GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 79:12-13
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times
the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.
13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
This is the concluding prayer to the Psalm. It is an imprecation—a prayer that God would avenge insults to his name. There are many such prayers in the Psalms, in Psalms 55, 56, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 109, and 137 to name just a few (see also Jeremiah 12:3 and 32:18). But these are not isolated pleas. Whenever we ask God to carry out his word, we must realize that part of that word is that he punishes sin; that he condemns as well as saves. Luther said:
“I cannot pray without cursing at the same time. If I say, ‘Hallowed by your name,’ I must thereby say, ‘May the name of the papists and all who blaspheme your name be accursed, condemned, and dishonored.’ If I say, ‘Your kingdom come,’ I must thereby say, ‘May the papacy, together with all kingdoms on earth that are opposed to your kingdom, be accursed, condemned, and destroyed.’ If I say, ‘Your will be done,’ I must thereby say, ‘May the plans and plots of the papists and of all who strive against your will be accursed, condemned, dishonored, and brought to naught.’ Truly, thus my lips and heart pray day in, day out, and all who believe in Christ are praying this way with me”
When we pray for any of God’s blessings, we are praying that God will continue to defeat the plans of Satan and of everyone who serves him, knowingly or unknowingly. Anyone who opposes the will of God has made themselves God’s enemy. They are calling down divine wrath and vengeance on their heads. That’s why here in verse 12 Asaph says, “Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times.” Seven is a symbolic number in the Bible, the symbol of God’s holiness (Exodus 29:37; Revelation 3:1 and 5:1). Here it is a prayer for God’s holy wrath.
What God’s people desire is eternal communion with God. This is only possible through the blood of Christ. So we look to Christ for everything we need, and we know that he will bring us to eternal life—to eternal communion with God. There we will sing his praises. “We will praise you forever,” Asaph says, on behalf of us all. “From generation to generation we will recount your praise.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota