How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
This psalm belongs to the time when the Church lay under genuine oppression, either when Assyria burnt the temple and dragged the people into captivity or when Antiochus defiled it with slaughter. The faithful bewail their calamities while acknowledging they were justly chastised, yet they take courage because God's own dishonor is bound up with theirs: the ungodly blaspheme His sacred name in persecuting His Church.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 79:1-13
The psalmist wrings his hands in agony: will these sharp chastisements never end? Is mercy itself extinct, that You would smite forever? Your jealousy burns justly against idols and apostasy, but spare Your people from utter consumption by fire.
AI summary
A lily among thorns: the church suffers with the world and from it. Where else should children carry their griefs but to their Father? God rules the heathen as King of nations and guards His saints as King of saints. Injuries to His inheritance wound us more deeply than injuries to our own.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 79:1-5