A prayer for God's forgiveness and restoration and for his judgment on world powers that have defied and scorned him.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-4
st. 2 = vv. 5-7
st. 3 = vv. 8-9
st. 4 = vv. 10-13

Like Psalms 74 and 137, this song comes from the exile period. It is a community lament in which Israel pleads with God to turn his anger from Israel to the kingdoms that have treated her cruelly and shown utter contempt for the LORD (st. 1-2). Those nations have devastated God's kingdom ("heritage," st. 1), and God's people now beg for forgiveness and for deliverance that will return glory to God's name (st. 3). In sympathy with the psalmist we sing, "Show the nations that you avenge the blood of your people, O God; save us, and we will praise you forever" (st. 4). The versification (altered) is from the 1912 Psalter. Another segment of Psalm 79 is at 254.

Liturgical Use:
Worship services focusing on the Jewish exile or on solidarity with Christians who suffer persecution or are refugees.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Set to a German chorale text, "O mein Jesu, ich muss sterben" (O my Jesus, I must die), O MEIN JESU was published in Geistliche Volkslieder (1850). Paul G. Bunjes (b. Frankenmuth, MI, 1914) composed the harmonization for Lutheran Worship (1982). O MEIN JESU is in rounded bar form (AABA') with identical rhythms in its four musical lines. The music is well suited to part singing and bears a stately tempo.

A graduate of Valparaiso (IN) University, Bunjes also earned a Ph.D. in music from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. He was an elementary school teacher and administrator for fifteen years and since 1951 has served on the faculty of Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois. Bunjes is noted as an organ-building consultant. He served as musical editor of Lutheran Worship (1982) and prepared many harmonizations for that hymnal, using his own name as well as two pseudonyms, Wilhelm Quampen and George Leonard.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook