Psalm 79:1-3

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. Psalm 79:1 In this poem the psalmist is speaking of the darkest days of Israel’s history: in 587 B.C., the Chaldeans captured and sacked Jerusalem; the neighboring Moabites and Edomites then attacked them as they were in their death-throes. Israel is aware now that it deserved to be punished for its infidelities, and it appeals to God’s mercy. In this lamentation, the distress of the oppressed calls upon the Lord for redress. The pagans dishonor the divine name; this is tantamount to a defeat for the Lord. In avenging his own, God must first save his honor in the eyes of the world, and his people will be grateful to him. Such is the theme of this national lamentation.
   Must vengeance be paid back seven times (i.e., in full measure) upon one’s neighbors? Christ has told us to pardon seventy times seven (Mt 18:22)—so we cannot take this psalm literally. Still it remains a poignant appeal to God’s mercy, an act of faith in the Lord when everything seems to be collapsing around us. We do not demand the total destruction of our enemies but a salutary punishment, in keeping with the divine justice, which brings evildoers low in order to pardon and save them.
2. Psalm 79:1 Asaph: see notes on Pss 73–89.
3. Psalm 79:1 God’s city and temple have been desecrated and so have his worshipers, whose dead bodies have been left unburied. Saints: see note on Ps 16:3.
4. Psalm 79:3 They have given . . . the flesh . . . to bury them: these verses are cited freely in 1 Mac 7:17 in application to the massacre of sixty pious Jews in Jerusalem during the Maccabean wars.