This psalm, also, purports to be a psalm of Asaph; that is, it was either composed by him or for him; or it was the composition of one of his descendants who presided over the music in the sanctuary, and to whom was given the general family name, Asaph. The psalm pertains to the same general subject as Ps. 74, and was composed evidently in view of the same calamities. Rudinger, DeWette, and some others, suppose that the reference in the psalm is to the persecutions under Antiochus Epiphanes. To this opinion, also, Rosenmuller inclines. The most common, and the most probable supposition, however, is that it refers to the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans.
The contents of the psalm are as follows:
I. A statement of the calamity which had come upon the nation. The pagan had come into the heritage of God; they had defiled the sanctuary; they had made Jerusalem desolate; they had murdered the inhabitants; and the nation had become a reproach before the world, Psalm 79:1-4.
II. A prayer for the divine interposition, Psalm 79:5-6.
III. Reasons for that prayer, or reasons why God should interpose in the case, Psalm 79:7-13. These reasons are,
(a) that they had devoured Jacob, Psalm 79:7;
(b) that the people, on account of their sins, had been brought very low, Psalm 79:8;
(c) that the divine glory was at stake, Psalm 79:9-10;
(d) that they were in a suffering and pitiable condition, many being held as captives, and many ready to die, Psalm 79:11 :
(e) that justice demanded this, Psalm 79:12; and
(f) that this interposition would lay the foundation for praise to God, Psalm 79:13.

The psalmist complains of the cruelty of his enemies and the desolations of Jerusalem, and prays against them, Psalm 79:1-7. He prays for the pardon and restoration of his people, and promises gratitude and obedience, Psalm 79:8-13.
The title, A Psalm of Asaph, must be understood as either applying to a person of the name of Asaph who lived under the captivity; or else to the family of Asaph; or to a band of singers still bearing the name of that Asaph who flourished in the days of David; for most undoubtedly the Psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, when the city of Jerusalem lay in heaps, the temple was defiled, and the people were in a state of captivity. David could not be its author. Some think it was composed by Jeremiah; and it is certain that the sixth and sevenths verses are exactly the same with Jeremiah 10:25 : "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him; and have made his habitation desolate."

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 79
A Psalm of Asaph. This psalm was not written by one Asaph, who is supposed to live after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, or, according to some, even after the times of Antiochus, of whom there is no account, nor any certainty that there ever was such a man in those times; but by Asaph, the seer and prophet, that lived in the time of David, who, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw and foretold things that should come to pass, spoken of in this psalm: nor is it any objection that what is here said is delivered as an history of facts, since many prophecies are delivered in this way, especially those of the prophet Isaiah. The Targum is,
"a song by the hands of Asaph, concerning the destruction of the house of the sanctuary (or temple), which he said by a spirit of prophecy.''
The title of the Syriac versions,
"said by Asaph concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.''
The argument of the psalm is of the same kind with the Seventy Fourth. Some refer it to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; so Theodoret; but though the temple was then defiled, Jerusalem was not utterly destroyed; and others to the destruction of the city and temple by Nebuchadnezzar; and why may it not refer to both, and even to the after destruction of both by Titus Vespasian? and may include the affliction and troubles of the Christians under Rome Pagan and Papal, and especially the latter; for Jerusalem and the temple may be understood in a mystical and spiritual sense; at least the troubles of the Jews, in the times referred to, were typical of what should befall the people of God under the New Testament, and in antichristian times.

(Psalm 79:1-5) The deplorable condition of the people of God.
(Psalm 79:6-13) A petition for relief.

Supplicatory Prayer in a Time of Devastation, of Bloodshed, and of Derision
This Psalm is in every respect the pendant of Ps 74. The points of contact are not merely matters of style (cf. Psalm 79:5, how long for ever? with Psalm 74:1, Psalm 74:10; Psalm 79:10, יוּדע, with Psalm 74:5; Psalm 79:2, the giving over to the wild beasts, with Psalm 74:19, Psalm 74:14; Psalm 79:13, the conception of Israel as of a flock, in which respect Psalm 79:1-13 is judiciously appended to Psalm 78:70-72, with Psalm 74:1, and also with Psalm 74:19). But the mutual relationships lie still deeper. Both Psalm have the same Asaphic stamp, both stand in the same relation to Jeremiah, and both send forth their complaint out of the same circumstances of the time, concerning a destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, such as only the age of the Seleucidae (1 Macc. 1:31; 3:45, 2 Macc. 8:3) together with the Chaldaean period
(Note: According to Sofrim xviii. 3, Psalm 79:1-13 and Psalm 137:1-9 are the Psalm for the Knoth-day, i.e., the 9th day of Ab, the day commemorative of the Chaldaean and Roman destruction of Jerusalem.)
can exhibit, and in conjunction with a defiling of the Temple and a massacre of the servants of God, of the Chasdm (1 Macc. 7:13, 2 Macc. 14:6), such as the age of the Seleucidae exclusively can exhibit. The work of the destruction of the Temple which was in progress in Ps 74, appears in Psalm 79:1-13 as completed, and here, as in the former Psalm, one receives the impression of the outrages, not of some war, but of some persecution: it is straightway the religion of Israel for the sake of which the sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are massacred.
Apart from other striking accords, Psalm 79:6-7 are repeated verbatim in Jeremiah 10:25. It is in itself far more probable that Jeremiah here takes up the earlier language of the Psalm than that the reverse is the true relation; and, as Hengstenberg has correctly observed, this is also favoured by the fact that the words immediately before viz., Jeremiah 10:24, originate out of Psalm 6:2, and that the connection in the Psalm is a far closer one. But since there is no era of pre-Maccabaean history corresponding to the complaints of the Psalm,
(Note: Cassiodorus and Bruno observe: deplorat Antiochi persecutionem tempore Machabeorum factam, tunc futuram. And Notker adds: To those who have read the First Book of the Maccabees it (viz., the destruction bewailed in the Psalm) is familiar.)
Jeremiah is to be regarded in this instance as the example of the psalmist; and in point of fact the borrower is betrayed in Psalm 79:6-7 of the Psalm by the fact that the correct על of Jeremiah is changed into אל, the more elegant משׁפחות into ממלכות, and the plural אכלוּ into אכל, and the soaring exuberance of Jeremiah's expression is impaired by the omission of some of the words.