C. Prayers for Restoration From National Distress and Defeat
(Pss 14, 44, 53, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 90, 108, 126, 129, 137)
Of these songs for national restoration, Pss 74, 79, 137, and probably 126 spring demonstrably from the disasters associated with the fall of Jerusalem (586 b.c.) and the Babylonian exile. Talk of the destruction of the city and the (Solomonic) temple (74:3-8; 79:1-3) and of forced march and harassment in Babylon (137:1-4) indicates this setting or later, as most likely does note of a specific return of captives to Zion (126:1). At first glance Pss 44, 60, 80, and 85 would seem to register catastrophe of sufficient proportions to indicate the Exile also, but the evidence is not conclusive. Other deportations, north and south, were known before the Babylonian exile (cf. Am 1:6, 9) so that such notes in themselves do not fix the date of the distress laid before God.
More important, these prayers for national restoration have been preserved in the Psalter for the edification of the saints long after the specific historical setting that prompted them in the first place. They now serve as means by which the defeated, the oppressed, and the displaced of all times and places lay bare their souls before God, their only hope.
These tep̠illôt̠ share the components common to the other “prayer songs” (see the more extensive discussion in Ps. 0:6). Affirmations of faith and rationale for the petitions (noted by “for” or “because,” e.g., 44:26) provide theological foundation for the prayers. In these times of national distress, the history of God’s saving deeds among his people seemed particularly important, usually standing starkly over against the present, urgent need (e.g., 44:1-3, 9-16). The Exodus and God’s conquests of his creation are recalled as evidence of his ability to do the impossible (74:13-17; 80:8-12). Yahweh rescued his people through the judges (83:9-13; cf. Jdg 4)—“Do it again!” rings the prayer (83:9). In Ps 80:8-18, a “vine” metaphor expresses both God’s historic care for his people and the present calamity (cf. Isa 5:1-7; Eze 19:10-14). The very language of self-description in these prayers calls forcefully to mind Yahweh’s historic, loving relationship with the congregation: “your people” (60:3; 79:13), “your dove” (74:19), “your afflicted people” (74:19), “those you cherish” (83:3), “the sheep of your pasture” (74:1; 79:13).
Faced with national defeat, God’s people see more clearly what they have known all along, that human beings for all their strength are frail at best, especially when set beside the terror of God and the magnitude of their own need (90:7-12). These prayers set aside hope in human beings as futile in these darkest hours of life (60:9-11; 108:10-13). Only trust in Yahweh, the King who alone brings victory, avails (44:4-8; 60:6-8, 12; 74:12-17; 108:7-9, 13). Perhaps most eloquently put, from the very beginning God alone has been their very dwelling place (90:1-2), their home and rest and security.
In these prayers the entire nation stands at risk or in collapse. Surrounded or under attack (60:10-11; 80:14-18; 83:2-8); suffering destructive murderous invasion (79:1-4), the brunt of animosity against Zion (129:5); the land itself torn and shaken (60:2), the people defeated, disgraced, plundered, scattered, and sold into slavery (44:9-16), the people cry to God. The enemies are not only Judah’s or Israel’s but God’s as well (83:3, 5), even when the catastrophe is construed as judgment (44:9-10; 60:1; 79:5). The entire history of the people of God found them often under attack (129:1-3), able to appropriate these descriptions of disaster to recount their own siege situation under succeeding tyrants to the very present.
Not only national collapse but collective disillusionment finds solace here. Dreams turned sour when the prophets' grand promises failed to materialize upon return from the Exile and when euphoria from first setting foot in the Holy Land again subsided. These also threatened the very life of the people of God as surely as military attack and called for restoration (126:1-6). The memory of unspeakable anguish suffered and the lingering need for redress adequate to the crimes endured finds prayer expression in these songs as well (137).
In these desperate situations the psalmists call God to act, using general pleas similar to those in the other “prayer songs”—“Awake!” (44:23; 80:1), “See!” (83:2), “Redeem us!” (44:26), “Save us!” (60:5; 80:2; 108:6), for example. Others uniquely arise from these national disasters, calling for regard for the covenant, which promised not only judgment but also restoration (74:20), for remembrance of the people Yahweh himself had historically purchased (74:2). “Pick your way through these everlasting ruins” calls God as dramatically as one can imagine to enter inch by inch into the terrible plight of his people (74:3). They call for attention to international implications of God’s destruction and/or restoration of his people, the fools' mockery of God himself (74:18, 22), the culpability of other nations (79:6), and potential for Yahweh’s unveiling his glory and sovereignty over all the earth in the affairs of his people as a nation (83:18; 108:5).
These prayers share the ambiguity of the other tep̠illôt̠ in their attempts to discern whether and how the defeat they now endure is the judgment of God for their sin, as the historic covenant would indicate (Dt 28). This of course was the major theological problem raised by the national destruction, exile, and the prospects of those disasters. First and Second Kings recount the nation’s history to the Exile and explain that national disaster as judgment for Israel and Judah’s idolatry (2Ki 17; 21:10-15), a conviction preached continually by Jeremiah (e.g., Jer 25, 26). The ambiguity surfaces clearly in a prayer like Ps 44, where the calamities are attributed to God’s actions (44:9-16) even though innocence of wrongdoing worthy of such judgment is claimed (44:17-22). Whose sins account for the tragedy is the question—ours (79:9) or our fathers' (79:8).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ penetrates this ambiguity with the good news that God is “for us” no matter what our circumstances. This confidence stands on God’s saving revelation of his love in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Paul dramatically demonstrates this by quoting Ps 44:22 (Ro 8:36) from the very prayer in which the problem seems most obvious and then declaring that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (as demonstrated unambiguously in Jesus!) (Ro 8:37; cf. 8:31-39).