Companion: Deep Study
A condensed companion to the full study. For each section of the expanded outline: key insights, applications, and the application questions for discussion.
Section 1 — The Nations in God’s Inheritance (Psalm 79:1–4)
Key Insights
- The psalm begins by addressing God, because the land, the temple and the city that were ruined all belonged to Him (v. 1).
- The defiling of the temple and the unburied dead fulfilled the covenant curses Moses had warned of (Deuteronomy 28:26).
- The slain are still called God’s servants and His faithful (chasidim), for His covenant love follows His people into death.
- The scorn of the neighbors added shame to grief: “We have become a taunt to our neighbors” (v. 4).
- Christ, the true Temple, was mocked and His blood poured out outside Jerusalem, yet God raised Him from the dead (John 2:19).
Applications
- Learn to grieve over what grieves God, caring more for His honor than for our own reputation.
- Bring sorrow to God in honest lament, which is faith speaking in the dark (Psalm 62:8).
- Pray for the persecuted church, but never cast any modern nation as Israel or its enemies.
Application Questions
- Which grieves me more deeply, an injury to my own reputation or an injury to the honor of Christ and His church?
- When my church or fellow believers suffer, do I bring that sorrow honestly to God in lament, or do I suppress it, despair, or simply complain to others?
Section 2 — How Long, O LORD? (Psalm 79:5–7)
Key Insights
- The people trace their calamity to the anger and jealousy of the LORD, not to the strength of Babylon (v. 5).
- “How long?” is the language of anxious faith, not of rebellion against God.
- They ask God to turn His anger on the nations “that do not know you” (v. 6).
- God used the nations as His instrument and still held them guilty for their cruelty (Isaiah 10:5).
- The cup of wrath was finally poured out on Christ, so that all who call on His name are spared (Matthew 26:39).
Applications
- Bring your “How long?” to God, trusting that He governs every trial and can end it.
- Take God’s jealousy seriously and turn from whatever rivals Him in your heart.
- Never use verse 6 to pray harm on a spouse, neighbor or opponent; pray for your enemies’ repentance (Matthew 5:44).
Application Questions
- When hardship drags on, do I bring my “How long?” to God in faith, or do I let the length of the trial persuade me that He has stopped caring?
- When I pray about people who have wronged me or the church, is my desire for God’s justice joined to a genuine desire for their repentance?
Section 3 — Atone for Our Sins, for Your Name’s Sake (Psalm 79:8–9)
Key Insights
- The psalm turns from accusing enemies to confessing sin, because the deepest need was reconciliation with God (v. 8).
- “Former iniquities” may include the sins of earlier generations, which the remnant owns and forsakes.
- God’s compassion (rachamim) is asked to run ahead to meet a people brought very low.
- The people plead only God’s name: “atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!” (v. 9).
- God answered this plea at the cross, putting Christ forward “as a propitiation by his blood” (Romans 3:25).
Applications
- Seek reconciliation with God above relief from trouble.
- Confess inherited patterns of sin rather than excusing them, without fearing ancestral curses (Romans 8:1).
- Come for forgiveness pleading Christ’s blood and God’s name, not your own record (1 John 1:9).
Application Questions
- When trouble comes, is my first concern to have the trouble removed, or to be reconciled to God and right with Him?
- Are there patterns of sin I have inherited from my family, church or culture that I need to confess and forsake rather than excuse?
Section 4 — Where Is Their God? (Psalm 79:10)
Key Insights
- In the ancient world a city’s fall was read as its god’s defeat, so the taunt “Where is their God?” struck at the LORD Himself (v. 10).
- The people join their rescue to the glory of God’s name, as all true prayer does.
- The prayer for avenging rests on God’s promise that “he avenges the blood of his children” (Deuteronomy 32:43).
- The same taunt was thrown at Jesus on the cross, and God answered it by raising Him from the dead (Matthew 27:43).
Applications
- Let the mockery of the faith grieve you chiefly for God’s honor, and examine whether your own sin has given occasion for it (Romans 2:24).
- Answer scorn with faithful lives and the gospel, not with retaliation.
- Wait patiently for God’s justice; His delay is never His indifference (Revelation 6:10).
Application Questions
- When people mock my faith or point to the failures of Christians, does it trouble me more for my own sake or for the sake of God’s name?
- How do I respond when I see God’s people suffer injustice and God does not seem to act right away?
Section 5 — The Groans of the Prisoners and the Sevenfold Return (Psalm 79:11–12)
Key Insights
- God is asked to hear “the groans of the prisoners” and to preserve “those doomed to die” by His great power (v. 11).
- The plea echoes the exodus, when God heard His people’s groaning in Egypt (Exodus 2:24).
- The reproach to be repaid is the neighbors’ blasphemy against God, not merely their insults to Israel (v. 12).
- Sevenfold means full and complete justice, left entirely in God’s hands.
- Christ came “to proclaim liberty to the captives” and freed those doomed to die by dying in their place (Luke 4:18).
Applications
- When you can only groan, bring it to God, for the Spirit intercedes for you (Romans 8:26).
- Remember the prisoners, especially Christians imprisoned for their faith (Hebrews 13:3).
- Forgive wrongs done to you without limit, and never read “sevenfold” as permission to repay with interest (Matthew 18:22).
Application Questions
- When I am too burdened even to pray in words, do I believe that God hears my groans, and do I still bring them to Him?
- Am I quick to forgive wrongs done to me, while leaving to God the judgment of those who blaspheme His name?
Section 6 — We Your People Will Give Thanks Forever (Psalm 79:13)
Key Insights
- The psalm ends with a vow of praise made before any deliverance had come (v. 13).
- In the ruins, Israel still calls itself “your people, the sheep of your pasture” (v. 13).
- The aim of every rescue is that God’s name be celebrated from generation to generation.
- God formed His people “that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:21).
- Jesus is the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Applications
- Rest your identity on God’s claim, not on your circumstances.
- Make thanksgiving the goal of your prayers and keep your vows of praise.
- Tell the next generation what God has done, leaving the fruit to Him (Psalm 78:4).
Application Questions
- When my circumstances seem to deny it, do I still hold to my identity as one of “the sheep of your pasture”?
- Am I actively telling the next generation the story of God’s faithfulness in my life and in His church?
Though Jerusalem lay in ruins and the nations mocked, the God of our salvation answered His people’s cry in Jesus Christ, who atoned for our sins for His name’s sake and gathers His sheep to praise Him forever.
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