Chapter 79
Asaph
Starts much the same. Here is the first verse:
1 A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. [Psa 79:1 ESV]
This has only happened twice, and both were well after the original Asaph was dead. This Psalm is about 586 BC, 70 AD, or both, and was written before either had occurred...or by a different guy named Asaph.
2022 - Or is about some other invasion...but this says Jerusalem in ruins. Can that really be any time other than 586 BC or 70 AD?
Think about this verse:
2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. [Psa 79:2 ESV]
I know there were prophecies of bodies eaten by birds and beasts both in Isaiah and Jeremiah that referred to the destruction in 586 BC. However...where did these "faithful" come from? I have a hard time making a case that there were "10 good men" in the Jerusalem of 586 BC. But I can make that case in 70 AD. I can make the case for hyper-faithful by then. The Hassidic Jews were present in 70 AD, and there would have been believers in Christ in the city when it fell in 70 AD. Putting 74 and 79 together - both by Asaph, both about "a" fall of Jerusalem, I find more evidence for them being about 70 AD than 586 BC. I would be 100% sure of it if I find a reference to double punishment anywhere later in this chapter...
2025 - You know, in either case, whether 586 BC or 70 AD, if this is the same Asaph, then this Psalm is entirely prophetic. The Asaph we have previously seen - except possibly in 74 - lived during the time of David and Solomon. Both were a very long time before 586 BC. If we are ok believing this was a prophecy about 586 BC, then can we not as easily make it about 70 AD?
Bodies as food for the birds laying around Jerusalem. vs 5, How long?
Remember us for we have been brought very low. This verse to end it:
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise. [Psa 79:13 ESV]
A very good verse.
2023 - I just cannot nail down the time that these things were, or will be, true. It says "the nations", not a pagan nation, not a world dominating power....Nations plural. That wouldn't really apply to either fall. Babylon burned to temple, Antiochus Epiphanes defiled the temple, and the Romans burned the Temple. In 70 AD, I don't think the temple was desecrated. I don't think they sacrificed any pigs in 70 AD. I really don't remember any pig sacrifices in 586 BC. Antiochus most definitely DID do that. And he is the one who set up the abomination of desolation isn't he? Antiochus was future for any Asaph who was writing Psalms, which would make this a prophecy, and if it is about AE, then that is the near and end times is the far. Will the MoL take Jerusalem by force after they rebuild the Temple, and then build one himself to Ezekiel's specifications? That's the thing. If we make Asaph in these Book 3 Psalms into an end times prophet, then we may be able to pull additional end times specifics out of what he writes. But we don't know who he is. MSB puts this as a lament about 586 BC, and generalizes nations to be pagans, heathens, and so in a general way, not literally "more than one nation". But Neb came three different times. Wasn't the first one a siege? I suppose they could have taken people outside the walls, killed them, and left them for the birds and the beasts while they went back inside and killed still more. That could fit. In 70 AD they killed anyone who came outside and gutted them to check for jewels and money, then likely left them for the birds and the beasts. Here is the closest I can get in Revelation: 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, [Rev 20:9 ESV]. So this one does not turn out well for the attackers. I think we can eliminate this from any consideration as the time of this prophecy. In fact, the more I look at Revelation, the less it seems to be at all in view of Psalm 79. I also note that in the chronological Bible, Psalms 79 comes after these chapters in Jeremiah about the fall of Jerusalem.