"O GOD, the pagans have invaded YOUR inheritance; they have defiled YOUR holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have given YOUR servants' corpses to the birds, and the flesh of YOUR saints, to the beasts of the earth.
They have poured out the blood of YOUR faithful, like water around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
Mocked and reviled by those around us, we are scorned by our neighbors.
How long will this last, O YAHWEH? Will YOU be angry forever? Will YOUR wrath always burn to avenge YOUR rights?
Pour out YOUR anger on the nations that do not acknowledge YOU; on the kingdoms that do not call on YOUR name.
For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his homeland.
Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers.
Let YOUR compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.
Help us, GOD, our savior, for the glory of YOUR name; forgive us, for the sake of YOUR name."
- Psalm 79:1-9
(This psalm almost certainly refers to the fall of Jerusalem in the year 586 B.C. There is a confession of guilt--the guilt of an earlier generation. It is interesting that this ingredient should enter the solution of the problem of suffering: Has this man sinned--or his parents? And, indeed, we may blame our ancestors, for some of our condition, so long as we realize that we may, and do, contribute to the unhappiness of our children. We are the context into which they will be born, for better or for worse. But the psalmist evidently does not will to call GOD's attention to the sins of his own generation except in passing.)
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