Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy Name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for Thy Name’s sake.
So we Thy people and sheep of Thy pasture will give Thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth Thy praise to all generations.
I have no idea what all these people are watching. A baseball game? A Billy Graham crusade? Professional wrestling? Hard to tell, except that they all seem orderly. Wouldn’t it be something if they were all gathered to pray, “Help us, Oh God!”
Asaph’s prayer was also a promise. It did not put conditions on God, promising to praise Him only if He rescued the people from Babylon. It was, instead, a plea for deliverance. Deliverance would, by its very nature, turn the people back to God.
Israel repeated a cycle of rebellion, retribution, repentance, and restoration many times in their history. One generation would return to the worship of Jehovah, living in freedom from their enemies and peace within their own land. The next generation began to take a look at the riches of surrounding nations; to lust after their women, and to worship their gods. The third generation fell completely into Satan’s trap of wealth, wine, and women. They turned away from God, finding no need for Him because all their fleshly desires were being sated.
God warned them repeatedly through His prophets. The people mocked those prophets, having lost their fear of God. When retribution came, they were always surprised. They paid dearly for their sin, and eventually returned to genuine worship of God.
So it has been for every nation throughout history. We don’t learn from the past. We think we’ll avoid God’s wrath; that for some strange reason He will not punish us because we’re special.
O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.
We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
Reading the psalms of Asaph is like reading an emotion-filled history of Israel. He observed the misery of his people. It is interesting to note that there was likely more than one Asaph:
Psalm 79 is titledA Psalm of Asaph, though it was clearly written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies. This event was so traumatic and important in the scope of Jewish history that it is described four times in the Hebrew Scriptures: 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36:11-21, Jeremiah 39:1-14, and Jeremiah 52. Since the Asaph most prominent in the Old Testament lived and served during the reigns of King David and King Solomon, this is likely a later Asaph.
BlueLetterBible
The king of Babylon led his forces against Jerusalem, but his soldiers were very likely from many different conquered peoples who were then conscripted into his army. The devastation was overwhelming. Those who escaped death and remained to deal with the aftermath were faced with an insurmountable task. The bodies of the dead were left to rot, and attracted carrion birds and flesh-eating scavenger animals. It was horror on a massive scale.
Jerusalem lay in heaps of rubble. I can imagine that the few who escaped with their lives may have wished they, too, had died. Many, of course, were rounded up and taken captive as slaves. There was no one left to deal with the horrendous task of burying the dead.
History is seen as dull and boring by a lot of people. That’s sad, because if we don’t learn from history, we are sure to repeat it. Human nature does not change over time. History is the story of people. It is the record of man’s inhumanity toward man, and God’s grace to all of us in spite of ourselves.
These psalms of mourning simply show us what is in the hearts of all mankind.
So they did eat, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire;
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works.
The people gorged on the quail that God had sent in abundance. They showed no restraint, stuffing their mouths and bellies. Verse 29 says that God satisfied their own desire (lust, craving) but that they were so greedy that even as they stripped the meat from the bones, God’s wrath fell on them and a “very great plague” (blow, wound, slaughter) consumed the fattest (stout, most vigorous) of them, including their young men.
Apparently, this plague had them dropping where they stood or sat, still gorging themselves on the birds.
Think about the results of losing the finest of the younger men of the nation. These were the strong young men of fighting age, who could go to battle to protect the nation from their enemies. Gone, all because even as they gorged themselves, they still doubted God’s ability to provide for them!
What a terrible day that must have been! Hundreds of dead bodies lying amidst the detritus of quail carcasses! What a mess!
But did it bring the people to repentance?
No.
I urge you to read the rest of this psalm prayerfully, as I have, asking God to show me the unbelief in my own heart.
Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
Man did eat angels’ food: He sent them meat to the full.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by His power He brought in the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
So they did eat, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire;
The Israelites were hungry, and they complained to Moses about missing the leeks and the garlic of Egypt. So Moses prayed, and God sent manna that fell on the ground. Asaph calls it “angel’s food,” and from what we know it was incredibly delicious. But it wasn’t enough. They grew tired of it and demanded meat.
God brewed up a wind from the south and the east and sent them thousands of meaty birds. They stuffed themselves like gluttons, but still they grumbled. Tomorrow we’ll see what God did next.
The lesson for us today is simple: Be content. We have bounty in America today that many places of the world have never seen, and yet we have those who turn away from foods they dislike, and complain if their food is not prepared to their taste.
Are there foods I dislike? Yes. Liver. Eggplant. Fortunately, I don’t have to eat those foods. I am blest to enjoy most other foods, and I can hope the day never comes when liver and eggplant are the only foods available! When I was growing up, though, we did NOT turn our little noses up when liver was served. We got it down, and were thankful when the last nasty bite was gone. Same with eggplant, which my mother loved. She grew it when she had a garden. She sliced it, breaded the slices, and fried them. They looked beautiful, but the texture and the flavor were totally disgusting to me. I was required to eat one slice, and I did. No complaining allowed. The best thing about both liver and eggplant was that they killed my appetite for quite some time 🙂
We were taught to be thankful for food. We didn’t die of it.
The Israelites didn’t die from an overdose of manna, nor from stuffing themselves with quail. And they did stuff themselves. You can read about all this here: Numbers 11:4-10, 18-23, and 31-34).
In their sinful, rebellious hearts, they could never be satisfied. Always, they wanted too much. It did not end well for them.
Parents, take heed. Teach your children to be satisfied with what they have.
It was official on Wednesday. It is now in summer. We had a calm spring, with relatively cool temps. The only drawback was lack of rain, but we did get some over the past two weeks. Could use more. I know there are other places around the country in which farmers are wondering if there’s going to be any hay to bale, and other crops are suffering. Rain is one of those things we take for granted until we don’t have any over an extended period of time.
I have wonderful memories of past summers. I wonder if mine are anything like yours.
I’m a Boomer, born in 1947. I’ll be 76 in just a few days. That means I was privileged to grow up in a time when there were NO computers, iphones, tablets, earbuds, etc. We actually went OUTDOORS to talk with our friends, and to figure out how to best use the long summer days.
When I was 10, we moved from Minneapolis to Portland, OR. I loved it there! Temperate climate year-round, with the occasional snow/ice in the winter. I don’t remember mosquitos out there at all. We were near to both the ocean and Mount Hood, and we did several day trips to both places.
My computer tells me that Mt. Hood is a “potentially active” stratovolcano. Hmm. Now I’m going to have to look up stratovolcano. And here it is–a volcano built of alternating layers of lava and ash. Those red projections from the core are called fumaroles, openings through which steam can escape from the lava bed. Mt. Hood’s last recorded eruption was 1790. One of these days, it will blow again. Mt. St. Helens and Mount Rainier, both visible from Portland in good conditions, are also stratovolcanos.
Well. Did anyone else see that squirrel that led me into a science lesson? What was I talking about–oh yes, summer memories.
The first year in Oregon, we lived in a little town called Mikwaukee. There was a municipal swimming pool about 1 1/2 miles from our house, and a group of us would walk there every day, swim all afternoon, then hike back home. It was wonderful. There were wild blackberry bushes on the way, and we filled up on their juicy goodness on the way home.
When we weren’t swimming, we were still outdoors. I don’t remember specifics, except for one thing. There was a development near our house that was new, with houses being built. So there was lots of scrap lumber and other cool stuff, and there were lots of trees. One of my neighbor friends and I built a treehouse, spending hours pounding and climbing up and down. We were quite proud of our work.
Then, one morning when we went to our treehouse, we found it wrecked beyond repair. We never knew who decided to have their fun at our expense, and we didn’t have the heart to start over.
There is so much more. We moved into the city for the last four years we were in Oregon. My favorite trips were the ones to the beach. Here in PA, they call it “going down the shore.” I especially loved the high, rocky cliffs from which I could watch the huge breakers crash against the boulders, spraying salty water far and wide. I loved wading into the surf, but my dad warned us strongly about the undertow, so I was careful. I didn’t relish the idea of going for an unexpected solo voyage without a boat!
There were friends who had a pontoon boat that they shared with us for hours as we glided down the Columbia River, picnicking along the way. More, there’s always more. When you start thinking about summer, the memories come flooding back.
In my school years, school was always out before Memorial Day, and it never started until the Tuesday after Labor Day. I feel sorry for kids today who are stuck in classrooms through half of June, and start again in mid-August.
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments:
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
This psalm, a little more lengthy than Asaph’s usual work, is full of the historical events from Israel leaving Egypt to Israel being taken into captivity because they forsook God. Always, in every difficulty they faced, it was because they had fallen into grumbling, whining, complaining children who, it seems, quickly forgot the way God provided for them time after time.
The Egyptians were polytheists. They believed in many gods, including the sun, locusts, and frogs. It took the deaths of all their firstborns sons to finally bring them to their knees, and even then they changed their minds and went after the Israelites to bring them back. But none of that should surprise us, because they did not know the omnipotent God of Israel.
What should surprise us is that the Israelites so quickly forgot the blessings of God and murmured about wishing they still had the pleasures of Egypt to enjoy.
This psalm is a history of this period in Israel. It shows the cycle of obedience, sin, punishment and restoration that Israel experienced over and over again.
The verses I have pulled out today emphasize God’s desire for His people to not only obey His direction, but to teach it to their children throughout the generations. It made me think of an illustration our pastor used years ago to show the importance of teaching our children well. He had three generations from the same family come to the platform with him. The eldest was a first-generation believer, on fire for God, and teaching his sons likewise.
His sons, the second generation of believers, were also strong in their faith, but they missed something in passing it on to their children. That third generation? Some were believers; some probably not. There were weaknesses of character that had shown up in the second generation but blossomed fully in the third. By the way, all these family members were fully aware of what the pastor wanted from them, and they played their parts very well. He was not accusing them of what he had them portray. Still, it was a powerful object lesson. My husband is a first-generation believer; I am a second generation believer. We were just starting our family, with, if memory serves, two little boys at that time.Possibly three. But the point was clear that the young parents, of whom there were many in the church, had a huge responsibility to teach their children the things of God. It always ends in tragedy when we fail in that responsibility.
Psalm 77:6. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
This psalm of Asaph is another in which he searches his heart and asks God to help him understand the troubles of Israel. It is well worth reading the entire psalm, as Asaph goes from mourning to rejoicing.
If you’ve been with me for any length of time, you know how important music is to me. That love of music is what caught me on v. 6–that song in the night. As I’ve aged, and developed pain and restless sleep, I find that a well-loved song can bring me a sense of peace that allows me to relax and find sleep. Especially when that song is based on scripture, it helps me get my mind focused on the positive.
Here’s a song I’ve loved for a long time now. It is based on Psalm 30:5.
Psalm 76:4. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
This psalm of Asaph gives us the picture of God’s victory over the enemies that Asaph lamented in the previous psalm. Again, I hope you will take the time to read the whole psalm. It’s short, and it’s uplifting.
I was curious about those “mountains of prey,” so I went looking for a clearer understanding.
The word used for mountain comes from a rarely used Hebrew root word meaning “looming.”
I love the Colorado Rockies. I was born on the western slope, and although I was only two when we moved to Minnesota, I still had a sense of belonging whenever we traveled back to Colorado to see grandparents and other relatives. There is a sense of grandeur and power in those huge, looming mountains. The God Who created them, however, is more powerful!
It is the last two words that had me wondering, though. They are translated differently in different versions, as you can see in the picture I chose this morning. In Hebrew, the word can mean at least three different things, depending upon context: prey, food, leaf. So–mountains in which there is prey, and other foods for sustenance.
Of course, the higher one climbs up these lofty mountains, the less life there is. You need to stay very near the treeline in order to find food. There’s not much to eat on the top of Mount Everest, nor at the top of Loveland Pass in Colorado.
I live in Pennsylvania these days, where the mountains are lower and forested right up to the top. Lots of prey available in these mountains.
Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
The focus of this psalm of Asaph is his pleading with God to rescue Israel from its enemies. They have desolated the land chopped down trees, ruined buildings, and of course destroyed as many people as they could. Asaph is desolate in his observation of the ruin of the land and the people.
He recounts some of the miracles God had performed in leading the Israelites out of Egypt. In doing so, he mentions dragons of the sea, and Leviathan. Most of us are intrigued by these creatures, which to my knowledge no living person has seen. Leviathan is mentioned in Job 41 and Isaiah 27:1, and possibly in other passages I have not consulted. From all descriptions, it is a “twisty creature,” which of course makes me think of huge snakes. Ugh. I really, really hope I NEVER see one!
Apparently there were similar creatures that inhabited the Red Sea, and God destroyed them to protect His people as they crossed. Some believe that alligators and crocodiles are descendants of this family of monsters. Perhaps, but we don’t really know for sure. What we DO know for sure is that God, the Creator of all things, could also destroy that which threatened His people whenever He chose to do so.
Note that Asaph recounts how God killed Leviathan and gave the meat to the people in the wilderness. I wonder if it tasted like chicken 🙂
The final verses of this psalm say:
“Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily.
Forget not the voice of Thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against Thee increaseth continually.”
I hope you will take the time to read the entire psalm. It should help you see that what is happening in many places of the world today is nothing new. Those who deny God have always risen up against Him. But the battle is the Lord’s, and the final outcome is that He wins!
Linda's Bible Study 