Psalm 79:12

Psalm 79:12

Pay back time!

Firstly, what does the Psalm writer mean when he asks to Lord to “pay back into the laps of our neighbours?”Obviously, it’s a phrase that was in common use and it probably means more than just dump something into the lap of a person who is sitting down! Look carefully and you will note that the noun is plural, so it encompasses all the neighbours, in fact the whole of Babylon is in view. It’s pay back time and the psalmist wants the Lord God to dump on the Babylonians seven times the contempt that they have hurled at Him! The word “lap” here more correctly means bosom or heart, so Asaph’s descendant is asking God to hit the Babylonians where it hurts the most, in the very core of their culture and their empire, and to hit them so hard, they will never recover. He did, and they didn’t!

The significance of the number 7 is important here, it always signifies completeness, perfection, fulness. When 7 comes up, the job is done, nothing more can be added, it is finished. We tend to use numbers mathematically rather than symbolically. If there are 7 things then our minds need to know what numbers 1-6 are all about, so that we can calculate how 7 was arrived at. The Bible treats this number rather differently. There were days 1-6 in creation but day 7 was separate, it was the day of completion and fulfilment, all was done and nothing could be added. As God pointed out, everything was very good. 7 was a non-active day, totally different to all the factors that preceded it. It cannot be compared to them, neither is it a progression on what went before. There is no human, workable calculation that can achieve 7, it stands alone but it is the ultimate fulfilment of what preceded it. It is God’s number. That is why we are to remember the 7th day to keep it holy – for God – Shabbat. The year for letting the land rest was 7th year. There are so many examples but needless to say, our verse today is asking for the complete judgement of Babylon - and so it happened. 

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