John Calvin Commentary Psalms 79:1

"O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps." — Psalms 79:1 (ASV)

O God! the heathen have come into thy inheritance. Here the prophet, speaking for the faithful, complains that the temple was defiled and the city destroyed. In the second and third verses, he complains that the saints were murdered indiscriminately, and that their dead bodies were thrown out upon the face of the earth, deprived of the honor of burial.

Almost every word expresses the cruelty of these enemies of the Church. When it is considered that God had chosen the land of Judea as a possession for his own people, it seemed inconsistent with this choice to abandon it to the heathen nations, so that they might shamefully trample it underfoot and lay it waste as they pleased.

The prophet, therefore, complains that when the heathen came into the heritage of God, the order of nature was, as it were, inverted. The destruction of the temple, of which he speaks in the second clause, was even less to be endured, for in this way the service of God on earth was extinguished, and religion destroyed.

He adds that Jerusalem, which was the royal seat of God, was reduced to heaps. These words denote a hideous overthrow. The profanation of the temple and the destruction of the holy city, involving as they did heaven-daring impiety which justly ought to have provoked God’s wrath against these enemies—the prophet begins with these, and then proceeds to speak of the slaughter of the saints.

The atrocious cruelty of these persecutions is highlighted by the fact that they not only put God’s servants to death but also exposed their dead bodies to the beasts of the field and to birds of prey to be devoured, instead of burying them. People have always had such a sacred regard for the burial of the dead as to shrink from depriving even their enemies of the honor of burial.

From this it follows that those who take a barbarous delight in seeing the bodies of the dead torn to pieces and devoured by beasts more resemble these savage and cruel animals than human beings. It is also shown that these persecutors acted more atrociously than enemies ordinarily do, since they made no more account of shedding human blood than of pouring forth water. From this we learn their insatiable thirst for slaughter.

When it is added, there was none to bury them, this is to be understood as applying to the brothers and relatives of the slain. The inhabitants of the city were struck with such terror by the indiscriminate butchery perpetrated by these ruthless assassins upon all who came in their way, that no one dared to go out.

Since God intended that the burial of people should bear some testimony to the resurrection on the last day, it was a double indignity for the saints to be stripped of this right after their death.

But it may be asked: Since God often threatens the reprobate with this kind of punishment, why did he allow his own people to be devoured by beasts?

We must remember, as we have stated elsewhere, that the elect, as well as the reprobate, are subjected to the temporal punishments which pertain only to the flesh. The difference between the two cases lies solely in the outcome, for God converts that which in itself is a sign of his wrath into the means of salvation for his own children.

The same explanation, then, is to be given for their lack of burial as is given for their death. The most eminent of God’s servants may be put to a cruel and shameful death—a punishment which we know is often carried out on murderers and other despisers of God.

But still, the death of the saints does not cease to be precious in his sight. And when he has allowed them to be unrighteously persecuted in the flesh, he shows, by taking vengeance on their enemies, how dear they were to him.

In the same way, God, to stamp the marks of his wrath on the reprobate even after their death, deprives them of burial. Therefore, he threatens a wicked king, He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 22:19).

When he exposes his own children to a similar indignity, he may seem for a time to have forsaken them. But he afterwards converts it into the means of furthering their salvation, for their faith, being subjected to this trial, achieves a fresh triumph.

In ancient times, when the bodies of the dead were anointed, that ceremony was performed for the sake of the living they left behind. It was to teach them, when they saw the bodies of the dead carefully preserved, to cherish in their hearts the hope of a better life.

The faithful, then, by being deprived of burial, suffer no loss when they rise by faith above these lesser aids, so that they may advance with swift steps to a blessed immortality.