Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 79:6
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
6. upon the heathen &c.] Not upon the nations as such, but upon the nations which refuse to acknowledge Jehovah, and make havoc of His people. Render with R.V., that know thee not that call not upon thy name.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen – Punish, as they deserve, the nations that have risen up against thy people, and that have brought; desolation upon the land. The word rendered here pour out is used with reference to a cup or vial, as containing a mixture for the people to drink – of intoxication, or of poison. See the notes at Rev 16:1; notes at Psa 11:6; notes at Isa 51:17; compare Jer 25:15, Jer 25:17; Mat 20:22; Mat 26:39, Mat 26:42.
That have not known thee – Who are strangers to thee; who are thy enemies. The prayer that the wrath of God might be poured upon them was not because they were ignorant of him, but on account of their wicked conduct toward the people of God. The phrase that have not known thee is used merely to designate them, or to describe their character. The prayer is not necessarily a prayer for vengeance, or in the spirit of revenge; it is simply a prayer that justice might be done to them, and is such a prayer as any man may offer who is anxious that justice may be done in the world. See remarks on the imprecations in the Psalms. General Introduction Section 6. It is not proper, however, to use this as a proof-text that God will punish the pagan, or will consign them to destruction. The passage obviously has no reference to such a doctrine, whether that doctrine be true or false.
And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name – The people that do not worship thee; referring here particularly to those who had invaded the land, and made it desolate.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Pour out thy wrath] Bad as we are, we are yet less wicked than they. We, it is true, have been unfaithful; but they never knew thy name, and are totally abandoned to idolatry.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Though we confess that we have deserved thy wrath, yet the heathen, by whom thou hast scourged us, deserve it much more, as being guilty of far greater impieties than we, living in gross ignorance and contempt of God and of his worship; and therefore we pray transfer thy wrath from us to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. (Compare Jer10:25). Though we deserve much, do not the heathen deserve morefor their violence to us (Jer 51:3-5;Zec 1:14)? The singular denotesthe chief power, and the use of the plural indicates the combinedconfederates.
called uponor, “by”
thy nameproclaimed Thyattributes and professed allegiance (Isa 12:4;Act 2:21).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that have not known thee,…. Who had poured out the blood of the saints like water, and therefore it was a righteous thing with God to pour out the cup of wrath in his hands, and cause them to drink the dregs of it: these words, though they are in the form of an imprecation, yet regard not private revenge, but public justice, and the honour of God; and, besides, may be considered as a prophecy of what would be, and particularly of God’s pouring out the vials of his wrath on the antichristian states; who, though they profess Christianity, are no other than Heathens, and have no spiritual and serious knowledge of Christ:
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name; but upon their idols of gold, silver, brass, and stone, on the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints departed; for these, besides the kingdoms of Babylon, Syria, and Rome Pagan, are the kingdoms of the ten kings, that gave their kingdoms to the beast, and committed fornication, i.e. idolatry, with the whore of Rome; see Re 17:2, these words are referred to in Jer 10:25 and also the following.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Petitions for Succor and Relief; Petitions for Deliverance. | |
6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. 8 O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. 9 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. 10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; 12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. 13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations.
The petitions here put up to God are very suitable to the present distresses of the church, and they have pleas to enforce them, interwoven with them, taken mostly from God’s honour.
I. They pray that God would so turn away his anger from them as to turn it upon those that persecuted and abused them (v. 6): “Pour out thy wrath, the full vials of it, upon the heathen; let them wring out the dregs of it, and drink them.” This prayer is in effect a prophecy, in which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Observe here, 1. The character of those he prays against; they are such as have not known God, nor called upon his name. The reason why men do not call upon God is because they do not know him, how able and willing he is to help them. Those that persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of prayer, are the ungodly, who live without God in the world. There are kingdoms that know not God and obey not the gospel, but neither their multitude nor their force united will secure them from his just judgments. 2. Their crime: They have devoured Jacob, v. 7. That is crime enough in the account of him who reckons that those who touch his people touch the apple of his eye. They have not only disturbed, but devoured, Jacob, not only encroached upon his dwelling place, the land of Canaan, but laid it waste by plundering and depopulating it. (3.) Their condemnation: “Pour out thy wrath upon them; do not only restrain them from doing further mischief, but reckon with them for the mischief they have done.”
II. They pray for the pardon of sin, which they own to be the procuring cause of all their calamities. How unrighteous soever men were, God was righteous in permitting them to do what they did. They pray, 1. That God would not remember against them their former iniquities (v. 8), either their own former iniquities, that now, when they were old, they might not be made to possess the iniquities of their youth, or the former iniquities of their people, the sins of their ancestors. In the captivity of Babylon former iniquities were brought to account; but God promises not again to do so (Jer 31:29; Jer 31:30), and so they pray, “Remember not against us our first sins,” which some make to look as far back as the golden calf, because God said, In the day when I visit I will visit for this sin of theirs upon them, Exod. xxxii. 34. If the children by repentance and reformation cut off the entail of the parents’ sin, they may in faith pray that God will not remember them against them. When God pardons sin he blots it out and remembers it no more. 2. That he would purge away the sins they had been lately guilty of, by the guilt of which their minds and consciences had been defiled: Deliver us, and purge away our sins, v. 9. Then deliverances from trouble are granted in love, and are mercies indeed, when they are grounded upon the pardon of sin and flow from that; we should therefore be more earnest with God in prayer for the removal of our sins than for the removal of our afflictions, and the pardon of them is the foundation and sweetness of our deliverances.
III. They pray that God would work deliverance for them, and bring their troubles to a good end and that speedily: Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, v. 8. They had no hopes but from God’s mercies, his tender mercies; their case was so deplorable that they looked upon themselves as the proper objects of divine compassion, and so near to desperate that, unless divine mercy did speedily interpose to prevent their ruin, they were undone. This whets their importunity: “Lord, help us; Lord, deliver us; help us under our troubles, that we may bear them well; help us out of our troubles, that the spirit may not fail. Deliver us from sin, from sinking.” Three things they plead:– 1. The great distress they were reduced to: “We are brought very low, and, being low, shall be lost if thou help us not.” The lower we are brought the more need we have of help from heaven and the more will divine power be magnified in raising us up. 2. Their dependence upon him: “Thou art the God of our salvation, who alone canst help. Salvation belongs to the Lord, from whom we expect help; for in the Lord alone is the salvation of his people.” Those who make God the God of their salvation shall find him so. 3. The interest of his own honour in their case. They plead no merit of theirs; they pretend to none; but, “Help us for the glory of thy name; pardon us for thy name’s sake.” The best encouragements in prayer are those that are taken from God only, and those things whereby he has made himself known. Two things are insinuated in this plea:– (1.) That God’s name and honour would be greatly injured if he did not deliver them; for those that derided them blasphemed God, as if he were weak and could not help them, or had withdrawn and would not; therefore they plead (v. 10), “Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? He has forsaken them, and forgotten them; and this they get by worshipping a God whom they cannot see.” (Nil prter nubes et cli numen adorant. Juv.–They adore no other divinity than the clouds and the sky.) That which was their praise (that they served a God that is every where) was now turned to their reproach and his too, as if they served a God that is nowhere. “Lord,” say they, “Make it to appear that thou art by making it to appear that thou art with us and for us, that when we are asked, Where is your God? we may be able to say, He is nigh unto us in all that which we call upon him for, and you see he is so by what he does for us.” (2.) That God’s name and honour would be greatly advanced if he did deliver them; his mercy would be glorified in delivering those that were so miserable and helpless. By making bare his everlasting arm on their behalf he would make unto himself an everlasting name; and their deliverance would be a type and figure of the great salvation, which in the fulness of time Messiah the Prince would work out, to the glory of God’s name.
IV. They pray that God would avenge them on their adversaries, 1. For their cruelty and barbarity (v. 10): “Let the avenging of our blood” (according to the ancient law, Gen. ix. 6) “be known among the heathen; let them be made sensible that what judgments are brought upon them are punishments of the wrong they have done to us; let this be in our sight, and by this means let God be known among the heathen as the God to whom vengeance belongs (Ps. xciv. 1) and the God that espouses his people’s cause.” Those that have intoxicated themselves with the blood of the saints shall have blood given them to drink, for they are worthy. 2. For their insolence and scorn (v. 12): “Render to them their reproach. The indignities which by word and deed they have done to the people of God himself and his name let them be repaid to them with interest.” The reproach wherewith men have reproached us only we must leave it to God whether he will render to them or no, and must pray that he would for give them; but the reproach wherewith they have blasphemed God himself we may in faith pray that God would render seven-fold into their bosoms, so as to strike at their hearts, to humble them, and bring them to repentance. This prayer is a prophecy, of the same import with that of Enoch, that God will convince sinners of all their hard speeches which they have spoken against him (Jude 15) and will return them into their own bosoms by everlasting terrors at the remembrance of them.
V. They pray that God would find out a way for the rescue of his poor prisoners, especially the condemned prisoners, v. 11. The case of their brethren who had fallen into the hands of the enemy was very sad; they were kept close prisoners, and, because they durst not be heard to bemoan themselves, they vented their griefs in deep and silent sighs. All their breathing was sighing, and so was their praying. They were appointed to die, as sheep for the slaughter, and had received the sentence of death within themselves. This deplorable case the psalmist recommends, 1. To the divine pity: “Let their sighs come up before thee, and be thou pleased to take cognizance of their moans.” 2. To the divine power: “According to the greatness of thy arm, which no creature can contest with, preserve thou those that are appointed to die from the death to which they are appointed.” Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity to appear for his people. See 2 Cor. i. 8-10.
Lastly, They promise the returns of praise for the answers of prayer (v. 13): So we will give thee thanks for ever. Observe, 1. How they please themselves with their relation to God. “Though we are oppressed and brought low, yet we are the sheep of thy pasture, not disowned and cast off by thee for all this: We are thine; save us.” 2. How they promise themselves an opportunity of praising God for their deliverance, which they therefore desired, and would bid welcome, because it would furnish them with matter for thanksgiving and put their hearts in tune for that excellent work, the work of heaven. 3. How they oblige themselves not only to give God thanks at present, but to show forth his praise unto all generations, that is, to do all they could both to perpetuate the remembrance of God’s favours to them and to engage their posterity to keep up the work of praise. 4. How they plead this with God: “Lord, appear for us against our enemies; for, if they get the better, they will blaspheme thee (v. 12); but, if we be delivered, we will praise thee. Lord, we are that people of thine which thou hast formed for thyself, to show forth thy praise; if we be cut off, whence shall that rent, that tribute, be raised?” Note, Those lives that are entirely devoted to God’s praise are assuredly taken under his protection.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen, who have not known thee. This prayer is apparently inconsistent with the rule of charity; for, while we feel anxious about our own calamities, and desire to be delivered from them, we ought to desire that others may be relieved as well as ourselves. It would seem, therefore, that the faithful are to be blamed in here wishing the destruction of unbelievers, for whose salvation they ought rather to have been solicitous. But it becomes us to bear in mind what I have previously stated, that the man who would offer up such a prayer as this in a right manner, must be under the influence of zeal for the public welfare; so that, by the wrongs done to himself personally, he may not suffer his carnal affections to be excited, nor allow himself to be carried away with rage against his enemies; but, forgetting his individual interests, he must have a sole regard to the common salvation of the Church, and to what conduces thereto. Secondly, he must implore God to grant him the spirit of discretion and judgment, that in prayer he may not be impelled by an inconsiderate zeal: a subject which we have treated more at large in another place. Besides, it is to be observed, that the pious Jews here not only lay out of consideration their own particular advantage in order to consult the good of the whole Church, but also chiefly direct their eyes to Christ, beseeching him to devote to destruction his enemies whose repentance is hopeless. They, therefore, do not rashly break forth into this prayer, that God would destroy these or other enemies, nor do they anticipate the judgment of God; but desiring that the reprobate may be involved in the condemnation which they deserve, they, at the same time, patiently wait until the heavenly judge separate the reprobate from the elect. In doing this, they do not cast aside the affection which charity requires; for, although they would desire all to be saved, they yet know that the reformation of some of the enemies of Christ is hopeless, and their perdition absolutely certain.
The question, however, is not yet fully answered; for, when in the seventh verse they arraign the cruelty of their enemies, they seem to desire vengeance. But what I have just now observed must be remembered, that none can pray in this manner but those who have clothed themselves with a public character, and who, laying aside all personal considerations, have espoused, and are deeply interested in, the welfare of the whole Church; or, rather, who have set before their eyes Christ, the Head of the Church; and, lastly, none but those who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have elevated their minds to the judgment of God; so that, being ready to forgive, they do not indiscriminately adjudge to death every enemy by whom they are injured, but only the reprobate. With regard to those who make haste in demanding the execution of the Divine vengeance before all hope of repentance is lost, Christ has condemned them as chargeable with inconsiderate and ill-regulated zeal, when he says,
“
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,” (Luk 9:55.)
Moreover, the faithful do not here simply wish the destruction of those who so wickedly persecuted the Church, but, using that familiarity which God allows them in their dealings with him, they set forth how inconsistent it would be did he not punish their persecutors, (375) and reason thus: Lord, how is it that thou afflictest us so severely, upon whom thy name is invoked, and sparest the heathen nations who despise thee? In short, they mean to say, that God has sufficient ground for executing his wrath elsewhere, since they were not the only people in the world who had sinned. Although it does not become us to prescribe to God the rule of his conduct, but rather patiently to submit to this ordination,
“
That judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17😉
yet he permits his saints to take the liberty of pleading, that at least they may not be worse dealt with than unbelievers, and those who despise him.
These two sentences, who have not known thee, and which call not upon thy name, it is to be observed, are to be taken in the same sense. By these different forms of expression, it is intimated that it is impossible for any to call upon God without a previous knowledge of him, as the Apostle Paul teaches, in Rom 10:14,
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How, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom 10:14)
It belongs not to us to answer, “Thou art our God,” till He has anticipated us by saying, “Thou art my people,” (Hos 2:23😉 but he opens our mouths to speak to him in this manner, when he invites us to himself. Calling on the name of God is often synonymous with prayer; but it is not here to be exclusively limited to that exercise. The amount is, that unless we are directed by the knowledge of God, it is impossible for us sincerely to profess the true religion. At that time the Gentiles everywhere boasted that they served God; but, being destitute of his word, and as they fabricated to themselves gods of their own corrupt imaginations, all their religious services were detestable; even as in our own day, the human invented religious observances of the blind and deluded votaries of the Man of Sin, who have no right knowledge of the God whom they profess to worship, and who inquire not at his mouth what he approves, are certainly rejected by Him, because they set up idols in his place.
(375) “ Mettans en avant l’absurdite qui en reviendroit, si Dieu ne punissoit les persecuteurs.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6-7) The poet prays in prophetical strain, that the fire of indignation may be turned from Israel and directed against the heathen oppressors, (For the relation to Jer. 10:25, see Introduction.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen All such imprecations must be viewed from the standpoint of justice between nation and nation, and the rights of God in the land and people of his covenant as against the acts of hostile kings who invade them. The rights of peace and virtue in the earth cry to God against the perpetrators of crime and the authors of oppression. Humanly speaking, the invasion of Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar was without cause, and his treatment of the Jewish religion without parallel of impiety. Justice would seem to reverse this strange order of things. The kingdoms referred to in this verse were such as were subject to and assisted Nebuchadnezzar in his wars. Psa 79:6-7 seem borrowed from Jer 10:25
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Many of the prayers we meet with of this kind are more to be considered in the form of prophecy, than of imprecation: they meant to say that God will pour out the vials of his wrath upon prayerless persons and families, agreeably to his divine declaration, Psa 11:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 79:6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
Ver. 6. Pour out thy wrath, &c. ] Even the full vials of it.
That have not known thee
That have not called upon thy name
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pour out. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6. See note on “shed”, Psa 79:3.
not known Thee. Compare Jer 10:25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 79:6
Psa 79:6
“Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not,
And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.”
As a nation, Israel had become one and the same as the pagan kingdoms around them. Oh yes, they knew God’s name; and, in times of emergency they loved to call upon God for help; but the people as a whole had become even worse than Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16). If God’s moral character was to be established as a fact in the minds of mankind, something drastic had to be done about Israel and their gross wickedness.
The name of God could not be used merely as a charm to get Israel out of every disaster; there positively had to be some moral integrity on the part of the people themselves. There were, no doubt, a few devout souls who sincerely called upon God and walked in his ways, among whom the psalmist here was surely numbered; but such as he were so few that no observer in that day could have told any moral difference between Israel and any other pagan nation of that era.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 79:6. While David did not deny the guilt of his people, he still believed that the other nations were much worse. He prayed that God would put the weight of his wrath on them who had not so much as recognized his name.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Pour: Psa 69:24, Isa 42:25, Rev 16:1-21
upon: Isa 13:1-22, Isa 21:1-17, Isa 23:1-18, Jer 10:25, Jer 25:29, Jer 46:1 – Jer 51:64
not known: Psa 9:16, Psa 9:17, Isa 45:4, Isa 45:5, Joh 16:3, Joh 17:25, Act 17:23, Rom 1:28, 2Th 1:8
not called: Psa 14:4, Psa 53:4, Psa 145:18, Rom 10:12-14, 1Co 1:2
Reciprocal: 2Ch 12:7 – and my wrath Job 18:21 – knoweth Psa 9:19 – let the Psa 136:15 – for his mercy Isa 43:22 – thou hast not Isa 63:19 – are thine Eze 7:8 – pour Dan 9:19 – for thy Zec 1:2 – Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 79:6-7. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen Though we confess that we have deserved thy wrath, yet the heathen, by whom thou hast scourged us, have deserved it much more, as being guilty of far greater impieties than we, living in gross ignorance and contempt of thee and thy worship. And, therefore, we pray thee to transfer thy wrath from us to them. But the prayer is rather to be considered as a prophecy, in which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. For they have devoured Jacob The posterity of Jacob, whom thou didst love, and with whom, and his seed, thou madest a sure and everlasting covenant; whereby thou didst engage thyself to be an enemy to their enemies, Exo 23:22. Besides, thou hatest cruelty, especially when the wicked devour those that are more righteous than themselves, Hab 1:13.