791 A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; they have defiled thy holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 2 They have given the bodies of thy servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. 4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those round about us.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 79:1-4
Commentary on Psalm 79:1-5
(Read Psalm 79:1-5)
God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.