Psalm 79, and we're reading from the verse number one, a Psalm of Asaph. Oh God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. Thy holy temple of the defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meet onto the files of the heaven. The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen. that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name, and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed, that the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. According to the greatness of thy power, preserve thy those that are appointed to die. and render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations. Amen. We know that God will bless the reading of his word to our hearts. We're going to consider the Psalm of Asaph this evening, and the verse number five, it reads, how long, Lord, how long, Lord. That really gives us a clue as to the depth of anxiety and pain and suffering that the writer of this psalm was experiencing. Such was his enormous emotional distress and spiritual anger at what had happened to God's people that he cried out to the Lord and he said, how long, how long are you going to allow this to go on for? How long is this suffering going to continue? Will there not be an end of it? And I suppose we can feel that way when we're passing through afflictions and when one affliction comes after another, how long? When we look at the state of our land and our nation, we wonder how long, how long, Lord, will you allow this to happen? And this was how Asaph felt. The psalm moves from complaint in verse one. He says, the heathen are coming to thine inheritance, thy holy temple of the defiled. So he's complaining, he's crying out to God, he's bringing before the Lord his problem. And then there is hope in verse 13. The psalm ends dramatically differently from how it begins. That's generally the case with many of the psalms. They begin with pain and suffering and then they end with optimism. Why? Because the man of God has learned the value of prayer. At the heart of this psalm is the prayer. Verses 8, 9 and 10. O remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercy speedily prevent us for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is their God? And so he prays. Prayer changes many things. And best of all, it changes us. Just a short word about the historical background to the psalm. This psalm was written, there is no doubt, shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. It's a catastrophic event. The heathen are coming to thine inheritance. The Babylonian army swept into Jerusalem, knocked down the walls, burnt the temple, stripped the gold of the temple and brought it back to Babylon. Whoever was not killed, they were taken as captives into Babylon. And they left behind them a bloodbath. Verse three says, their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem. It was a horrible event. And the historical record. confirms what Asaf here is saying. For example, in 2 Kings 25 verse 9, we read about the armies of Nebuchadnezzar burning the house of the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 36, 7 through to 19, we read about the king of the Chaldeans slaying their young men with the sword. And so Jerusalem fell, and the writer of this psalm, he must have witnessed this, he must have seen all of this happen, but herein we have a problem. This is a section of the psalm book that's known as the Psalms of Asaph, and yet there's a problem here, because, or Asaph, the Asaph that wrote the majority of these psalms, He lived hundreds of years before the destruction of Jerusalem. He didn't see it. And so there's a problem here. If he didn't see it, then who wrote the psalm? And why was the person known by the name of Asaph? We know that the principal person by the name of Asaph, he, ministered during the days of Solomon read about that in first chronicle 6 and 39 we read about a man called Asif even Asif the son of Barakaya the son of Shemiah he must have been a notable man because there is mention made of his father and grandfather even this Asif there was an emphasis made because he was a great leader in the temple he was a songwriter he was a musician one who followed on from David and his ministry and many many respects. He probably was a contemporary of David if he was a contemporary of Solomon. And so this Asif, this famous Asif, this first Asif, he could not have written the psalm 79 because he was not an eyewitness of the destruction of Babylon. The most likely explanation is that the psalm was written by a later temple musician from the school of Asif. You see such was Asif's greatness that there was a whole line of poets and musicians who bore his name and his name was perpetuated through groups of people who minister within the temple and they were known as the sons of Asaph. For example, read about them as late as the reign of Josiah and Josiah's reign takes us right up almost to the time of the Babylonian destruction. Second Chronicles 35 15 read about the sons of Asaph and then in Ezra 3 and 10 the sons of Asaph were reconstituted so after the children of Israel came out of Babylon the sons of Asaph were there praising in the new temple. So there was a long line of musicians and songwriters who sang and ministered, led the temple worship and they were known by the name of Asif. That is the likely explanation and therefore the Psalms that they wrote continued to be known as the Psalms of Asif. And we can imagine one of these faithful men. He had served in this temple. He had been faithful to his God. He had witnessed times of great apostasy and departure from God. And yet he had witnessed times of revival as well, because there was a great revival. The greatest of the revivals took place during the reign of Josiah, which almost takes us up to the destruction by Babylon. But Josiah's reign was followed by a great departure from God. And you can imagine this man, he had seen it all. And now he had witnessed something he thought he would never see. And here he is in the ruins of the once great temple. The signs of bloodshed all around. The streets are forsaken. No longer do children play in those streets. The houses are empty. He looks at the smoke rising from the temple where once he served, but it has all been taken away. a very short time, and he cries out, How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? You can almost feel the pain of it all. The psalmist's cry, it's a raw cry. It's a heartfelt cry. Here is a man who who really cared. He really cared. And that's why he dents himself as he does. But yet he recognized that only the Lord can give hope. And even in this hopeless situation, there was hope because the Lord was still there. Isaiah foresaw such Such a terrible lament. Turn with me over to the book of Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah 64, verse 10. Isaiah lived in the days of Hezekiah. He did not see the destruction of Babylon, but he foresaw the evil day that would come. And he said in verse 10, thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation, our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself from these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict this very sore? It's a similar cry. How long, O Lord? And Ezekiel, likewise, he makes a comment upon this day of destruction over in the book of Ezekiel chapter 22 and the verse number 30. Look at what Ezekiel says. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. I wonder about that, you know. I wonder about that. And I wonder what that actually means. Because there was a man among them making up the hedge, man who stood in the gap. And that was Jeremiah. It wasn't true that there was nobody. It wasn't true there was nobody. There was a man. And of course, Ezekiel too was a man who was taken out of Israel and taken into Babylon. And he was a man of God. And Daniel was a man of God too, and he was taken out. And so there were people. It wasn't true, there was no one. This man Asaph that we're studying here in Psalm 40, 79, he was there praying and lamenting. But it has to mean this. It wasn't that there was no one. It wasn't that there was no one. But the people as a whole were a prayerless people. The land had forsaken God. The people had forsaken God. They had turned away from men like Jeremiah. They persecuted Jeremiah. They threw him into the pit. He would have died had he not been rescued by Ebed Melech. And so the people They turned against the Lord. They were a prayerless people. And for that, judgment came upon them. God poured out his anger upon them. And that whole civilization came to an end. The destruction of Babylon was the end of a civilization. A cruel and bloody end to a civilization. Ancient war was unspeakably awful. Unspeakably awful. The accounts you read of the sacking of cities, the destruction of cities, the wholesale destruction by the sword, the great battering rams that took the walls down. There was no mercy shown. That was the fate of the people that were the Lord's people. But it was something that God himself permitted because it was righteous judgment. upon a prayerless and an unjust people. So that's the historic background and it is a solemn picture indeed. But let's just think of some applications for us here in the 21st century. Let's think about the defiling of the temple. The heathen come into the inheritance. The temple was defiled because the Gentiles, the pagan Gentiles, had swept and they had smashed down the altar. They had gone into the Holy of Holies where no one had ever gone except the high priest. And that was only once a year. And yet they went in and they destroyed it all. The heathen come into the inheritance. Of course, all of this took place against a background of Israel herself allowing the heathen to come in. Israel herself allowing idols to be reared up within the temple. Israel herself compromising with the pagan religions up around about. And God would not allow such a situation to continue. He would rather see the great temple destroyed than to have his name defiled. That's what the Lord was doing. You know, the same is true today. If we permit a situation where the gospel is not preached in our church, and if we allow for that and we stand for that, remember, we're here to preach the gospel, to preach Christ and Him crucified, to be true to the faith once delivered unto the saints. We permit a situation where the gospel will not be preached. God would rather see the place burned with fire. and to see his holy name desecrated. That's what this place was built for. We must remember that. It's a solemn thing to be custodians of the word of God. And so we must be faithful to that. You see, where there's false doctrine in the pulpit, sinful lifestyles in the pew, one will follow the other. Where God's word is not being taught, the people will not be directed. And so the church of God will be defiled. And we see examples of that around us. Places that once were faithful to the word of God, they are no longer faithful to the word of God. The gospel is displaced by social and political ideas. The word of God is dissected just like another piece of literature. The word of God is not treated as the actual literal word of God from Genesis to Revelation. It's seen as a collection of ideas, of thoughts, of concepts that we can even criticize. And so the word of God is treated in a way that it ought not to be treated. And when the church allows the world and the thoughts of the world and the ideas of the world and the criticisms of the world against Christianity to get into the church of God, into the church of Christ, the temple becomes defiled. But even where the church is evangelical, even where the church does claim to believe in the verbal inspiration of scripture, the atonement of Christ, the deity of Christ, the necessity of the new birth, even where the church upholds those things, the spirit of the world can still get into the inheritance of God because God's people can become prayerless and indifferent And there's a lack of fervency amongst the people of God. And the temple becomes defiled. In many respects, the story of the church is the battle to maintain the purity of the church. That's the story of the church, story of church history, the battle to maintain the purity of the church. And it will always be a battle. It will always be a struggle. There will always be challenges. But we must endeavor with all of our hearts to prevent the temple becoming defiled. And we're not talking about a literal building here. Literal building is not a temple. It's only bricks and mortar. The temple is the people. We are the bricks. We are the living stones. We allow sin in our own hearts. And let's face it, there's no heart that doesn't have sin. We know that's the case. We're deceivers if we think that's not the case. We're deceivers if we point the fingers at others as if we are holy and we are pure. We are not. That's why we must always pray, search me, oh God. We want to be as Robert Murray McShane described, as holy as it is possible for a sinner saved by grace to be. There's a judgment and a warning here. Not only do we see the defiling of the temple, but we also see a judgment here and a very serious judgment, a picture of God judging his people, the children of Abraham. They were not immune from facing the judgment of God. And in 1 Peter 4, 17, we are told, it's a text we must wonder at with great solemnity. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Judgment must begin at the house of God. And you read the Lord's words to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the book of Revelation. Remember those words to the seven churches in Asia Minor were the last inspired words to companies of God's people. Those people had heard words from John and they had heard words from Peter and they'd heard words from Paul and they had these letters. But now the close of the New Testament age was coming to an end and they were receiving their final letters. And those seven letters are so solemn. They are filled with warnings, and in many respects, those warnings preempt the future. And they take us right into the 21st century and our present age. Ephesus, because they had left their first love, they weren't loving the Lord as they should. The Lord would take the candlestick out of its place, remove the candlestick. The light would no longer shine. The spirit of God will no longer be there. The Lord said that their lukewarmness, they weren't cold, but neither were they hot. That lukewarmness which arose because they had made the gain of worldly prosperity their God and their idol. God said, that makes me sick. I'll spit you out of my mouth. That was to accompany of God's people. And he said to Ephesus, he said, you need to repent and do the first works. And he said to Leah to see it. You need to open the door when I'm knocking. Let me in. You see where the temple is neglected and they neglected the temple. They thought they were doing well. They thought, that we're in the right place. You see, when we think we're doing well, when we think we're in the right place, that's when we're all wrong because we're full of self-deception. We need the challenge and we need that cry to the Lord to help us go on and to restore us to the joy of our salvation. We need that. When we think we've made it, we have already experienced our fall. And so where the temple is neglected, where the spirit of the world enters, God's righteous judgment will follow. And so we have to think upon that. And then we see the value of prayer here. I think this is the great encouragement from Psalm 79. There's a solemn message, but there's the power of prayer. And there is the passion for the glory of God, because this is evident. Just look at how this man phrases his prayer. Help us, he says in verse nine, for the glory of thy name. This psalm is all about the glory of God. I want your name to be glorified. I'm looking around me and I don't see God's glory. I see that man has written his dreadful graffiti upon the glory of God. Restore this place. your own name's sick. He was concerned that God would be glorified. He said in verse 10, wherefore should the heathen say, where is thy God? The Babylonians, they're staring at you, Lord. They're saying, is this what the God of Israel has done to his people? Lord, let your name be great upon the earth and don't do it for us. own names sake. That passion for God's glory, that's the passion we need. We want to see God glorified? Do we just pay lip service to that or do we really want to see God glorified? Or are we more concerned about our own sensitivities? Are we more concerned about the glory of our name? Are we more concerned about getting a pat on the shoulder ourselves? Or is it the glory of God? is our driving force. God's glory is being detracted every day when man raises his fist of defiance against God and we see it everywhere and we see it in every place but let us pray that God would reveal himself that the heathen would say there is a God in the heavens he does whatsoever he has pleased. Everything God does is for his glory. If God is to send revival it will be for the glory of his name for nothing else and for No one else. We do not deserve anything from God. We do not deserve anything from the hand of God. We do not deserve one good thing from the hand of God. It is for the glory of God alone. And the psalmist is very clear about that. He said in verse nine, purge away our sins for thy name's sake. I'm not asking you to purge away our sins because we're praying, because we're repenting. Because we'll never pray enough, we'll never repent enough, we'll never confess enough. For your name's sake. Do it because you have promised. You've made a covenant with Abraham. For the sake of your promise, for your name's sake, take away our sins. Isn't it good we can come before the Lord tonight and we can say, Lord, wash away my sins. because you've told me in your word that if we confess our sins, you will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You will be faithful and just. It won't be because of our prayers. It'll be because of your faithfulness. We have a faithful God. We need a passion for the glory of God, and that will give us a passion for prayer. This psalm ends with tremendous hope This man has come through the lamenting stage, the praying stage, the crying stage, the confessing stage. And then he comes in verse 13. So we, thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations. He knew that there would be a witness right here in Jerusalem in the future. Didn't look very likely as he stood amidst these ruins. saw those broken down walls. He wouldn't live to see the return. He wouldn't live to see Ezra and Nehemiah. He wouldn't live to see those heady days when the temple would be re-erected once again. He didn't live to see all of that. But he had the faith to believe it would happen. We will show forth thy praise to all generations. You ultimately will never forsake your people. This man was one of the little group known as the Remnant. the remnant, just a little group of people who were left behind. Some of them were faithful. He was the remnant. And God would do a work because a man who belonged to the remnant in dark days would pray and would cry. God would come again. And that's the God that we have. You think of what the Lord said to that particular church, Sardis, in Revelation 3, to be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. The things that are ready to die, hold onto them. Hold onto them, don't let them go. Keep doing what you believe to be right before God. Hold onto what is good. Things that are ready to die, hold onto them. Never let them go. This man held on to the little that he had because he had lost so much. His people had lost so much, but yet he had not lost the Lord. He was in fellowship with the Lord. We are the sheep of your pasture. We're the Lord's flock. We can rejoice in all of that. We can face spiritual decay honestly. We should lament boldly. but we can pray fervently and we can look to the God who never leaves. The God of the revival and restoration. This is the God that we have. In these days, let's pray for revival. God will revive his work. Revive thy work, O Lord. May the Lord bless these thoughts to your heart and to your soul this evening.