Psalm Chapter 79

Psalm 79: The Ruins That Pray

Jerusalem is in heaps. The temple has been defiled. The dead lie unburied, given as meat to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth, and their blood runs through the streets like water. Asaph does not soften the picture or turn it into a lesson; he simply holds it up before God with both hands and says, "Look." This is what honest prayer looks like when the world has come apart — not pious acceptance, not quiet resignation, but a raw, almost accusatory grief: "How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?" And yet even in the rubble, something astonishing emerges. The psalm does not end in despair but in a vow: "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations." It is the most improbable promise imaginable, made from the floor of a destroyed city by people who have every reason to be silent. The ruins themselves are praying. And perhaps that is the deepest mystery of lament — that the cry "how long?" is itself a form of faith, because it is addressed to Someone who, the psalmist still believes, is listening.

00:00 Jerusalem in Ruins
01:00 A Plea for Mercy
02:00 The Vow from the Ashes