Psalm 79 · a question people ask

"Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us" (79:8), and then "forgive our sins" (79:9). Whose sins does the psalm mean?

In the text

In the WEB the psalm names both. It asks, "Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us" (79:8), and in the next verse, "Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake" (79:9). It doesn't say which sins, or that any sin brought about what 79:1-3 tells, and these notes don't say so either: nothing here says the dead of 79:2-3 died for their sins. Lamentations has both kinds of words too: "Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities" (Lamentations 5:7), and a few verses on, "Woe to us, for we have sinned!" (Lamentations 5:16). What the psalm asks rests on God's mercy and his name: "Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need" (79:8), and "for the glory of your name" (79:9).

The verses

“Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.”
Psalm 79:8-9 · World English Bible
“Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities.”
Lamentations 5:7 · World English Bible
“The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!”
Lamentations 5:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 79

Psalm 79: Help us, God of our salvation

Psalm 79 has one Hebrew verb, shafakh, three times: the nations shed blood (79:3), the psalm asks God to pour out his wrath (79:6), and to let vengeance for that blood be poured out (79:10). No other psalm has it more than once. Its reasons turn to God's own name (79:9), and it ends not with the trouble over but with thanks "forever" (79:13).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions