19/11/2021

引言:

诗篇79篇的背景可能是主前586年巴比伦军队攻占耶路撒冷，圣殿被毁、犹大亡国、百姓被掳（王下25：9）。面对国家的败亡，诗人就写了这首诗篇来向神呼求！因此，我就把这章经文的主题定为‘危难中的呼求’。从这篇诗歌中，我们可以看见有几个层面的呼求。

一、呼求怜悯（V1-4）

「神啊，外邦人进入祢的产业，污秽祢的圣殿，使耶路撒冷变成荒堆，把祢仆人的尸首交与天空的飞鸟为食，把祢圣民的肉交与地上的野兽，在耶路撒冷周围流他们的血如水，无人葬埋。我们成为邻国的羞辱，成为我们四围人的嗤笑讥刺。」（V1-4）

当时的景况，就如第1-4节所描述的这些可怕的事情发生。

我们知道，耶路撒冷是神所拣选的居所，也是神的百姓属灵光景的标志。当神的百姓顺服神的时候，耶路撒冷就得兴旺；当神的百姓悖逆神的时候，耶路撒冷就会蒙羞。摩西在申32:20-25早已预言，如果以色列人离弃神、拜偶像，必然会遭遇第2-4节所描述的悲惨结果。神也早已向所罗门王宣告，倘若以色列人离弃神、敬拜偶像，「我就必将以色列人从我赐给他们的地上剪除，并且我为己名所分别为圣的殿也必舍弃不顾，使以色列人在万民中作笑谈，被讥诮」（王上9:7）。

因此，我们也不会惊讶，当以色列人面对巴比伦的威胁时，神竟然说：是祂召祂的「仆人巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒」（耶25:9）做的！

因此，诗人知道，唯有来到神的面前呼求祂的怜悯，盼望神转念，不降祂所说的灾。

二、止息怒气（V5-7）

「耶和华啊，这到几时呢？祢要动怒到永远吗？祢的愤恨要如火焚烧吗？愿祢将祢的忿怒倒在那不认识祢的外邦和那不求告祢名的国度。因为他们吞了雅各，把他的住处变为荒场。」（V5-7）

以色列人知道，他们亡国是因为自己犯罪，惹动神发怒。 他们求神怜恤、止息怒气，求神把忿怒倒在入侵祂产业的外邦人身上，而不是在自己的子民身上。

诗人准确地认识到，仇敌摧残神的百姓（V2-3）、「吞了雅各，把他的住处变为荒场」（V7），使以色列亡国是因为自己的罪，而不是因为神没有能力，而是因为神在「动怒」（V5；耶25:9）。今天，许多信徒在遇到天灾人祸的时候，不是责怪神，质问慈爱的神为什么允许这些灾难发生；就是可怜神，认为神束手无措，需要我们来帮助祂、安慰祂。

然而，我们所信的是万军之耶和华，祂大有能力，完全可以阻止一切灾难发生。因此，当公义、慈爱、大能的神允许天灾人祸发生的时候，我们首先应当做的事，是认罪悔改，反省自己的生命并思想神的「忿怒」（V6）。因为神向自己的百姓「所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念」（耶29:11），祂管教的目的不是为了要败坏百姓，使他们灭亡，而是为了恢复百姓，叫他们在「末后有指望」（耶29:11）。因此，当属灵的黑暗最深的时候，黎明也就不远了；当神开始管教的时候，祂的救恩也就临近了。

因此，当我们在面对神的管教时，我们不要总想着要逃离及摆脱，好像西底家一样。因为最终我们还是无法逃离而需要接受管教。虽然，被管教的过程并不是很舒服，但当我们选择顺服并从罪中回转时，神的救恩（即神丰盛的恩典）就会临到我们。

三、拯救赦罪（V8-10）

「拯救我们的神啊，求祢因祢名的荣耀帮助我们！为祢名的缘故搭救我们，赦免我们的罪。」（V9）

诗人知道自己不配蒙恩。因为他知道神的百姓被掳，是因先祖的罪孽，历代积累的后果，也是他们自己犯罪的结局。百姓不顾神将近千年的警告，甚至还明知故犯，离弃神、去敬拜神所憎恶的偶像。所以只能向神认罪，然后才求神为了祂自己的名和荣耀而「搭救、赦免」百姓。因为当神定意要「压伤」（赛42：3）祂的百姓的时候，首先被「压伤」的乃是主自己：因为就如第一至第二节经文所描述的，以色列是神的产业，圣殿是神的圣殿，而百姓是神的仆人、神的圣民。因此，当属神的产业及子民受亏损时，其实受最大亏损的是神荣耀的名。

因此，除了我们自己要常常来到神面前反省、认罪并悔改，我们也要时时记念我们的国家。我们常常代替我们的国家回转到上帝面前，我们求主赦免那些不符合真理的政策，我们也求主把我们的国家带回到真理的里面，带回到上帝的所为我们预备的救恩的里面。

四、公义慈爱（V11-13）

1.公义

「愿被囚之人的叹息达到你面前；愿你按你的大能力存留那些将要死的人。主啊，愿你将我们邻邦所羞辱你的羞辱，加七倍归到他们身上。」（V11-12）

「七倍」的意思是「完全的报应」。今天，世界上有许多人越来越放肆地藐视神、抵挡神，把罪恶当作荣耀。然而，神也必将他们所羞辱神的羞辱「加七倍归到他们身上」（V12）。

诗中带出诗人请求神，使被囚的以色列人存活，并止息外邦人对神百姓的嘲笑（他们的神在那里呢；V10, 42:3、10，115:2），把从他们而来的羞辱以七倍归到他们身上，以此终止外邦人对神的羞辱。因为他们认为神没有能力帮助祂自己的百姓。

2慈爱

「这样，你的民，你草场的羊，要称谢你，直到永远；要述说赞美你的话，直到万代。」（V13）

从以色列的历史中，我们看见她们从荣耀到衰败，又从被掳到归回、从荒凉到复兴。虽然在人或事情上，总是有起起伏伏、高高低低，但是我们知道唯有神是永不改变的。因此，我们要求神记念我们是祂的民，是祂草场的羊。就如亚萨在最低谷的时候向山举目，寻求神。

上帝作为一个牧者，祂会来供应祂的百姓，也会来引导并保护祂的百姓 。所以，诗篇里非常多讲到以色列是上帝草场的羊，意思就是他们是归属于上帝的。所以在这个地方我们会看见诗人再一次来跟上帝说：上帝阿，我们是祢的羊，祢是我们的牧人，求祢搭救我们。我们会永永远远来称颂祢，来事奉祢，来敬拜祢！

当我们与神的关系一回到牧人和羊关系里面的时候，我们就会发现那是一个非常亲密的关系，也是一个非常独特的关系。那是一个非常强烈从属的关系。我们知道我们是有所归属的，我们不是飘来飘去的一群人，我们是属于我们的主的。

总结：

弟兄姐妹，当我们在危难中，我们可以来到神面前呼求祂的怜悯、公义和慈爱彰显。纵然我们面对困难，甚至病毒的攻击，但当我们来寻求神的面，祂必要伸出祂大能的手保护我们。

Psalms 79: A Cry in Distress
GK611 Morning Devotion
19/11/2021
Speaker: IP Stella Ling

Introduction:

The background of Psalm 79 may be the destruction of the temple, the fall of Judah, and the captivity of the people when the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:9). Faced with the defeat of the nation, the poet wrote this psalm to cry out to God! Therefore, I make the title of this chapter ‘A Cry in Distress’. In this psalm, we can see several levels of cry.

1. A Cry for Mercy

“O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of Your servants
They have given as food for the birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem,
And there was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and derision to those who are around us.” (v1-4)

The scene was such that these terrible things happened as described in verses 1-4.

We know that Jerusalem is the chosen dwelling place of God, and a sign of the spiritual circumstances of God’s people. When God’s people obey God, Jerusalem will prosper; when God’s people rebel against God, Jerusalem will be put to shame. Moses predicted long ago in Deuteronomy 32:20-25 that if the Israelites turned away from God and worshiped idols, they would surely suffer the miserable outcome described in verses 2-4. God also declared to King Solomon that if the Israelites turned away from God and worshiped idols, “then I will [b]cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” (1 Kings 9:7).

Therefore, we are not surprised that when Israel faced the threat of Babylon, God said: It was He who called His “servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 25:9) to do it!

Therefore, the poet knew that the only way to do this was to come to God and cry out for His mercy, hoping that God would turn His mind and not send the plague He had spoken of.

2. Stopping the Anger (V5-7)

“How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, And on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, And laid waste his dwelling place.” (V5-7)

The Israelites knew that they had fallen because they had sinned and provoked God to anger. They asked God to have mercy and to stop His anger, and asked Him to pour out His wrath on the Gentiles who had invaded His inheritance, and not on His own people.

The poet accurately recognizes that the enemy destroyed God’s people (v2-3), “devoured Jacob, And laid waste his dwelling place.” (v7), and brought about the downfall of Israel because of their own sins, not because God was powerless, but because God was “furious” (v5; Jer 25:9). Today, when many believers encounter natural and man-made disasters, they either blame God and question why the loving God allows these disasters to happen, or they felt pity for God, thinking that He is helpless and needs us to help Him and comfort Him.

However, we believe in the LORD of hosts, who is almighty to prevent all disasters from occurring. Therefore, when the righteous, loving, and almighty God allows natural and man-made disasters to occur, the first thing we should do is to confess our sins and repent, reflect on our lives and think about the “wrath” of God (V6). For God’s “thoughts that He thinks toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer 29:11), and the purpose of His discipline is not to corrupt them and bring about their destruction, but to restore them and give them “hope in the end times” (Jer 29:11). Therefore, when spiritual darkness is at its deepest, the dawn is not far away; and when God begins to discipline, His salvation is near.

Therefore, when we face God’s discipline, we should not always think of escaping and getting rid of it, as Zedekiah did. Because in the end, we cannot escape and need to be disciplined. Although the process of discipline is not very comfortable, God’s salvation (like God’s abundant grace) will come to us when we choose to obey and turn from our sins.

3. Salvation and forgiveness of sins (V8-10)

“Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name; And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, For Your name’s sake!” (V9)

The poet knew that he was not worthy of grace. For he knew that the captivity of God’s people was the consequence of the sins of their ancestors, accumulated through the ages.The people disregarded God’s warnings for almost a thousand years, and even knowingly turned away from God and worshiped idols, which God hates. Therefore, they could only confess their sins to God and then ask Him to “save and forgive” them for His own name and glory. For when God purposed to “break” (Isa 42:3) His people, the first to be “broken” was the Lord Himself: for as described in verses 1 and 2, Israel is God’s inheritance, the temple is God’s temple, and the people are God’s servants, God’s holy people. Therefore, when the property and people of God suffer a loss, it is actually the glorious name of God that suffers the greatest loss.

Therefore, besides coming to God for reflection, confession, and repentance, we must also remember our nation at all times. We often turn to God in place of our nation, and we ask the Lord to forgive those policies that are not in accordance with the truth, and we ask the Lord to bring our nation back to the truth and to the salvation that God has prepared for us.

4. Righteousness and Loving Kindness (V11-13)

(1) Righteousness

“Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die; And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom, Their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord. (V11-12)

The word “sevenfold” means “full retribution”. Today, many people in the world are becoming more and more reckless in despising God, resisting Him and taking sin for glory. However, God will also “add seven times to the shame they have brought upon God” (V12).

The poem brings out the poet’s plea to God to keep the captive Israelites alive and to stop the mockery of the Gentiles against God’s people (where is their God; V10, 42:3, 10, 115:2), and to put an end to the Gentiles’ humiliation of God by bringing back to them seven times the humiliation that came from them. For they thought that God was not able to help His own people.

(2) Loving Kindness

“So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, Will give You thanks forever; We will show forth Your praise to all generations.” (V13)

In the history of Israel, we see them going from glory to declining, and from captivity to return, from desolation to restoration. Although there are always ups and downs, highs and lows in people or things, we know that God alone never changes. Therefore, we ask God to remember that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Just as Asaph lifted his eyes to the mountain at the deepest valley and sought God.

God, as a Shepherd, will come to provide for His people, and He will come to guide and protect His people. So, the Psalms speak very much of Israel as the sheep of God’s pasture, meaning that they belong to God. So, in this place we see the poet coming again to God and saying: O God, we are Your sheep, You are our shepherd, save us. We will always come to praise you, to serve you, to worship you!

As soon as our relationship with God returns to that of shepherd and sheep, we find that it is a very intimate relationship and a very unique relationship. It is a very strong depending relationship. We know that we have a sense of belonging, that we are not just a bunch of people floating around, but that we belong to our Lord.

Summary:

Brothers and sisters, when we are in distress, we can come to God and cry out for His mercy, justice and love to be manifested. Even though we face difficulties and even virus attacks, when we come to seek God’s face, He will extend His mighty hand to protect us.