Summary
A psalm for the day after a catastrophe. The temple is defiled, the city is rubble, the bodies of the saints are unburied and the neighbours are laughing. Asaph does not sing about a private grievance: the wrong is done to God’s inheritance, and the plea is grounded there.
So the petitions run: remember not our former iniquities; help us for the glory of thy name; let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. The prayer against the nations is a prayer that the blood of God’s servants be publicly required — the cry John hears under the altar in the Revelation. It ends in a vow: we, thy people and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thee thanks to all generations.
Outline
The temple made unclean, Jerusalem in heaps, the saints unburied, and the neighbours’ scorn.
Remember not former iniquities; let mercy come speedily; purge our sins for thy name’s sake; let the blood of thy servants be required, and the reproach returned.
We thy people, the sheep of thy pasture, will thank thee for ever and show forth thy praise to all generations.
Stanza divisions provisional — to be conformed to the Book of Psalms for Worship. References NASB.