Pour out your wrath upon the nations that have not known you, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your name.
All Commentaries on Psalms 79:6 Go To Psalms 79
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
9. But that which he addeth, "Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations which have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name" (ver. 6); this too is a prophecy, not a wish. Not in the imprecation of malevolence are these words spoken, but foreseen by the Spirit they are predicted: just as in the case of Judas the traitor, the evil things which were to befall him have been so prophesied as if they were wished. For in like manner as the prophet doth not command Christ, though in the imperative mood he giveth utterance to what he saith, "Gird Thou Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty: in Thy beauty and in Thy goodliness, both go on, and prosperously proceed, and reign:" so he doth not wish, but doth prophesy, who saith, "Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations which have not known Thee." Which in his usual way he repeateth, saying, "And upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name." For nations have been repeated in kingdoms: and that they have not known Him, hath been repeated in this, that they have not called upon His name. How then must be understood, what the Lord saith in the Gospel concerning stripes, "the many and the few"? if greater the anger of God is against the nations, which have not known the Lord? For in this which he saith, "Pour forth Thine anger," with this word he hath clearly enough pointed out, how great anger he hath willed that there should be understood. Whence afterwards he saith, "Render to our neighbours seven times as much." Is it not that there is a great difference between servants, who, though they know not the will of their Lord, do yet call upon His name, and those that are aliens from the family of so great a Master, who are so ignorant of God, as that they do not even call upon God? For in place of Him they call upon either idols or demons, or any creature they choose; not the Creator, who is blessed for ever. For those persons, concerning whom he is prophesying this, he doth not even intimate to be so ignorant of the will of their God, as that still they fear the Lord Himself; but so ignorant of the Lord Himself, that they do not even call upon Him, and that they stand forth as enemies of His name. There is a great difference then between servants not knowing the will of their God, and yet living in His family and in His house, and enemies not only setting the will against knowing the Lord Himself, but also not calling upon His name, and even in His servants fighting against it.
