Psalm 79 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 79 (1928 BCP) is the penitential communal lament Deus, venerunt in the Psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer. It gives the Church words for grief at the desecration of holy things, the death of God's servants, public shame, confession of sin, and hope grounded in God's Name rather than in national strength. The 1928 book appoints it at Morning Prayer on the Sixteenth Day.
Prayer Book Text
O GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; * thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones.
2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air, * and the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the land.
3 Their blood have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem, * and there was no man to bury them.
4 We are become an open shame to our enemies, * a very scorn and derision unto them that are round about us.
5 LORD, how long wilt thou be angry? * shall thy jealousy burn like fire for ever?
6 Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen that have not known thee; * and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy Name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob, * and laid waste his dwelling-place.
8 O remember not our old sins, but have mercy upon us, and that soon; * for we are come to great misery.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy Name: * O deliver us, and be merciful unto our sins, for thy Name's sake.
10 Wherefore do the heathen say, * Where is now their God?
11 O let the vengeance of thy servants' blood that is shed, * be openly showed upon the heathen, in our sight.
12 O let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee; * according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die.
13 And for the blasphemy wherewith our neighbours have blasphemed thee, * reward thou them, O Lord, sevenfold into their bosom.
14 So we, that are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, shall give thee thanks for ever, * and will alway be showing forth thy praise from generation to generation.
The first movement is not an abstraction about suffering. It names ruined city, desecrated sanctuary, unburied bodies, and mockery. Yet the repeated possessives—thine inheritance, thy holy temple, thy servants—make the lament an appeal to God's covenantal relation with his people. Its turn in verses 8–9 is decisive: the community does not claim innocence, but asks mercy and cleansing “for the glory of thy Name.” The final promise of praise means that deliverance is ordered to worship.
Historical and Literary Reading
Alexander Maclaren connects Psalm 79 to the companion lament of Psalm 74, while distinguishing its particular stress:
The same national agony which was the theme of Psalm lxxiv. forced the sad strains of this psalm from the singer's heart. There, the profanation of the Temple, and here, the destruction of the city, are the more prominent. There, the dishonour to God; here, the distresses of His people, are set forth. Consequently, confession of sin is more appropriate here, and prayers for pardon blend with those for deliverance.
That observation helps the liturgical reader avoid treating the psalm's imprecations as detached from repentance. The plea for judgment on cruelty is surrounded by confession, a request for mercy, and a vow of thanksgiving. Maclaren further identifies the theological logic of verse 9:
The ground of his plea for cleansing and deliverance is the glory of God's name, which he emphatically puts at the end of both clauses of ver. 9. He repeats the same thought in another form in the question of ver. 10, “Why should the heathen say, Where is their God?”
The Prayer Book's sixteenth-day cycle therefore gives worshippers a disciplined form of intercession when a congregation, a people, or the persecuted Church suffers: it tells the truth about wrong, places judgment with God, confesses communal sin, and refuses despair.
Christian Reading
The New Testament gives the Church warrant to pray the Psalms as the prayer of Christ's body: “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15), and the martyrs in Revelation ask God to judge and avenge their blood (Revelation 6:9–10). This Christian use must not erase Psalm 79's Israelite and historical voice. Rather, it receives the lament as Scripture and learns to join grief for the afflicted to repentance and hope in God.
Augustine's exposition is an early example of this ecclesial reading. He first treats the psalm as prophetic rather than as a report from David's own lifetime:
That is spoken of therefore as though past, which in the Spirit was seen to be future.
Augustine then offers a patristic extension of the psalm's Jerusalem imagery to the persecuted Church:
The circuit then of this Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as follows: so far as at that time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the great gain of the celestial treasuries.
This is Augustine's theological interpretation, not the only sense of the psalm or a license to disregard its original setting. It shows why the text has remained apt for Anglican intercession for persecuted Christians: “thy servants' blood” and “the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners” make suffering persons, rather than religious sentiment, the object of the Church's prayer.
Use in Worship
Psalm 79 belongs to the Daily Office rather than to a private collection of consolations. At Sixteenth Day Morning Prayer its conclusion, “we, that are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture,” returns the congregation from outrage and petition to its fundamental identity as God's flock. The Psalm thus trains corporate prayer to hold together lament, penitence, intercession, and praise.
See Also
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 79. Deus, venerunt, pp. 420–421, appointed at Sixteenth Day Morning Prayer, “The Psalter from the 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer”.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 79. Deus, venerunt, pp. 420–421, “The Psalter from the 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer”.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 79. Deus, venerunt, pp. 420–421, “The Psalter from the 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer”.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 79. Deus, venerunt, pp. 420–421, “The Psalter from the 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), “Psalm LXXIX,” pp. 405–406, “Christian Classics Ethereal Library text”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), “Psalm LXXIX,” pp. 409–410, “Christian Classics Ethereal Library text”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 79, §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), “New Advent transcription”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 79, §6, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), “New Advent transcription”.