“O God of our salvation”
[Psalms 79]
I meditated on Psalms 34, centering on Psalms 34:8 – “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” What is God's goodness, or blessing, that those who take refuge in God taste? In a word, it is salvation of the spirit and the body. It is ‘deliverance’ physically [(v. 4) “… And delivered me from all my fears”, (v. 6) “… And saved him out of all his troubles”, (v. 7) “… And rescues them”, “(v. 17) “… And delivers them out of all their troubles”, (v. 18) “… And saves those who are crushed in spirit”, (v. 19) “… delivers him out of them all”]. Spiritually, the blessing God gives to those who take refuge in Him is redemption [(v. 22) “The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned”].
If we look at Psalms 79, we see a psalmist who takes refuge in God and cries out to Him. Among the things he prayed to God, especially verse 9 came to my heart: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake.” I would like to receive the lessons and grace given by meditating on the three prayer topics the psalmist asked for the God of salvation under the heading “O God of our salvation”.
The first prayer topic is “Help us, O God of salvation”.
Look at Psalms 79:9 – “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name ….” Why did the psalmist prayed to the God of salvation for help? The reason was because Jerusalem was destroyed by the persecutors against Israel, the people of the Lord, and was in a miserable situation in suffering. If we look at verses 1 to 4, we can see this fact: “O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem; And there was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those around us.” The enemies of Israel defiled the temple in Jerusalem, “Your holy temple,” and had laid Jerusalem in ruins (v. 1). And they killed and buried the Lord's servants and His saints in the city of Jerusalem (v. 2). As a result, their blood was poured out like water round about Jerusalem (v. 3). And the Israelites became a reproach to their neighbors (v. 4). At this time, the psalmist asked the God of salvation for help. He asked God for help for the glory of the name of the Lord (v. 9). This was because they knew that they had no righteousness, but they wanted the Lord to save them for the holy dignity that He had chosen them (Park). The psalmist earnestly prayed to God for help, not for his name or his glory, but for the glory of God or His name. He prayed that only God's would be done.
When we feel helplessness in the midst of trouble and persecution, we must seek God's help. There seems to be a lot of thing that seems like we can do with our own strength, but we are truly weak people who can’t even manage our own hearts. In a way, a life of faith is a deeper realization of our weakness and helplessness as we progress, while acknowledging and confessing that we cannot live without God's help. Take Job for example. J ob confessed in his suffering: “Is it that my help is not within me, …” (Job 6:13). Job realized his helplessness in the midst of extreme suffering and thus he acknowledged that he couldn’t help himself. Therefore, we must confess and pray as the psalmist confessed in Psalms 46:1 – “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” Our God will be of great help to us when we pray to God, who is a great help in the day of trouble, for help in our helplessness.
The second prayer topic was ‘Deliver us, O God of salvation’.
Look at Psalms 79:9 – “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us ….” The psalmist, who prayed to God for help for the helpless Israelites in the midst of trouble due to the destruction of Jerusalem, the death of the Lord's saints, and for God’s glory asked God in verse 5: “How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?” Here, regarding the psalmist’s prayer “How long?” we have already meditated on in Psalms 13:1-2: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” These prayers are prayers for God's prompt deliverance in the midst of trouble and persecution. In Psalms 79, the psalmist had no choice but to ask God for His prompt deliverance: “For they have devoured Jacob And laid waste his habitation.” (v. 7). In this crisis of destruction, the psalmist asked God to take away the Lord's wrath against the Israelites and pour His wrath on the nations, the Israelites’ enemies, who didn’t call on the name of the Lord (v. 6). Why did the psalmist pray like this? We can find the answer in verse 10: “Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let there be known among the nations in our sight, Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed.” The psalmist asked God to bring wrath to the nations because the Gentiles who didn’t believe in God were not only defiling the Jerusalem temple (v. 1), but were also defiling the name of God by saying where the God of the Israelites was. The more specific reason was because he wanted the nations to know that God would avenge the blood of His servants. Indeed, in verse 12, we can see that the nations who persecuted the Israelites had reproached the Lord. The psalmist asked God to pour out His wrath on the nations who were killing the Israelites, and that the Lord would hear the voices of the groaning of those who were taken captive and imprisoned by them, and preserve those who were doomed to die according to the greatness of His power (v. 11).
What a wonderful prayer? The psalmist prayed to God to deliver those who were doomed to die according to the greatness of His power as well as to preserve the Israelites. He was more concerned for God than for the salvation of God's people (Park). Although he longed for God's salvation and cried out to God to “deliver us” (v. 9), he couldn’t stand the unbelievers looking at the suffering Israelties and slandered and said, ”Where is their God?” (v. 10). With this attitude of heart, we must pray to God, ‘Deliver us.’ In other words, we must offer our prayer topics to God with earnest desire for the glory of God.
The third and last prayer topic was ‘Forgive our sins, O God of salvation’.
Look at Psalms 79:9 – “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake.” Knowing that the tribulation and plague that came upon Jerusalem and the Israelites because of God's wrath was the result of their sins, the psalmist asked God to “forgive our sins” (v. 9). He asked God for forgiveness of sins for the sake of the Lord's name. Then he asked God, “Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us; Let Your compassion come quickly to meet us, For we are brought very low” (v. 8). Exodus 20:5 says, “… punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” This means that the Lord would punish when the descendants of their ancestors continue to commit sins, such as those committed by their ancestors, without repentance (Park). Therefore, the psalmist asked for the Lord's mercy. In a very lowly situation, he humbly sought God's mercy. And in His mercy, he prayed that God would quickly receive him and the Israelites. In the end, God's help and deliverance (salvation) that the psalmist needed was connected to the problem of sins. In other words, what he desperately needed was forgiveness of sins in the mercy of the Lord. He knew that all troubles and calamities had come upon the Israelites because of this sin problem,. So he acknowledged that help and deliverance in troubles and calamities had little meaning unless the fundamental problem of sin was resolved before the Lord. The lesson this teaches us is that we must first settle our sin problems before the Lord. In other words, when we go through trouble, suffering, and crisis of life like the psalmist and the Israelites, of course, like the psalmist, we should seek God's help and His deliverance. But we must not forget that if we trouble, suffering and crisis because of our sins, then we must cry out to God, like the psalmist, “forgive our sins” (v. 9).
The psalmist told God these three prayer topics, saying what he would do if God answered his and the Israelites' prayers: “So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture Will give thanks to You forever; To all generations we will tell of Your praise” (v. 13). This instructs us that what the saints who receive the help of God and receive salvation and forgiveness of their sins should do to God is thanksgiving and praise. I hope that these three prayer topics of the psalmist will become our prayer topics and receive the answers of our prayers from God.
Rejoicing and grateful for the God of my salvation,
James Kim
(With gratitude for the saving grace of God, who is my help, who delivers me and forgives my sins)