They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
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
"Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem." The invaders slew men as if their blood was of no more value than so much water; they poured it forth as lavishly as when the floods deluge the plains. The city of holy peace became a field of blood. "And there was none to bury them." The few who survived were afraid to engage in the task.
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