Single lesson
Psalm 79: A Prayer for Deliverance
Psalms 79:1–13
Psalm 79 is a prayer spoken to God after great loss. Students will trace who is speaking, what images the psalm uses, and how the prayer moves from grief and need towards praise.
Before you teach
In this psalm, the speaker describes nations entering God’s inheritance, defiling the holy temple, and leaving Jerusalem ruined. The prayer speaks of death, shame, God’s anger, a plea for mercy, and a closing promise of thanks and praise from God’s people.
Students will identify the speaker, key images, and the movement of Psalm 79 from lament and confession to requests for help and a closing statement of praise.
Welcome: What kind of prayer is this?
5 minExplain that Psalm 79 is a prayer addressed to God. Invite students to listen for the speaker, strong images, and changes in tone. Tell them this psalm contains grief about destruction and death, so the class will handle it carefully by observing the words of the passage and how the prayer is shaped.
Psalms 79:1, Psalms 79:5, Psalms 79:13
Read and explain: Ruin, shame, and the question ‘How long?’
10 minRead verses 1 to 5 aloud. Note who is being addressed: ‘God’ and ‘Yahweh’. List the early images from the psalm: God’s inheritance entered by nations, the holy temple defiled, Jerusalem in heaps, blood shed, and neighbours mocking. Then notice the turning question in verse 5: ‘How long?’ and the picture of jealousy burning like fire.
Psalms 79:1, Psalms 79:2, Psalms 79:3, Psalms 79:4, Psalms 79:5
Discuss: What does the prayer ask God to do?
10 minRead verses 6 to 12. Ask students to sort the requests into two groups: requests about judgement on nations and requests for mercy towards God’s people. Point out the prayer for tender mercies, help, deliverance, forgiveness, and preservation, alongside requests that God answer reproach and bloodshed. Keep the focus on what the psalm says, not on acting out violence.
Psalms 79:6, Psalms 79:7, Psalms 79:8, Psalms 79:9, Psalms 79:10, Psalms 79:11, Psalms 79:12
Make and respond: Prayer movement image card
10 minStudents create a folded card with three labelled panels: grief, request, praise. In each panel, they add one phrase or image from the psalm and a simple drawing or colour choice that matches the wording. Encourage careful choices such as ruined city, pleading hands, or sheep of your pasture. Then students briefly explain how the prayer moves across the three panels.
Psalms 79:1, Psalms 79:8, Psalms 79:9, Psalms 79:13
Closing: From need to praise
5 minRead verse 13 again. Ask students to say in one sentence how the ending connects with the earlier verses. Summarise that the psalm begins in disaster, speaks honestly about sin and need, asks God for help and justice, and ends by naming God’s people as his flock who will give thanks and praise.
Psalms 79:8, Psalms 79:9, Psalms 79:13
Questions to explore
Who is speaking in this psalm, and how does the ending help you identify them?
Look for words such as ‘we’, ‘your people’, and ‘sheep of your pasture’ to identify the speakers in relation to God.
Psalms 79:4, Psalms 79:13
Which images in the opening verses show the seriousness of the disaster?
Use the pictures of the temple, Jerusalem, unburied bodies, blood, and the mocking of neighbours rather than giving a general answer.
Psalms 79:1, Psalms 79:2, Psalms 79:3, Psalms 79:4
Where does the prayer ask for mercy for the people themselves, not only judgement on others?
Find the verses that mention iniquities, tender mercies, help, deliverance, forgiveness, and preservation.
Psalms 79:8, Psalms 79:9, Psalms 79:11
Make, think or respond
Three-Panel Prayer Movement Card
What you’ll need
- paper or card
- pencils
- coloured markers or crayons
- Bible text of Psalm 79:1–13
Try it together
- Fold one sheet into three panels and label them Grief, Request, and Praise.
- Choose one phrase from the psalm for each panel and copy it carefully.
- Add a simple image, symbol, or colour pattern that matches each phrase.
- Share with a partner how your three panels show the movement of the prayer.
This activity helps students see how Psalm 79 moves from lament over ruin, to requests for mercy and help, to a closing promise of thanks and praise.
Adapt for your group
- For younger or less confident readers, pre-select three verses to place in the panels: Psalms 79:1, Psalms 79:9, and Psalms 79:13.
- For older or more confident students, ask them to add a fourth note explaining how Psalms 79:8-9 changes the tone of the prayer by including confession and mercy.
An optional closing prayer
‘God of our salvation, help us speak honestly to you in times of grief and need. Teach us to ask for your mercy and to remember to give you thanks. Amen.’
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Psalms 79
1 God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
3 They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
5 How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
7 for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.
8 Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.
9 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.