Psalms 79:1

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance - The nations; a foreign people. See Psalms 2:1, note; Psalms 2:8; note; Psalms 78:55, note. The term is one that would be applicable to the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, and the probable allusion here is to their invasion of the holy land under Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Chronicles 36:17.

Thy holy temple have they defiled - They have polluted it. By entering it; by removing the sacred furniture; by cutting down the carved work; by making it desolate. See 2 Chronicles 36:17. Compare the notes at Psalms 74:5.

They have laid Jerusalem on heaps - See 2 Chronicles 36:19 : “And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.”