O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
Psalms 79:1-13.-THE COMPLAIG the pagan have seized God's land, desecrated the temple, and laid Jerusalem in ruins; the dead bodies of the saints are given to the fowls and beasts; the survivors are and object of reproach (Psalms 79:1-4). THE PRAYER (Psalms 79:5-8): appeal to the glory of God's name as at stake (Psalms 79:9-12); concluding promises of perpetual praise (Psalms 79:13). Jeremiah 10:25 quotes Psalms 79:6: 1Ma 7:16-17 quotes Psalms 79:2; a proof that the reference is not to Judah's sufferings under Antiochus Epiphanes. The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem is referred to here and Psalms 74:1-23. The destruction of the sanctuary is prominent there; here its "defilement" (Psalms 79:1) is alluded to, including its destruction.
Of Asaph. The singers of the Asaph school looked upon themselves as the mouthpiece of Asaph by which he, though long dead, yet spake. Hence, the psalms with this title have a mutual resemblance.
The heathen - `the Gentile nations.'
Have come into thine inheritance - the Holy Land. Thine honour is therefore at stake, to rectify this monstrous anomaly, affecting us thy people. Compare the same plea, Isaiah 63:18-19.
Thy holy temple have they defiled. The pagan would never have been permitted to defile it, had not Israel herself first defiled it: rendered necessary God's just retribution on them in kind, Ezekiel 5:11, "Because thou hast defiled my sanctuary;" 23:38; 24:21, "Behold I will profane my sanctuary the excellency of your strength." Psalms 74:7 is parallel, 2,3.
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven ... and there was none to bury them. Compare 2 Chronicles 36:17 for the historical picture of one of the fulfillments of the poetical picture here set forth. The description reaches prophetically beyond the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon, to that by the Roman Titus, and still further to that yet to come, (Zechariah 13:1-9; Zechariah 14:1-21.) Compare also Revelation 11:9, "And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues and nations ... three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." Compare, in reference to the same times 5:1 with Daniel 11:31, "and they (Antichrist and his followers) shall pollute the sanctuary of strength."