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A Psalm of Lament

Things don't always go right do they? How are we to respond in such situations? Does the Bible have any help for us? Or do we have to play pretend games that things aren't as bad as they appear?

Well the book of Psalms contains Psalms suitable for all kinds of different occasions. Not only are there Psalms of joyous praise highly appropriate when our spirits are up but it also contains Psalms for when much around us seems to be very bleak indeed. The Bible has a very realistic outlook on life – we don't live trouble free in a trouble free world and the Bible has portions that speak into every human experience.

Psalm 79 speaks into a crisis situation if there ever was one in the life of the people of God. In looking at this Psalm and seeing how they reacted under the influences of the Holy Spirit we should be in a better position to control our own responses.

The initial cry is "O God"! The circumstances that call forth this psalm are very serious indeed – we'll see something of that as we listen to the Psalm – but it is so important to recognize that the Psalmist begins by addressing God. In fact the whole Psalm is an expression of the psalmist's faith in God. In fact there are reasons for the problems being currently encountered because God is there!! The problems are no reason to give up on God but rather a clarion call to return to Him.

The complaint- or telling God what the problem is as far as the Psalmist understands it.

Notice how the Psalmist describes just what the problems are and notice too the way in which he frames it.

To begin with the Psalmist focuses attention on what the nations/the gentiles/the non-jews have done:

·       They have come into your inheritance – the land God had given to His people

·       They have defiled the Temple and laid Jerusalem in ruins. This was the one place on earth where God-authorised worship was to be offered. Destruction and defilement of these places would mean no honour to God as true worship could no longer be offered.

·       They have given the bodies… they have poured out blood – the nations have acting with extreme violence, great cruelty and with total disrespect for the life of the people shown in the disgraceful way dead bodies were left exposed and unburied – the prey for carrion.

As the Psalmist has begun he has spoken of the nations employing the word "they". He did not however leave it at that he spoke of the damage they inflicted as being directed against God Himself!

The land they've invaded is not any old land but God's: and so He speaks of "your inheritance".

The temple likewise is God's house and so he speaks of "your holy temple".

Those slaughtered are not nobodies but God's servants and so He speaks of "your servants" and "your faithful"

In fact for the Psalmist the problem he has to contend with is as great as it is because of this very intimate connection with the Lord. That God should allow such an affront to His own honour is something that the Psalmist finds troubling and incomprehensible.

Having spoken of the nations and also about God the Psalmist begins to turn to speak about the current situation of the people themselves.

"We have become a taunt to our neighbours". V.4 Not only are we struggling because of the treatment we've received and the way in which our land has been invaded and defiled to make matters worse others looking on and finding our sorrows a cause of great amusement and are adding insult and mockery to injury!

Doubtless their neighbours were deriding them for having placed their confidence in God and yet now here they were getting their comeuppance! You and your religious exclusivism – you thought you were so clever, that'll teach you to be so cocky! Look at you now – ha, ha, ha!

Having laid out his description of the predicament in which the people of God find themselves the psalmist now moves from description to questions followed by requests.

There is an acknowledgement in the first question that the Lord's people have provoked the Lord to anger against them. There is an understanding through all of the Psalm that the Lord is sovereign and here the fact that the people are suffering so is due explicitly to the Lord's anger being directed against them.

The people have not followed the Lord as they ought to have done in singleness of heart and in faithful obedience. And like a unfaithful wife they have only succeeded in provoking His jealousy against them.

This is not a unique explanation in the Bible the whole of the Book of Habakkuk expresses the same theme. The people of God have disobeyed until the Lord will tolerate no more and uses the pagan nations of the world to punish His own people. The problem dealt with by Habakkuk was how could such a Holy God use nations that were certainly no better and probably far worse than Israel to punish Israel. Here the same issues are raised too. The nations that have invaded are not themselves good – by no means – they are themselves nations who do not know God, they don't care for Him and they certainly have no desire to honour Him or serve Him.

The question "How long?" is not really a question at all. The Psalmist despite all his and his people's faults knows what the Lord's character is like. Given what He knows about the Lord and His concerns for His own glory it can only be a matter of time before does actively intervene to right the wrongs.

The same question is frequently put in the Psalms – "How long?" -  the question is one of expectancy. The psalmist entertains no real doubts as to whether or not the Lord will do something – the "How long?" is much more of a plea that such intervention be not long delayed!

Ps.6:3 "My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD - how long?"

Ps.13:1 "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?"

Ps.35:17 "How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions!

Ps.80:4 "O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?"

Ps.89:46 "How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?"

Ps.90:13 "Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!"

Ps.94:3 "O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?"

In most of these Psalms praise either concludes the psalm or is an integral part of it.

It is faith alone that can cry out in this manner – it is only the believer who can be in some way surprised that the Lord hasn't already intervened when His own honour is involved!

A.       The first request is for justice v.6-7. What the faithless, godless nations have done has already been described in the opening verses of the psalm and now the psalmists asks the Lord to treat them as they deserve.

B.       The second request contains a clear admission of guilt and failure on the part of the Lord's people. Yes, it is true that the people have not lived as they should have done in the light of all the Lord's goodness to them and the psalmist doesn't attempt for one moment to justify or excuse these failings. No, judgment has come to them and judgment that they so richly deserve but rather he makes an appeal for forgiveness. The Lord's judgment has brought them very low and into a very miserable condition – what he pleads for is compassion and mercy.

And so the psalmist goes on arguing and pleading with God. The discipline has worked and the gravity of the people's sin in now evident. Who possible can be of help? The Lord alone!! This is the plea of the psalmist. "You are the God of our salvation" he cries out. Act for us and in so doing you will bring honour and glory to your own name. Lord we will honour you – the nations don't know you our neighbours are mocking but we will praise you. Why should the nations be able to despise your name asserting that you weren't able to protect your own people from attack?

O Lord, your honour is now at stake. Surely you must act now to maintain the honour of your name.

None of this arguing is making a pretence of innocence or suggesting that we are better than them. The psalmist's pleading is based upon the glory of the Lord's name.

Is our praying in any way similar to this?

The Lord's servants have been killed – does He not see this? Surely He must respond? If not the nations will think He is indifferent or incapable and that can never be!!

Blood is spoken of. The shed blood of His servants. Do you remember back in the 4^th chapter of Genesis when the Cain killed Abel? When the Lord questioned Cain He asked him "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." The Lord is not ignorant of what has been going on nor is He ignorant at the time of this psalm as Israel suffer defeat and exile at the hand of the Babylonians. Blood continues to call forth a response from our Lord in the NT era. There is sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us and that blood belongs to Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant.

The psalmist continues in v.11 with reminiscent of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt when their groans and cries were heard by the Lord who then intervened with demonstrations of His mighty power to set them free from their bondage.

The psalmist now moves on a stage – back in v.4 it was the people who were the subject of the taunts and the mockery now here in v.12 the identification of the Lord with His people is so complete that it is the Lord who is being effectively mocked by the people.

Lord, how can this go on? Give them what they deserve! The plea of sevenfold doesn't mean that the psalmist is seeking for the Lord to inflict 7 times over what the nations deserve but seven is the number of completeness. He wants them to receive everything they've got coming to them.

And the psalm comes to a close with renewed cries of confidence!

Although our situation as the Lord's people currently looks appallingly bad yet we remain the sheep that belong to the Lord. He has provided for them in the past and will surely do so again.

The response therefore of the people is to promise a better behaviour in the future – they will not forget Him but will express to Him their thankfulness and readily talk of His praise. No glimpses of cheap grace here.

The Babylonian exile did however go ahead. The sins of the people were serious and not easily eradicated – while the Lord did not abandon His people neither did He eradicate all the consequences of their sin. They stayed 70 years away from the Promised Land though the time did serve to wean them from their delight in idols as idol worship did not seem to be a serious trouble to them ever again.

So the psalm speaks into a situation where the people of God as the people of God as really struggling. It is not primarily a Psalm about individual problems but it is easy to see how the psalm can be applied when the church is languishing in disarray and weakness, when it appears as though the enemy has come in like a flood and the courts of the Lord have been defiled by the trampling of the heathen.

Jesus Himself could lament over Jerusalem as the nation would not turn to Him but rather rejected Him. He warned them of coming destruction when the physical Temple of His day would again be destroyed.

Yet the people continue to reject Him and the inevitable outcome, humanly speaking, is His crucifixion.

Perhaps the Psalm too helps us to see the cross from new angles.

Jesus described His own body as a "temple" and He Himself was the meeting point between God and man. In fact He incarnated in His own person everything that the physical temple represented in sign and shadow.

And His body is defiled on the tree. He is crucified by gentiles (the nations). Only for Him it was not His sin that was the cause but the sin of those He represented. The blood of this faithful servant is shed amidst the taunts of the onlookers.

He too cries out "My God why hast thou forsaken me?" Silence from the heavens as the skies are darkened with expressions of divine disapproval. But is all lost? By no means. The "How long?" question is answered triumphantly the third day as God approves His Son by raising Him from the dead.

The Lord's compassion becomes widely available – sins have been dealt with and the Lord promises to forgive those who confess their sins.

Groaning prisoners can be set free! Sufferers can be comforted!!

And the redeemed of the Lord respond with shouts of thanks and hymns of praise!! They too do not respond to cheap grace – their offering in return is that their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, that is with spiritual worship.

Is that your response this evening? Please God it may be so!!