Embrace the Word for Friday, June 19, 2026

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Psalm 79 expresses the painful cries of a catastrophic devastation. The superscription simply states: “A Psalm of Asaph.” Stunned and numbed by the ransacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, Asaph cries out to the LORD. There are many links between Psalm 79 and 78. Both Psalms continue the image referenced in Psalm 77 of God’s people as His sheep (77:20; 78:71-21; 79:13). Each Psalm uses the terms “inheritance/heritage” (78:62,71; 79:1), “sanctuary” (78:68-69; 79:1), “heaven…earth” (78:69; 79:2), God’s anger (78:58-59; 79:5), as well as compassion (78:38; 79:8), and “atonement” (78:38; 79:9). There are also connections between Psalm 79 and 74 as they each explicitly pertain to the destruction of the Temple. Psalm 79 begins with Asaph’s description of slaughter and shattering of lives in Jerusalem (79:1-4), then Asaph desperately pleads with the LORD to judge His enemies and forgive His people (79:5-9), and as Asaph concludes, he deliberately pledges thankful praise to the LORD (79:10-13).

Psalm 79 opens with the screams of pain as Asaph surveys the scope of destruction: “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins” (79:1). The nations have invaded Jerusalem, leaving the city itself in ruins and the Temple razed. While the Psalm itself does not explicitly specify, it seems likely that the historical context is that of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian invaders desecrated the LORD’s city and defiled the LORD’s Temple: “In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon…entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem” (See Jeremiah 52:14-14). Asaph continues with a heart-wrenching account of human butchery: “They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them” (79:2-3). The massacre was so great, as the dead lay unburied, their bodies were left for the birds or the beasts to eat. Arguably the decay of rotting flesh left the city in a visual and reeking nightmare. If taking in all of these sights and smells weren’t enough, Asaph also feels the full import of shame and disgrace: “We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us” (79:4).

Asaph is recounting a true traumatic event. What Asaph does in response to the trauma that he has just experienced is talk to the LORD: “How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?” (79:5). Asaph had just assigned all of the destruction, devastation, desecration, and defilement to the foreign nation that invaded. Asaph recounted that the nations “have come,” “have defiled,” “have laid,” “have given,” “have poured,” and “have become;” but he also interprets that everything that has happened came about because of the jealous anger of the LORD. While Asaph attributes the cause of the tragedy to the cruelty of the foreign enemies, he also assigns the design of Jerusalem’s condition to the LORD. Asaph’s inquiry is framed around his awareness that all that has unfolded in Jerusalem was connected to the LORD being angry and jealous. Asaph’s assessment might seem a bit off, but he is actually spot on. While jealous anger is emphatically a vice in humans, it is congruent with holy righteousness in regards to the LORD. God is sinless even when He is stirred to act out of a jealous anger. The LORD is jealous for His people and that is a precious thing, for it means that when the LORD’s people turn from Him and pursue false gods, it is a holy jealously that motivates the LORD to indignantly reclaim them for Himself. Such reclaiming can entail His deployment of even the wicked to bring His people back to their senses and back to Him. The Prophets, who simply warned Israel of the terms of their covenant with the LORD, frequently forewarned: “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the LORD; I have spoken” (See Ezekiel 5:13-15).

Asaph simply asks the LORD how long He will display His displeasure toward Israel by sending the Babylonians to unleash their cruel wickedness upon them. The Babylonians were not forced to do what they did; for wicked people willingly do wicked things when given the opportunity. In asking “how long?” Asaph is acknowledging that he is in the LORD’s hands, not the Babylonians. The horror that has befallen Jerusalem will last only as long as the LORD permits. Asaph builds on his inquiry about how long with a desperate plea for the LORD to do two things. First, Asaph asks for the LORD to direct His righteous anger toward the Babylonians “Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name! For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation” (79:6-7; Jeremiah quotes this in Jeremiah 10:25). Asaph understands that there is a difference between the covenant people of the LORD and the wicked. The wicked do not know the LORD and thus, do not call upon the name of the LORD. The wicked act wickedly and therefore must be brought into account for their actions (See Jeremiah 51). The second plea that Asaph makes is for the LORD to forgive and make atonement for His people’s sins: “Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!” (79:8-9). While the unrepentant wicked receive God’s full wrath, those who repent find a compassionate deliverance from the LORD. Asaph knows that the LORD will not simply forget about sin, but he also knows that the LORD has made provision to make atonement for sin. The sacrificial system of the Old Covenant, as outlined in Books like Leviticus, reveal that the LORD will punish sin through a substitutionary sacrifice. The manner in which the LORD atones for sins displays the greatness of the LORD’s own name. It is through atonement that the LORD remembers sin no more: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (See Jeremiah 31:34).

Asaph is not only concerned with the attack on Jerusalem by the Babylonians along with the unfaithfulness of Israel that brought such an attack about, he is also concerned about the honor and reputation of the LORD: “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!” (79:10). The Babylonians interpreted their success as a sign that Israel’s God is weak, unable to defend His people. But Asaph appeals to the LORD to avenge the Babylonians for the butchery they perpetrated upon Israel. Asaph’s aim in his appeal is that the LORD would show the nations that He is a mighty and powerful God. When the LORD acts with great power and might, He will relieve His people of their oppression and He will quiet those who have mocked Him: “Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die! Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!” (79:11-12). Asaph can be confident that such an appeal will be acted upon because the LORD is compassionate toward His people’s sufferings, and the LORD is just to properly deal with His enemies taunts. Asaph pledges grateful praise to the LORD as He rescues His people and judges the wicked: “But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise” (79:13).

As we reflect on Psalm 79 we can consider how the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the picture as Asaph asked the LORD to forgive sin through atonement for sin: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!” (79:9). Asaph does not merely ask the LORD to no longer remember his sins (79:8), he grounds that request further, as he asks the LORD to atone for his sins. Asaph knows that the LORD is compassionate and merciful: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (See Exodus 34:6b-7a). So Asaph knows he can ask for forgiveness. But Asaph also knows that the LORD does not turn a blind eye to sins: “but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (See Exodus 34:7b). Because God is holy and just, sin must be atoned for. What Jesus was sent to do displays not only the mercy of God to pardon sinners, but also the substitute before God to punish sin: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (See Isaiah 53:6). Jesus took on Himself the sins of His people as He bore up under their debt, curse, and condemnation. There is fullness of mercy for all who turn to Jesus: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (See Hebrews 8:12). A holy and just God does not remember any sin that has been atoned for by Jesus.

That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, June 19, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, June 22, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 80.