Psalm 79--How Long, O LORD?

Psalm 79
English Standard Version

How Long, O LORD?
A Psalm of Asaph.
79 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
    they have defiled your holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
    to the birds of the heavens for food,
    the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
    and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
    mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
    that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
    that do not call upon your name!
7 For they have devoured Jacob
    and laid waste his habitation.

8 Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
    for your name's sake!
10 Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
    be known among the nations before our eyes!

​11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
    according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
12 Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
    the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;
    from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

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The question of "How Long O LORD?" seems to fill the psalms, but for different reasons.  With David, it was often him asking how long until justice would be carried out against His wicked enemies and the enemies of the people of Israel and the LORD.  It appeared that the wicked often lived in prosperity.  We saw Asaph battle with that as well as the very first psalm of Asaph dealt with that topic.

Now Asaph asks a different question--how long is the LORD going to stay angry with His people?  How long will they remain under this wrath?  Will they ever return to the relationship they had with Him?  The word "forgiveness" is not used here because they know they have committed iniquity--intentional sin of rebellion, but they instead ask the LORD when He will choose to no longer remember their sins and hold them against them.  They know they did wrong, but is there some sort of statute of limitations?  Of course, the LORD has perfect memory, but we also know that the Bible tells us that He can choose to not remember something.  Specifically, He chooses not to hold sins against us that have been put onto Christ by faith because He has already paid the penalty for that sin.  That doesn't mean that we don't have any natural consequences for sinning or living in sin, but it does mean that we know we have access to the kind of restoration that Asaph is hoping for.

Asaph prays for compassion and salvation.  He wants to see the LORD's steadfast love in action again!  He wants the people to have even more reasons to praise the great Name of the LORD our God.  He wants the nations to know that there is a God, a Living God, in Israel and that He is to be feared, obeyed, and worshiped, even by the Gentiles.

I think the best way to describe what Asaph wants is a Year of Jubilee where the captives are set free, and all debts are canceled, and everything is returned to its original owner and there is a great "reset" where everything returns to the way that it ought to be before we messed it up so badly.  We too need to be born again and start afresh.  God doesn't just "wave a magic wand" to make that happen though--He had to put the punishment that we deserved on His own Son, so that we might receive the blessings that His Son deserved and so that we might become His sons and daughters by adoption.