Psalms 79 - Introduction

LXXIX.

The relation of this psalm to Psalms 74 is so close, notwithstanding some points of difference, that commentators are almost unanimous in assigning them to the same period, if not the same author. Psalms 79:1, indeed, by itself seems to point to a profanation of the Temple, such as that by Antiochus, and not a destruction like Nebuchadnezzar’s. To one of these events the psalm must refer. Great importance is attached to the similarity of Psalms 79:6, with Jeremiah 10:25, and it certainly looks as if the latter were an adaptation and expansion of the psalmist. Again, Psalms 79:3 (see Note) appears to be quoted in 1Ma. 7:17. On the other hand, every one allows that the best commentary on the psalm is the 1st chapter of 1 Maccabees. A Maccabæan editor may have taken a song of the Captivity period and slightly altered it to suit the events before his eyes. The psalter affords other instances of such adaptation. (See, e.g., Psalms 60) The verse flows smoothly, now in triplets, now in couplets.

Title. — See Title, Psalms 1.