79:1 <> O God, {a} the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
(a) The people cry to God against the barbarous tyranny of the Babylonians who spoiled God's inheritance, polluted his temple, destroyed his religion, and murdered his people.
79:1-5 God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.
