Ps. 79:0 THE ARGUMENT This Psalm was doubtless composed upon the sad occasion of the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem, either by Antiochus, or rather by the Chaldeans; as may be gathered from 1Ma 7:16, 17, where, in the relation of the persecution of Antiochus, the second and third verses of this…

Are come, as invaders and conquerors. Into thine inheritance; into Canaan and Judea, which thou didst choose for thine inheritance. Defied, by entering into it, and touching and carrying away its holy vessels, and shedding blood in it, and burning of it.

Of thy servants; either, 1. Of thy faithful and holy servants, whom they used as cruelly as the worst of the people. Or, 2. Of the Jews, whom, though the generality of them were very wicked, he calleth God’s servants and saints, because they were all such by profession, and some of them were really…

Like water; plentifully and contemptuously, valuing it no more than common water. None to bury them, because their friends, who should have done it, were either slain or fled, or were not permitted, or durst not undertake, to perform that office to them.

We, who were their terror and scourge, are now neither feared nor pitied, but become the matter of their scoffs and reproaches. See Ps. 80:6, Ps. 137:7, Ezek. 35:2, Ezek. 35:12;c.

Though we confess that we have deserved thy wrath, yet the heathen, by whom thou hast scourged us, deserve it much more, as being guilty of far greater impieties than we, living in gross ignorance and contempt of God and of his worship; and therefore we pray transfer thy wrath from us to them.

Jacob; the posterity of Jacob, whom thou didst love, and with whom and his seed thou madest a sure and everlasting covenant; whereby thou didst engage thyself to be an enemy to their enemies, Ex. 23:22.

Former iniquities; the sins committed by our forefathers, and by us, who have filled up the measure of their sins, for which we confess thou hast most righteously brought this desolating judgment upon us.

O God of our salvation; from whom we have oft received, and from whom alone we now expect, salvation. Thy name; which is now obscured by the insolency and blasphemy of thine enemies, who ascribe this conquest to their idols, and triumph over thee no less than over thy people, as one unable to…

Their God; he whom they served, and of whom they boasted. He is lost and gone, or grown impotent or idle. Let him be known among the heathen, by the execution of his judgments upon them, according to Ps. 9:16. In our sight; that we may live to see it, and praise thy name for it.

Of the prisoner; of thy poor people now in prison, or, at least, in captivity. Those that are appointed to die, Heb. the children of death, i.e. which were either designed to death, or in manifest danger of it, as being wholly in the power of their cruel and barbarous enemies.

Sevenfold, i.e. either, 1. Abundantly, as this phrase notes, Isa. 65:6–7, Jer. 32:18, Luke 6:38. Or, 2. Sensibly, so as it may come home to them, and fall heavily upon them in their own persons. Reproached thee, as impotent, or unfaithful, or unmerciful to his own people.