Psalm 79 · a question people ask
"Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you" (79:6), and "Pay back to our neighbors seven times" (79:12). How can a psalm pray that?
First, what the verses say. The psalm gives its reason before it prays: "for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland" (79:7). It asks that "vengeance for your servants’ blood" (79:10) be known among the nations (tap vengeance), and it asks God to pay back the reproach "with which they have reproached you, Lord" (79:12). Seven times is one Hebrew word, shiv'atayim, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "seven-fold, seven times". Every one of these is asked of God (79:6, 79:10, 79:12); the psalm doesn't say the people will act against anyone themselves. The psalm names no nation, and these notes apply its words to no people, city or nation today. Psalm 79 is not the only psalm that prays against enemies, and Christians read these prayers in more than one way. The chapter on Psalm 109 sets out the main readings, each resting on its verses, and chooses none. These notes don't choose either.
The verses
“Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.”
“Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.”
“Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.”
“For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. God of my praise, don’t remain silent, for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer. They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”