A Psalm of complaint such as Jeremiah the prophet might have written amid the ruins of the beloved city. It evidently treats times of invasion, oppression, and national overthrow.
Verse 1. "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled ..." This was not only the highest degree of the enemy's inhumanity and barbarity ... but also a calamity to the people of God never to be sufficiently deplored. For by the overthrow of the true worship of God, which had been instituted at that temple alone appeared to be extinguished, and the knowledge of God to vanish from among mankind. No pious heart could ponder this without the greatest grief.
Verse 4. "We are become a reproach to our neighbours ..." It is the height of reproach that a father casts upon his child if he commands one of his slaves to beat him. Of all outward judgments, this is the sorest - to have strangers rule over us. If once the heathen come into God's inheritance, no wonder the church complains that she is "become a reproach to her neighbours, a shame and a derision to all round about her."
Verse 5. "How long Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?" The voice that is here lifted up in prayer doesn't ask, how long will the wickedness and strength of our enemies endure, or, how long will we be made to see this desolation. But, it asks how long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry? The unregenerate attribute their afflictions to the strength and malice of their enemies, but the people of God should know what it is to trace God's hand of judgment, and, by so doing, trace their own sins and failures which has brought that correcting hand upon them.
Verse 8. "O remember not against us former iniquities ..." The psalmist counts himself with the people, not only in their time of affliction, but also in their liability to the anger of God on account of the crimes committed. He was not a partaker in those enormous sins by which they had provoked the swift justice of God, and yet, he does not exempt himself from the people as a whole. So, in the following verse, he says, "And purge away our sins." He does not say, "Purge away their sins," but, "remember not our iniquities, and purge away our sins."
Verse 9. "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." The good which God does for His church, be it temporal or spiritual, He does for His own sake. That they were preserved in Babylon, was for his holy name's sake; that they were replanted in Canaan, was for his holy name's sake; that they had a temple, sacrifices, priests, prophets, ordinances again, was for his holy name's sake; and when they were near to destruction in any of the former days, God did a work, for his holy name's sake. It is not for the enemies' sake that God doth preserve or deliver his people, nor for their sakes - their prayers, tears, faith, obedience, holiness - that he does great things for them, and bestows great mercies upon them. But it is for his own name's sake that he blessed it. The greatest mercies that God 's people have, are for his name's sake; they have pardon of sin, for his name's sake, Psalm 25 verse 11; purging of sin, for his name's sake, Psalm 79 verse 9; leading in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake, Psalm 23 verse 2; quickening of their dead and dull hearts, for his name's sake, Psalm 143 verse 11. And though his people offend him, yet he forsakes them not, for his great name's sake.
Verse 11. "... according to the greatness of thy power, preserve those that are appointed to die." How consoling it is to desponding believers to reflect that God can preserve even those who bear the sentence of death in themselves. A lamb shall live between the Lion's jaws if the Lord wills it.
Verse 13. "So we are thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations." The gratitude of the Church is lasting as well as deep. On her scrolls are memorials of great deliverances, and, as long as she shall exist, her sons will rehearse them with delight. We have a history which will survive all other records, and it is bright in every line with the glory of God.