John Calvin Commentary Psalms 79:5

"How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" — Psalms 79:5 (ASV)

How long, O Jehovah! will you be angry for ever? I have already observed that these two expressions, how long and for ever, when joined together, denote a long and uninterrupted continuation of calamities, and that, looking to the future, there is no sign of them coming to an end.

Therefore, we may conclude that this complaint was not voiced only a month or two after persecution against the Church began, but at a time when the hearts of the faithful were almost broken by the weariness produced by prolonged suffering. Here they confess that the great accumulation of calamities with which they are overwhelmed is to be traced to God's wrath.

Being fully convinced that the wicked, whatever they may plot, cannot inflict injury except as God permits them—from this, which they regard as an indubitable principle, they immediately conclude that when He allows their heathen enemies such wide scope to persecute them, His anger is greatly provoked.

Nor would they, without this conviction, have looked to God in the hope that He would stretch out His hand to save them, for it is the work of Him who has given loose reins to draw in the bridle. Whenever God visits us with the rod, and our own conscience accuses us, it is especially fitting for us to look to His hand.

Here His ancient people do not charge Him with being unjustly displeased, but acknowledge the justice of the punishment inflicted on them. God will always find in His servants just grounds for chastising them. He often, however, in the exercise of His mercy, pardons their sins and tries them with the cross for a purpose other than to testify His displeasure against their sins, just as it was His will to test the patience of Job, and as He graciously called the martyrs to an honorable warfare.

But here the people, of their own accord, summoning themselves before the Divine tribunal, trace the calamities they endured to their own sins as the procuring cause. Hence, it may with probability be conjectured that this psalm was composed during the time of the Babylonian captivity. Under the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, they employed, as we have previously seen, a different form of prayer, saying:

“All this has come upon us; yet we have not forgotten you, neither have we dealt falsely in your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your way,” (Psalms 44:17–18).

We should not suppose that, in the passage just quoted, the faithful murmured against God, but they use this language because they knew that He had another end in view than simply to punish their sins; for by means of these severe conflicts, He prepared them for the prize of their high calling.