Do not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come quickly, for we are brought low.
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
"O remember not against us former iniquities." Sins accumulate against nations. Generations lay up stores of transgressions to be visited upon their successors; hence this urgent prayer. In Josiah's days the most earnest repentance was not able to avert the doom which former long years of idolatry had sealed against Judah.
Pour out the full vials of wrath on those who know not God and call not upon His name; they have devoured Jacob, plundered and depopulated the land, which is crime enough before Him who counts His people the apple of His eye. Yet the Church owns its own sins as the procuring cause of all calamities: God was righteous in permitting what men wickedly performed.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 79:6-13