The big picture
Psalm 79 begins with Jerusalem reduced to a public humiliation, but its first instinct is to speak of ownership: the ruined city, defiled temple, dead servants, and saints all belong to God. That language makes the devastation a crisis within a relationship, not merely a military loss. The community confesses former iniquities and asks that sins be purged, so its appeal never depends on pretending innocence. At the same time, confession does not excuse those who have poured out blood and mocked the question, “Where is their God?” The prayer narrows from a ruined city to the sigh of a prisoner and people marked for death, then ends by calling the survivors God’s people and the sheep of his pasture, still promising praise beyond the attempted silencing.
Central truth
Psalm 79 turns the desecration of Jerusalem and the temple into communal lament, asking God to act for the glory of his name, remember the helpless and imprisoned, answer enemy reproach, and preserve a people who still call themselves the sheep of his pasture.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Psalms 79:1: “O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.”
Slow down at the turning point
Psalms 79:5: “How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?”
Keep this word trail visible
heathen, blood, Jerusalem, known, laid, LORD
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Psalm 79:1-4
The city in heaps
Read 79:1-4 slowly and soberly. The temple defiled, Jerusalem in ruins, bodies left for birds and beasts, blood poured out, no one to bury, neighbours jeering. Explain that most readers connect this with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25; Lamentations 2). Teach this first, with care for anyone who has seen war or violent death, because the psalm insists that grief be spoken fully before God. Notice how often the word thy appears: this is God's city and God's people.
Psalm 79:5-7
How long, LORD
Read 79:5-7. "How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever?" Explain jealousy as God's burning commitment to his covenant people. Then 79:6-7: the people ask God to pour out wrath on "the heathen that have not known thee", who "have devoured Jacob". Explain that this is a cry to the judge of all the earth, handing judgement to him, and that the prayer is spoken from utter helplessness. Teach this step without either softening it or making it a model for revenge.
Psalm 79:8-9
Help us for thy name
Read 79:8-9. The people confess former iniquities, ask for tender mercies to come quickly, and admit "we are brought very low". Then the heart of the psalm: "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name". Explain that they ask for deliverance and for sins to be purged, both "for thy name's sake". Teach this as the centre, because it shows how a suffering people can be honest about sin and still hope in God's mercy.
Psalm 79:10-12
Where is their God
Read 79:10-12. The taunt, "Where is their God?", the plea for the blood of God's servants to be avenged, "the sighing of the prisoner", and the request that the neighbours' reproach of God be returned sevenfold. Explain that the psalm asks God to defend his own honour and the helpless, and that the reproach is "wherewith they have reproached thee". Teach this step carefully, noting that the New Testament adds the call to love enemies (Romans 12:19-21), while still leaving justice to God.
Psalm 79:13
Still the sheep of his pasture
Read the final verse: "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever". Explain that after every loss the people still name themselves as God's flock, and promise praise "to all generations". Teach this last so the class sees that lament, even at its darkest, can end in hope. Ask what identity remains for a believer when buildings, safety and reputation are gone.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
"If God's people suffer like this, God must have abandoned them for good."
The psalm asks "wilt thou be angry for ever?" (79:5), but it ends with "we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever" (79:13). The people still belong to God in the ruins. Their prayer for mercy and forgiveness (79:8-9) assumes he can still hear and act. Lamentations 3:31-33 says the Lord does not afflict willingly.
"Verses 6 and 12 give us permission to pray for harm to people we hate."
These verses are the cry of a devastated people handing judgement over to God, not taking it themselves. The concern is God's name, reproached by those "wherewith they have reproached thee" (79:12), and the innocent blood shed (79:10). Christians pray them knowing Jesus' command to love enemies (Matthew 5:44) and Paul's word to leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19). They are honest prayers, not a licence for hatred.
"Admitting our sins means the disaster was entirely our fault and the attackers did nothing wrong."
The psalm holds both together. It confesses "former iniquities" and asks God to "purge away our sins" (79:8-9), and it also names the attackers' violence plainly: they "devoured Jacob" and shed blood "like water" (79:3, 79:7). Confession does not excuse cruelty, and naming cruelty does not cancel confession. Teach both without simplistic blame in either direction.
"The nations in this psalm stand for particular modern countries."
The "heathen" and "neighbours" (79:1, 79:4) are the peoples who attacked and mocked Jerusalem in the psalm's own time. The psalm should not be used to label any present nation or group as God's enemy. Its lasting lessons are honest lament, confession, trust in God's name and continued praise (79:9, 79:13).
Learning objectives
- List the concrete devastations named in verses 1–4.
- Explain why the desecration of temple and city becomes a theological crisis about God's name.
- Trace the pleas of verses 8–9 from inherited iniquity and low condition to help, deliverance, and purging of sins.
- Explain the question in verse 10, 'Where is their God?' as enemy reproach rather than neutral curiosity.
- Identify the vulnerable groups named in verse 11 and how their condition shapes the prayer.
- Explain how verse 13 preserves covenant identity after disaster by calling the people God's people and sheep.
Teacher preparation
- Read the psalm without supplying a historical date as certainty; note that the destruction resembles national catastrophes such as Babylon's invasion.
- Mark temple, Jerusalem, dead bodies, blood, reproach, heathen, prisoners, and sheep so the movement from devastation to identity remains visible.
- Prepare to explain 'sevenfold into their bosom' in verse 12 as an intensified appeal for just recompense, not a mathematics lesson.
- Keep verses 8–9 central so the class hears confession and appeal for God's name beside prayers against hostile nations.
- Do not sanitize the dead-body imagery. The psalm deliberately makes the humiliation bodily and public.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Verses 1–4 explicitly name invasion, temple defilement, Jerusalem in heaps, unburied bodies, shed blood, and public reproach.
Scripture-supported
Verses 8–9 support a confessional element by asking God not to remember former iniquities and to purge sins while helping for the glory of his name.
Strong inference
The repeated concern with 'Where is their God?' and God's name strongly implies that the prayer seeks vindication of divine honor, not merely national recovery.
Possible or traditional reading
Many readers place the psalm against the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, which fits much of the imagery, but the psalm itself does not name Babylon or a date.
Limit
Psalm 79 does not permit ethnic hostility toward modern peoples, and its judgment prayers must remain tied to the specific desecration, violence, and reproach described in the text.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What has happened to God's inheritance in verses 1–4?
What a good answer contains
The worst that can happen to a city and its people. "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps" (79:1). The dead lie unburied, food for birds and beasts (79:2), blood is shed "like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them" (79:3), and the survivors are mocked: "We are become a reproach to our neighbours" (79:4). A good answer names the invasion, the defiled temple, the ruins, the unburied dead and the public shame, and notices that it is all called God's: his inheritance, his temple, his servants, his saints.
Show teacher guidance
Require the full scene: nations enter, temple is defiled, Jerusalem is heaped, bodies are exposed, blood is poured out, and neighbors reproach.
2. Why does verse 5 ask 'how long' after describing the destruction?
What a good answer contains
Because the people believe God's hand is in the disaster and want to know when it will end. "How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" (79:5). Jealousy here is God's zeal for his people's exclusive faithfulness. A good answer sees that the question is honest and addressed to God, not about him. The people do not deny they have provoked him; verse 8 will confess sin. But they ask whether his anger has a limit. A weak answer treats the question as complaint without faith.
Show teacher guidance
The community experiences the catastrophe as prolonged divine anger and asks when jealousy will cease to burn.
3. What does verse 8 admit before verse 9 asks for deliverance?
What a good answer contains
That the people's sins are real. "O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low" (79:8). Prevent here means come to meet, go before. Former iniquities may be the sins of earlier generations, or their own past sins. A good answer sees that the prayer does not claim innocence; it asks for mercy to arrive quickly. Then verse 9 asks God to "purge away our sins". Confession and desperation stand side by side.
Show teacher guidance
The prayer asks God not to remember former iniquities and says the people are brought very low, keeping confession beside desperation.
4. Why does verse 9 appeal to 'the glory of thy name'?
What a good answer contains
Because God's reputation is bound up with his people. "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake" (79:9). The people have nothing to offer; they appeal to who God is and what his name means among the nations. A good answer sees that "for thy name's sake" frames both rescue and forgiveness, so the request is not for national pride but for God to be known truly. Ezekiel 36:22 gives the same reason for God's action.
Show teacher guidance
The requested help and cleansing are linked to God's public name, not merely to the people's comfort or national pride.
5. What makes the taunt 'Where is their God?' serious in verse 10?
What a good answer contains
Because the enemies use Israel's ruin as proof that their God is weak or absent. "Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?" (79:10). The taunt attacks God, not only Israel. The prayer asks God to show himself "by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed". A good answer handles this carefully: the request is that God, not Israel, judge the shedding of innocent blood (Deuteronomy 32:43). It also hears verse 11, the cry for prisoners and "those that are appointed to die".
Show teacher guidance
The enemies interpret Israel's devastation as evidence against Israel's God, so the prayer asks for divine action to answer that reproach.
6. How does verse 13 end after so much ruin?
What a good answer contains
With a people who still know whose they are. "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations" (79:13). The temple is defiled and the city in heaps, but they are still God's people and his sheep. A good answer notices the promise of praise reaching future generations, and that the lament ends in hope, not in revenge. It links with Psalm 100:3, "we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture".
Show teacher guidance
The people still identify as God's people and sheep of his pasture and promise thanksgiving and praise through generations.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Use verses 8–9 to practice combining honest confession with urgent petition, refusing both self-exoneration and the assumption that guilt cancels the right to seek mercy.
Relationships and community
Use verse 11 to make prisoners, the condemned, and people near death visible when a community discusses recovery from public disaster.
End with the sheep, not the rubble
After cataloguing the devastation, require the class to explain why verse 13's covenant identity is the psalm's final word.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
The ruins
Read 79:1-4 with care and ask question one. Take confusion four briefly.
How long
Read 79:5-7, ask question two and take confusion one.
For thy name
Read 79:8-9. Ask questions three and four and take confusion three.
Where is their God
Read 79:10-12, ask question five and take confusion two.
Sheep of thy pasture
Read 79:13 and ask question six.
Handout and prayer
Hand out the sheet, read the key verse together, and pray for believers suffering violence and for prisoners.
90 minutes
Grief in public
Ask how communities grieve after disaster. Be gentle with anyone who has lived through war or violent loss.
Thine inheritance
Read 79:1-4 and Lamentations 2:20-22. Ask question one and take confusion four.
Angry for ever
Read 79:5-7 and Lamentations 3:31-33. Ask question two and take confusion one.
Purge away our sins
Read 79:8-9 and Ezekiel 36:22. Ask questions three and four and take confusion three.
The sighing of the prisoner
Read 79:10-12, Deuteronomy 32:43 and Romans 12:19-21. Ask question five and take confusion two.
To all generations
Read 79:13 and Psalm 100:3. Ask question six.
Pray for the persecuted
Pray for believers who suffer violence today and for prisoners, using the words of 79:9 and 79:11.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and close with 79:13.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Show a picture of a city before and after it was broken. Explain simply that enemies hurt God's people and broke God's house, and the people were very sad and asked God for help. Leave out the details of verses 2-3. Then show a picture of sheep and read verse 13: they were still God's sheep, and they promised to thank him.
Youth
Ask how they react when someone mocks their faith with the question, where is your God? Read 79:10 and talk about how the psalm brings that taunt to God. Trace every mention of God's name in verses 6, 9 and 12. Talk honestly about the requests for judgement and how they relate to Jesus' command to love enemies.
Adults
Adults can study the historical setting, the confession in 79:8-9 and the difficult requests of 79:6, 10 and 12. Discuss how to pray for persecuted believers today and how to hold confession and moral clarity about violence together. Use 79:11 to pray for prisoners and those under sentence of death, and avoid any mapping onto modern politics.
One to one
If the person has suffered violence, loss of a loved one or public shame, read 79:1-5 and let them speak about their grief and anger before God. Do not rush them past it. Then read 79:9 and 79:13 together and remind them that they still belong to God. If there is ongoing danger or trauma, help them find appropriate care.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Psalms 79:1–13
The passage in brief
Psalm 79 is a lament after enemies destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, killed many people and mocked those who survived. The people ask God how long he will be angry. They confess their sins and ask him to help them and forgive them for the sake of his own name. They ask him to answer the enemies who say, Where is their God, and to hear the prisoners. They end by promising that, as his sheep, they will thank him for ever.
A verse to keep
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Psalms 79:9 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What had happened to Jerusalem in 79:1-4?
Why do the people ask for help in 79:9?
Who suffering today could you pray for using the words of verse 11?
This week
This week, pray each day for believers who are suffering violence, using verse 9 as your prayer.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
