Psalms 79:12

And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach.

Vengeance

This is the same spirit as is breathed out in Psalms 79:6. It is revenge. We have here two things.

I. A noble instinct. It is an instinct of justice, a cry against wrong. As an instinct, it is a spark from the Divine nature, a spark that reveals the justice which is at the head of the universe. Observe, the revenge here was not breathed for personal enemies, nor for bad men in the neighbourhood, the land, or the ago, but for bad men in a distant land and in a remote time. It was the breaking forth of that instinct of revenge which is in all our natures.

II. A noble instinct wrongly developed. It was a prayer that God would punish with “sevenfold” the sufferings which their enemies had inflicted on them.

1. It was a personal, not a public, development. We are commanded not to return evil for evil, etc.

2. It was an exaggerated development. It is not merely, treat, them as they are treating us, but with seven times the cruelty.

3. It was an impious development. It was asking the God of Infinite Love to act cruelly, it was to dictate to Infinite Justice the method of avenging the wrong. “ Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” “If,” says Sir T. Browne, “thou must needs have thy revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones, heap coals of fire on his head, forgive him, and enjoy it.” (Homilist.)