warned about this begin we sin against God the next time.

Prayer

Dear God, there are consequences to sin and we are reminded that sin does not pay. We pray that you will instill the reverential fear towards you in our hearts so that we will think twice before we sin against you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen