No event in ancient Israel’s history was more devastating than the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. and the subsequent exile. It marked not just a national crisis but a religious one as well. As we read in Psalm 74, the people had thereby lost three principal symbols from their God: the land, the king, and the temple. When we readers of the Bible consider the exile, we usually do so from the clear perspective of the Former (e.g., 1–2 Kgs.) and Latter Prophets (e.g., Isa.; Jer.). We may wonder how there could be any legitimate view other than to see it as deserved divine judgment. But the Bible itself also embraces the human response, even one that expresses complaint and frustration to God (v. 5, cf. esp. Ps. 74), though without presuming the people stand in the right (vv. 8–9). Psalm 79 has …