Psalm 79

“Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.” (Psalm 79:9, NLT)

This psalm seems to have been written following the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians. It is like the lamentations written by Jeremiah. The only thing Asaph could do was to mourn the devastation and death before his eyes. The bodies of the fallen had become food for scavenger birds and wild animals. All their neighbors mocked and ridiculed them. But the worst burden to bear was that God was angry with them. He had warned them through Isaiah and Jeremiah that this would happen. Jerusalem would fall to Babylon because of her disobedience and idolatry. Now the day of reckoning had finally come.

Sin that is not confessed and renounced brings on spiritual blindness. This is why the author of Hebrews tells us to exhort one another daily so that no one is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). The people of Judah had ignored the prophets and become blind to the danger. Just as with the northern kingdom of Israel, they had sown the wind and were reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).

What could they do now? Their only hope was to confess their sins and pray for God’s mercy. That is what Asaph did. While he didn’t confess specific sins as Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah would later do, he did ask God to forgive their sins. He called on the God of their salvation to help them for the glory and honor of His name. He didn’t want the nations around them to think that the Babylonian gods had defeated Yahweh.

There are times when we are deceived by sin and God must discipline us. This is never pleasant but painful. However, if we will humble ourselves, confess our sins, and seek to do what is right, then God will forgive us and bring forth a harvest of righteousness and peace (Hebrews 12:11).

In times of discipline or hardship, remember that God is merciful and gracious. He is, after all, the God who saves us by His grace. And if we trust Him and submit to Him in everything, then in due time He will lift us up for His glory and for our good.