Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.
All Commentaries on Psalms 79:3 Go To Psalms 79
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
2. "They have defiled Thy holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples." "They have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth" (ver. 2). "They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them" (ver. 3). If in this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection and Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it doth not occur to me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him. and even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even the Lord Himself saith, "I am not sent but to the sheep which have been lost of the house of Israel," the same are they that out of them are the sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed; the same do belong to the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin Mary who bore Christ: hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom, and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth: hence Symeon the old, and Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not: hence the other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God: hence that so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord:" among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized, welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common. Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles. Hence so many Churches of Judaea, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face, but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ's most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, "a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the evening dividing morsels;" that is, first as persecutor carrying off unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that are out of that people the inheritance of God. ...So then even at this time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out of that nation doth belong to the inheritance of God: not those concerning whom a little below he saith, "But the rest have been blinded." For thus he saith. "What then? That which Israel sought, this he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it: but the rest have been blinded." This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which God hath not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which hath not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the time of Titus the Emperor, "O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Thine inheritance," and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been foretold concerning the destruction of both the temple and city belonging to that people.
3. Furthermore herein we ought either to perceive those things which were done by other enemies, before Christ had come in the flesh: at that time when there were even the holy prophets, when the carrying away into Babylon took place, and that nation was grievously afflicted, and at the time when under Antiochus also the Maccabees, having endured horrible sufferings, were most gloriously crowned. Or certainly if after the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord the inheritance of God must be understood to be here spoken of; such things must be understood herein, as at the hands of worshippers of idols, and enemies of the name of Christ, His Church, in such a multitude of endured martyrs. ...This Church then, this inheritance of God, out of circumcision and uncircumcision hath been congregated, that is, out of the people of Israel, and out of the rest of the nations, by means of the Stone which the builders rejected, and which hath become for the Head of the corner, in which corner as it were two walls coming from different quarters were united. "For Himself is our peace, who hath made both one, that He might build two into Himself, making peace, and might unite together both in one Body unto God: in which Body we are sons of God, "crying, Abba Father." Abba, on account of their language; Father, on account of ours. For Abba is the same as Father. ...
4. But now in that which followeth, "they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples;" even the Church herself is rightly understood under this name, even the free Jerusalem our mother, concerning whom hath been written, "many more are the sons of the forsaken, than of her that hath the husband." The expression, "for a keeping of apples," I think must be understood of the desertion which the wasting of persecution hath effected: that is, like a keeping of apples; for the keeping of apples is abandoned, when the apples have passed away. And certes when through the persecuting Gentiles the Church seemed to be forsaken, unto the celestial table, like as it were many and exceeding sweet apples from the garden of the Lord, the spirits of the martyrs did pass away.
