Deep Dive

Psalms 79:4

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We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

Commentaries

Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentaryv. 4

This psalm, if penned with any particular event in view, is with most probability made to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the woeful havoc made of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. It is set to the same tune, as I may say, with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and that weeping prophet borrows two verses out of it (Psa 79:6, Psa 79:7) and makes use of them in his prayer, Jer 10:25. Some think it was penned long before by the spirit of prophecy, prepared for the use of the church in that cloudy and dark day. Others think that it was penned then by the spirit of prayer, either by a prophet named Asaph or by some other prophet for the sons of Asaph. Whatever the particular occasion was, we have here, I. A representation of the very deplorable condition that the people of God were in at this time (Psa 79:1-5). II. A petition to God for succour and relief, that their enemies might be reckoned with (Psa 79:6, Psa 79:7, Psa 79:10, Psa 79:12), that their sins might be pardoned (Psa 79:8, Psa 79:9), and that they might be delivered (Psa 79:11). III. A plea taken from the readiness of his people to praise him (Psa 79:13). In times of the church's peace and prosperity this psalm may, in the singing of it, give us occasion to bless God that we are not thus trampled on and insulted. But it is especially seasonable in a day of treading down and perplexity, for the exciting of our desires towards God and the encouragement of our faith in him as the church's patron. A psalm of Asaph.

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Cross-references

Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.

Psalms 80:6rank 5

You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.

Psalms 89:41rank 3

All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.

Lamentations 5:1rank 3

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!

Ezekiel 36:15rank 3

I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.”

Jeremiah 25:18rank 2

to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;

Daniel 9:16rank 2

O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.

Ezekiel 36:3rank 2

therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,

I Kings 9:7rank 2

then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

Jeremiah 42:18rank 2

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

Ezekiel 35:12rank 2

Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’

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