The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble. Sermons
I. WHAT IS RIGHT FOR EVERY ONE. The writer is in sore trouble, but he takes his trouble to God. One purpose of all such trouble has already been won - the heart has been brought nearer God. II. WHAT WAS NATURAL AND NOT WRONG FOR ISRAEL, BUT WOULD BE VERY WRONG FOR US. We refer especially to the vengeful utterances which we find in vers. 6, 10, 12, 13. Now, concerning them we note: 1. That there are very many such in the Psalms. The comminatory, and especially the imprecatory psalms, have ever been a stumbling block to Christian readers. But there they are, and we cannot get rid of them. 2. They are very natural. The spirit of resentment and revenge is a definite part of human nature; it may manifest itself in varied forms, more or less barbaric, according to the degree of civilization which has been reached, but it exists in all. 3. And in Israel of old it was not wrong. For it must ever be remembered that to them no revelation of the future life, still less of the future judgment, had been given. Had there been any Scripture plainly teaching this doctrine which Christians know so well from the New Testament, our Lord, in showing to the Sadducees who believed no such doctrine, would not have appealed to a text which, unless he had told us so, we should never have regarded as teaching that doctrine at all. Before our Lord so explained it, it had not been recognized that the oft-repeated words, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac," etc., involved the truth of the future life. But there was no more evident text, or it would have been appealed to. Hence, and for many other reasons, we conclude that the truth of the future life and immortality, still less of judgment to come, had not been brought to light when these psalms were written. If this were so, then such as the psalmist could only vindicate the righteousness of God by appealing to his visible acts of judgment and retribution here and now. Were they not seen, who would believe in a righteous God at all? Hence was it that so often, and so prominently, not to say so fiercely, the ancient psalmists and prophets appealed to God as in this psalm. Had they known what we do, there would have been no such appeals made. It was not mere personal revenge or national hate, but jealousy for the honour of God's Name, and therefore we say that, however wrong such sentiments would be for us, in them they were not wrong. 4. But for us they would be wrong, being altogether opposed to the Spirit of Christ. 5. All this does not condemn either national or personal self-defence. III. HOW WE MAY LAWFULLY ADOPT FOR OURSELVES THIS WHOLE PSALM AND ALL SUCH PSALMS. By turning all these prayers for the destruction of enemies against the hosts of spiritual wickedness, "the gates of hell" which do sore assail, and seek to prevail over the people of God. They are the heathen, the defilers, the destroyers, the shedders of blood, the mockers, the oppressors. Not against our fellow men, but against them, we may and should thus pray. The devil and his angels are no mere myth or superstition, but terrible realities, and every faithful soul knows sadly well their cruel tyranny, and seemingly invincible might. - S.C.
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. Homilist. I. A PEOPLE IS A COMMUNITY THAT ARE MOST FAVOURED WITH PRIVILEGES ARE OFTENTIMES THE MOST SINFUL. Ephraim was not only one of the largest, but one of the most favoured of the Jewish tribes. He descended from Joseph, the highly favoured of God. He received the benediction from the lips of Jacob; and yet this tribe was so prominent in the rebellion that it stands as the representative of the ten rebellious tribes. Two of its sins are referred to here.1. Cowardice in battle (ver. 9). They had weapons for battle, but they had not the patriotic bravery to use them. 2. Disobedience to God (ver. 10). II. GOD WORKS SPECIALLY IN HUMAN HISTORY FOR MAN'S ADVANTAGE (vers. 11, 12). III. HIS SPECIAL WORKINGS ON BEHALF OF MAN, WHILST THEY SHOULD DETER FROM SIN, FREQUENTLY FAIL OF THIS PURPOSE (ver. 17). "When God," says an old author on this verse, "began thus to bless them, they began to affront Him." As sin sometimes takes occasion by the commandment, so at other times it takes occasion by the deliverance, to become more exceedingly sinful. (Homilist.) 1. This gave them the advantage of having had brave ancestors. Joshua and Samuel were Ephraimites — noble sires; this a great honour; a correspondingly great responsibility. Blood is much; grace is more. 2. This gave them the advantages of a central location. After settlement in Canaan, Ephraim, numerous and powerful, occupied the central portion of the land. In its territory were Shiloh, with the tabernacle and ark; Shechem, with its holy and tender associations. 3. This gave them prominence and power. But they were false to their great mission. They were leaders, and leaders in evil. "Being armed and carrying bows." II. THE MILITARY CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 1. They were defensively armed. So is the Christian. 2. They were offensively equipped. 3. They were skilful in the use of their weapons. We must know how to use this one offensive weapon. III. THE COWARDLY CONDUCT OF THESE MEN. They "turned back in the day of battle." 1. They turned back. Weapons worthless if courage be wanting; courage is wanting if God be absent. 2. They did this in the day of battle. They betrayed their trust. 3. They brought disastrous consequences upon themselves. Merited doom. Sanctuary transferred. God's rejection secured. We need bravery. Dare to be like Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Paul, Luther, Bunyan. Alas I that in these evil days — days of spiritual declension — there is so little genuine heroism in the Church. (R. S. McArthur, D. D.) II. WHEN THEY DID IT. "In the day of battle." 1. At the only time when they were of any sort of use. If the Christian soldier never fights, of what good is he at all? Take off his colours, play "The Rogues' March," and turn him out of the barracks! And this is what will come to some professors who turn back in the day of battle! Their regimentals will be torn off, and they will be excluded from the Church of God because they turned back in the day of trial and at the time when they were needed. 2. They turned their backs, too, like fools, in the day when victory was to be won. The soldier wants to distinguish himself; he wants to rise out of the ranks; he wants to be promoted. He hardly expects an opportunity of doing this in time of peace; but the officer rises when in time of war he leads a successful charge. And so it is with the Christian soldier. I make no advance while I am not fighting. I cannot win if I am not warring. 3. They turned back, when turning back involved the most disastrous defeat. The ark of God was taken. "Ichabod," the enemy cried, for the glory was departed from Israel, because the children of Ephraim turned back in the day of battle. And so, dear friends, unless God gives you preserving grace to stand fast to the end, do you not see that you are turning back to — what? To perdition. III. WHO THEY WERE THAT TURNED BACK. 1. Men of a noble parentage. "Children of Ephraim." 2. They were armed, and had proper weapons, weapons which they knew how to use, and good weapons for that period of warfare. And as Christians, what weapons have we? Here is this "Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Here is a quiver, filled with innumerable arrows, and God has put into our hands the bow of prayer, by which we may shoot them, drawing that bow by the arm of faith. 3. Another translation seems to show that these Ephraimites were very skilful in the use of the bow, and yet they turned back. Oh! may God grant that none of us who have preached to others, and preached to others with fluency and zeal, may ever have our own weapons turned against US. IV. WHY DID THEY DO IT? 1. "They kept not the covenant." Oh! that great covenant, "ordered in all things and sure," when you can fall back upon that, how it strengthens you! 2. "They refused to walk in His law." When we get a proud heart we very soon get beaten, for with the face of a lion, but the heart of a deer, such an one is afraid of the world. If I am willing to do what God tells me, as He tells me, when He tells me, and because He tells me, I shall not turn back in the day of battle. 3. They also seemed to have turned back because they had bad memories. "They forgot His works, and the wonders that He had showed them." Some of you have had very wonderful manifestations of the Lord's kindness, and if you forget all these I should not wonder if you should prove to be a mere professor and turn back. V. WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THEM TURNING BACK? 1. Their father mourned over them (1 Chronicles 7:22). What a lamentation it brings into the Christian Church when a professor falls! 2. Owing to their turning back, the enemy remained. It is our turning back in the day of battle that leaves Canaan unconquered for our Lord. 3. But, worse than this, the ark itself was actually taken. Those of you who are armed and carry bows, men of learning, men who understand the Scriptures, I do pray you, do not turn back just now, for just now seems to be a time when the ark of God will be taken. It can never really be so, but still we must mind that it be not the tendency of our actions. We must all of us hold fast the truth now. If there is a man who has got a truth, let him draw his bow and shoot his arrows now, and not turn back in the day of battle. Now for your arrows! Now for your arrows! The more our foes shall conspire against Christ, the more do you make war against them. Give them double for their double; reward them as they reward you. Spare no arrows against Babylon. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) True religion brings with it a courageous heart, and Dr. South has well and quaintly said, that "since Christ has made a Christian course a warfare, of all men living a coward is the most unfit to make a Christian." And yet it is mournful to think that, of the great army of Christians who enrol themselves under the banner of the Cross, in Baptism and Confirmation, and who wear the uniform and carry the sword of Christian soldiers, so many resemble the ill-starred men of Ephraim, who, "being armed, and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle!" Courage can only be kept alive by zealous action. We can readily imagine a gallant regiment riding into the very valley of death at a dashing gallop, but it would be simply absurd to picture them crawling at a snail's pace towards the expectant foe, coolly calculating the chances of disastrous defeat. As Christians, we profess to be engaged in a warfare against something, even the enemies of our salvation, the world, the flesh, and the devil — three most formidable and deadly foes. The office for the Lord's Supper opens also with a prayer "for the whole state of Christ's Church militant" — the Church which is engaged in open and determined war. We can all well afford to do good service for Christ and His kingdom, since the end draweth near. Here is the battlefield, and the land of the sword and the spear. There, already is sight to the eye of faith, in the triumphal procession of the conquerors, and the land of the wreath and the crown.(J. N. Norton.) We can see His presence more clearly when we look back over a long connected stretch of days, and when the excitement of feeling the agony or rapture have passed, than we could whilst they were hot, and life was all hurry and bustle. The men on the deck of a ship see the beauty of the city that they have left behind better than when they were stumbling through its narrow streets. And though the view from the far-off waters of the receding houses may be an illusion, our view of the past, if we see God brooding over it all and working in it all, is no illusion. The meannesses are hidden, the narrow places are invisible, all the pain and suffering is quieted, and we are able to behold more truly than when we were in the midst of it the bearing, the purpose, and the blessedness alike of our sorrows and of our joys. Some of us are like people who, when they get better of their sicknesses, grudge the doctor's bill. We forget the mercies as soon as they are past, because we only enjoyed the sensuous sweetness of them while it tickled our palate; and forgot, in the enjoyment of them, of whose love it was that they spoke to us. Sorrows and joys, bring them all in your thanksgivings, and "forget not the works of God."(A. Maclaren, D. D.) People Asaph, Jacob, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Asaph, Broken, Defiled, Gt, Heaps, Heathen, Heritage, Holy, Inheritance, Invaded, Jerusalem, Laid, Lt, Mass, Nations, O, Psalm, Reduced, Rubble, Ruins, Temple, Unclean, WallsOutline 1. The psalmist complains of the desolation of Jerusalem8. He prays for deliverance 13. and promises thankfulness Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 79:1 5354 invasions Library The Attack on the Scriptures[Illustration: (drop cap B) A Greek Warrior] But troubled times came again to Jerusalem. The great empires of Babylon and Assyria had passed away for ever, exactly as the prophets of Israel had foretold; but new powers had arisen in the world, and the great nations fought together so constantly that all the smaller countries, and with them the Kingdom of Judah, changed hands very often. At last Alexander the Great managed to make himself master of all the countries of the then-known world. Alexander … Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making How they are to be Admonished who Lament Sins of Deed, and those who Lament Only Sins of Thought. Period ii. The Church from the Permanent Division of the Empire Until the Collapse of the Western Empire and the First Schism Between the East and the West, or Until About A. D. 500 The Formation of the Old Testament Canon A Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial. Psalms Links Psalm 79:1 NIVPsalm 79:1 NLT Psalm 79:1 ESV Psalm 79:1 NASB Psalm 79:1 KJV Psalm 79:1 Bible Apps Psalm 79:1 Parallel Psalm 79:1 Biblia Paralela Psalm 79:1 Chinese Bible Psalm 79:1 French Bible Psalm 79:1 German Bible Psalm 79:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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