The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"the heathen," Hebrew goyim (גּוֹיִם), the nations. These are the outside peoples, those who had no covenant with Israel's God, and they have walked straight into the place He called His own. The lament begins by naming who has done this: "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance."

"thine inheritance," nachalatekha (נַחֲלָתֶךָ). Notice how insistently the psalm says "thine": "thine inheritance; thy holy temple." The land and people invaded are God's own portion, so the trespass is not first against Israel but against Him.

"defiled," timme'u (טִמְּאוּ). The word belongs to the world of holiness and uncleanness: "thy holy temple have they defiled." What God had set apart for Himself has been dragged into the common and the polluted.

"laid Jerusalem on heaps," samu... le'iyyim (שָׂמוּ... לְעִיִּים), made it ruinous heaps. The lament describes a horror: the city itself is now rubble, piles of stone where houses and walls once stood, the dead unburied and blood poured out like water.

"thy servants," avadekha (עֲבָדֶיךָ). "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven." Those slain were not strangers to God but His own household, and their bodies lie unburied before His eyes.

"thy saints," chasidekha (חֲסִידֶיךָ). "The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth." The ruin is laid before God as His own, for the very people bound to Him in covenant love are the ones left to the wild beasts.

"reproach," cherpah (חֶרְפָּה). Beyond the slaughter there is the shame: "We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us." The wound is public, and the watching nations make sport of it.

Explanation

Listen to the drumbeat of one small word through these opening verses: "thy." "The heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled... the dead bodies of thy servants... the flesh of thy saints." Asaph is not merely reporting a national disaster; he is pressing on God that this ruin is God's own loss. The land is God's inheritance; the temple is God's house; the slain are God's servants and saints. By repeating "thy," the prayer makes God a party to the catastrophe, as if to say: it is not only we who have been robbed and shamed, but You; Your property has been defaced, Your servants killed, Your name reproached. This is a shrewd and reverent way to pray in disaster, to lay the loss before God as a wound to His own honour and possessions, not only to ours. And there is comfort in it for the believer too. When what belongs to God is attacked, the church, His people, His truth, His name, we are not appealing to a distant spectator; we are telling God that His own is under assault. And the God who owns the inheritance is not indifferent to its ruin. Notice also the terrible completeness of the desolation, "there was none to bury them", not even the decencies of death remained. Yet even into that horror the prayer keeps speaking to God, refusing to believe He has finally abandoned His own. The ruins are real, and they are laid, every stone and every body, at the feet of the God to whom they belong.

Gospel Focus

"O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance", the believer who suffers for God's cause may take comfort that Christ counts His people's afflictions as His own. When Saul persecuted the church, the risen Lord Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4); to touch His people is to touch Him. The church is now God's temple and inheritance, "ye are the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16), the "purchased possession" (Ephesians 1:14), bought with the blood of Christ, and its sufferings are His concern, for we "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ... for his body's sake, which is the church" (Colossians 1:24). And the martyrs whose blood is "shed like water" are precious in His sight, for "precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15), and they cry from under the altar, "How long, O Lord... dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?" (Revelation 6:10), and are told to rest yet a little season. So when God's inheritance is attacked and His saints are slain, we lay it before the Lord as His own loss, and trust that the God who purchased His people with the blood of His Son will vindicate them. The ruins of His inheritance are safe in the hands of the One who redeemed it, and He will build His church so that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

Word Study

"former iniquities," Hebrew avonot rishonim (עֲוֹנֹת רִאשֹׁנִים). The prayer reaches back behind the present ruin to the long account of earlier sins: "O remember not against us former iniquities." The people do not plead innocence; they plead that the old record not be brought up against them now.

"tender mercies," rachamekha (רַחֲמֶיךָ), from the same word for a mother's womb. This is a compassion pictured as deep and instinctive as a parent's love for her own child. Against the record of iniquity they set nothing of their own, only this: "let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us."

"speedily prevent us," yeqaddemunu maher (יְקַדְּמוּנוּ מַהֵר), quickly come to meet us. To "prevent" in the older English is to go before, to arrive first. They ask that God's mercy run out to meet them, and run quickly, "for we are brought very low."

"brought very low," dallonu me'od (דַלּוֹנוּ מְאֹד). This is the reason urged for haste. The people are emptied out, reduced to nothing, and have no resource left in themselves to wait God's mercy out.

"God of our salvation," Elohei yish'enu (אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעֵנוּ). The title is built on the same root, yeshuah, behind the name Jesus -- the God who saves is not an abstract title but the very name later given the flesh. They appeal to God by what He is: the God whose business is saving.

"purge away," vekhapper (וְכַפֵּר), atone for. The word asks for more than relief from the invaders; it asks that the sin itself be covered. "Deliver us, and purge away our sins" -- the true trouble is underneath the rubble, and only atonement removes it.

"for thy name's sake," lema'an shemekha (לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ). The appeal turns to mercy, and notice its ground: not merit, but God's own name. "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."

Explanation

When Asaph finally asks for rescue, listen to the reason he gives, for it is not the reason we might expect. He does not say, "Help us, for we have been faithful," or "deliver us, for we deserve better." Just the opposite, he confesses sin: "O remember not against us former iniquities... purge away our sins." So on what ground can a sinful people ask a holy God for help? On one ground only, and Asaph names it twice, wrapping his whole plea in it: "for the glory of thy name... for thy name's sake." This is the deepest and surest ground of all prayer in disaster: not our worthiness, which fails, but God's own honour, which does not. Asaph reasons that God's name, His reputation, His glory, is bound up with His people's fate; if they perish, the nations will scoff, "Where is their God?" (v10). So he appeals over the head of his own unworthiness to God's concern for His own glory: save us, not because we are good, but for the sake of Your great name. This is a bold and beautiful thing to grasp, that the surest argument a sinner can bring to God is not about himself at all, but about God, His mercy, His faithfulness, His name. And notice the confession folded into the very heart of the plea, "purge away our sins." Asaph does not pretend the disaster was undeserved; he asks for the sin itself to be atoned for and removed, knowing that rescue without cleansing would be no true rescue. Help, deliverance, and purging of sin are asked together, and all of it "for thy name's sake."

Gospel Focus

"Deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake", this prayer is answered fully in Jesus Christ, in whom God saves His people for His own name's sake and purges their sins by His blood. The plea "for thy name's sake" runs all through Scripture as the ground of salvation, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake" (Isaiah 43:25), and it is fulfilled in Christ, "your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake" (1 John 2:12). Our salvation rests not on our worthiness but on the glory of God's name and the merit of His Son, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). And the "purging away" of sin that Asaph could only pray for is accomplished at the cross, where Christ "by himself purged our sins" (Hebrews 1:3), so that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). So the guilty may pray Asaph's prayer with full confidence: we come pleading not our merit but God's name, and we ask for our sins to be purged, and in Christ the answer is Yes. God delivers and cleanses His people for the glory of His name, revealed in the name of Jesus, "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Rest your whole appeal there: not on what you have done, but on His name.

Word Study

"thy people," Hebrew ammekha (עַמְּךָ). The lament ends on a vow of praise, and it begins where the whole psalm began, with the word "thy." Ruined as they are, they still belong to God: "So we thy people... will give thee thanks."

"sheep of thy pasture," tzon mar'itekha (צֹאן מַרְעִיתֶךָ). They name themselves not as a nation with armies but as a flock in a shepherd's field. A flock has no defence of its own; its whole safety lies in the one who pastures it.

"give thee thanks," nodeh lekha (נוֹדֶה לְּךָ). The little word "So" ties this thanksgiving to the prayer that came before: deliver us, and we will thank You. The vow is the answer they promise to make to a deliverance they have not yet seen.

"for ever," le'olam (לְעוֹלָם). Their thanks are not for the moment of rescue only. What God does once for His people they undertake to acknowledge without end: they "will give thee thanks for ever."

"shew forth thy praise," nesapper tehillatekha (נְסַפֵּר תְּהִלָּתֶךָ). The word is one of telling and recounting. Praise here is not a private feeling but a story told out loud, God's praise put into words for others to hear.

"to all generations," ledor vador (לְדֹר וָדֹר). The telling runs down the line of the years, generation handing it to generation. What God does for this broken people is meant to be recounted long after they are gone.

Explanation

Notice the little word "So" that opens this final verse, for it ties the whole prayer together. "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever." It looks back to all the pleading that came before, help us, deliver us, purge our sins, for thy name's sake, and answers it with a promise: if You do this, then we will give You thanks for ever. Asaph offers God the one thing a rescued people can give, unending praise. And it is a fitting close, for it shows what deliverance is for. God does not save His people merely so they can go on comfortably; He saves them that they might worship Him and tell His praise "to all generations." The rescued flock becomes the worshipping flock. And note again the tender name Asaph uses for the people: "thy people and sheep of thy pasture." Even in the ruins, even confessing their sin, they claim the shepherd-and-flock relationship, we are Your sheep. It is the same appeal we have seen before: a shepherd does not abandon his flock. And the vow to "shew forth thy praise to all generations" reaches beyond the present crisis into the future, promising that the story of God's deliverance will be told to children and grandchildren, exactly the generational faithfulness Psalm 78 called for. So the lament that began in blood and ruin ends in the light of a promise: deliver us, and we, Your sheep, will thank You for ever and tell Your praise down all the ages.

Gospel Focus

"So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever", this vow of everlasting praise from a rescued flock is fulfilled in the people of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who are gathered to praise Him for ever. Christ is the Shepherd of the "sheep of his pasture," "the good shepherd" who "giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), and His redeemed flock is the worshipping church, saved "that we should be to the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:12). The deliverance He has won is for this very end, that a ransomed people would "shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9), and tell His praise "to all generations" until He comes. And the praise does not end with this life or this world, for the redeemed of every generation are gathered at last before the throne, a great multitude, to "give thee thanks for ever," singing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Revelation 5:12). So the believer, delivered by Christ and cleansed by His blood, takes up Asaph's vow: as the sheep of His pasture, we will give thanks for ever and shew forth His praise to all generations. Deliverance was given for worship; the rescued flock is the singing flock, and its song to the Shepherd who saved it will never end.