Defiance in the Face of Despair: Psalm 79
In a landmark 4,200th episode of Day1, Rabbi Yael Splansky of Holy Blossom Temple and Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church join host Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime for an interfaith reflection on Psalm 79. This milestone episode is especially significant as Rabbi Splansky is the very first Jewish voice to be featured in Day1’s 80-year history. Together, they explore how ancient lament can be transformed into song and how faith responds to devastation with both defiance and hope.
Rabbi Splansky draws on the medieval Jewish commentator Rashi, who taught that Psalm 79, though filled with grief, is ultimately a song of survival and resilience. Rev. Dr. Byassee complements this with a Christian perspective, highlighting eschatological hope and the vision of nations gathering to worship in peace. Their dialogue reminds us that interfaith exchange deepens understanding and nurtures shared hope.
Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
Jason and Yael, we have together dove into Psalm 79. Just what would be, for listeners who are looking to take something from this text, what do you hear top of mind? What did you hear when you went into this text today?
Rabbi Yael Splansky
I'll go back to Rashi's teaching, which I heard as a challenge. Which is to turn a lament into a song, or to say this lament is a song. I'm not going to even acknowledge it as a lament. But, of course, every verse is so heavy and so hard and so harsh.
But to say I'm going to set the notes and I'm going to sing it out. And it's a bit of an act of defiance, I would say—spiritual defiance. And it takes a very faithful person to be able to do that, to rise up out of a hard time and sing a song.
Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee
I'm just so struck by the opening verses of, you know, the temple is defiled, Jerusalem in ruins, your servants are corpses, their blood poured out. I mean, it's just rough, as Yael is saying. And I guess I find myself trying to also tilt the Psalm. And I think Rashi's way of doing is amazing, by saying, okay, the nations have come into your inheritance, we do think the nations will come into the temple.
Not to ransack the place or to bring death, but to bring gifts and to worship and to become a new people together. So I guess that's where I see a kind of eschatological hope that I don't know, and who cares whether the author of Psalm 79 had that in mind, but the whole of a biblical faith does have that in mind.
Rabbi Yael Splansky
I just want to offer a word of clarification because I would hate to hurt anyone who's listening. I may not have said it sensitively enough. This is not denial—there's a very big difference between denial and defiance.
We're not pretending that the horrors are not horrible, we're not denying the fact that people have been hurt and are suffering. That's real. But to act in defiance of all that pain, to say I'm going to lift myself up and face the future nevertheless—that's the powerful message that I see in this Psalm.
Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee
Hmm. That's a good word.
Psalm 79 is a raw text of devastation, yet Rashi’s teaching reminds us that lament can become song. Rabbi Splansky calls this act “spiritual defiance”—a refusal to let despair have the final word. Rev. Dr. Byassee adds a vision of eschatological hope, where the nations gather not to destroy but to bring gifts in worship.
Reflect on these questions:
- Where in your life might you need to turn lament into song?
- How does spiritual defiance, not denial, but defiance, help us endure and grow in faith?
- What practices of hope can we cultivate to remind us that despair never has the last word?
Explore Rabbi Yael Splansky and Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee’s full reflections from episode 4200 >>>
