Psalm 79
by Pastor David Groendyk
It’s clear that this psalm was written during some great disaster that fell upon Israel. The sheer brutality of this event stands out. The temple has been defiled (v. 1), Israelite corpses were being eaten by birds (v. 2), blood flowed in the streets like water (v. 3). It may be that this psalm was written around the time of Babylon’s final conquering, destruction, and exile of the nation of Judah.
Very closely connected to the destruction of Judah is the psalmist’s confession of sin (vv. 8–9), almost to the point of sounding like Judah’s sin has caused the destruction. Sometimes suffering befalls us a natural consequence of our sin (for example, if we develop a drug addiction, it’s no surprise that we would have severe health issues). Sometimes people will never face any sorts of earthly consequences of their sin (and I’m sure we can all think of examples of this). Sometimes suffering befalls us as a means of chastisement and God trying to draw us back to himself (as in Hebrews 12:4–11). Whatever disaster Judah is going through, it is likely God chastising them for their sin. God sends this chastisement and discipline in compassion so that we would repent of our sin, quit our wandering from God, and return to him. It is a grace when he chastises us. Now, we need to be clear: just because we are experiencing some sort of suffering does not mean that there has to be some sort of unrepentant sin in our lives (for example, see the entire book of Job); likewise, even if our life is going along swimmingly that doesn’t mean that God approves of everything we’re doing. We need to be careful not to try to draw one-to-one correlations between sin and suffering. However, we should be sensitive to the fact that God sometimes uses hard means to draw us back to himself, and that should lead us to be humble all the way through our lives, even when we are suffering. Let us all live lives of humility toward God and regularly examine our hearts for sin.
Whether or not see sin our lives, verse 8 is instructive for us. Both in deliverance from our enemies and in forgiveness of our sins, God’s own motivation behind those things is his own glory. And that means that our motivation for asking for deliverance and forgiveness should be God’s glory. It’s easy to forget that our salvation is not the ultimate reason for Jesus dying on the cross for us. Jesus dies on the cross in order to save us in order that God’s name would be glorified. God does everything that he does because it magnifies himself, the single greatest being in the universe. How should that change the way we pray when we encounter suffering and trials?