God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!
Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth.
You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 1. O God! why hast thou east us off…
1. O God! why hast thou east us off for ever? If this complaint was written when the people were captives in Babylon, although Jeremiah had assigned the 70th year of their captivity as the period of their deliverance, it is not wonderful that waiting so long was to them a very bitter affliction, that they daily groaned under it, and that so protracted a period seemed to them like an eternity. As to those who were persecuted by the cruelty of Antiochus, they might, not without reason, complain of the wrath of God being perpetual, from their want of information as to any definite time when this persecution would terminate; and especially when they saw the cruelty of their enemies daily increasing without any hope of relief, and that their condition was constantly proceeding from bad to worse. Having been before this greatly reduced by the many disastrous wars, which their neighbors one after another had waged against them, they were now brought almost to the brink of utter destruction. It is to be observed, that the faithful, when persecuted by the heathen nations, lifted up their eyes to God, as if all the evils which they suffered had been inflicted by his hand alone. They were convinced, that had not God been angry with them, the heathen nations would not have been permitted to take such license in injuring them. Being persuaded, then, that they were not encountering merely the opposition of flesh and blood, but that they were afflicted by the just judgment of God, they direct their thoughts to the true cause of all their calamities, which was, that God, under whose favor they had formerly lived prosperous and happy, had cast them off, and deigned no longer to account them as his flock. The verb זנה, zanach, signifies to reject and detest, and sometimes also to withdraw one’s self to a distance. It is of no great moment in which of these senses it is here taken. We may consider the amount of what is stated as simply this, that whenever we are visited with adversities, these are not the arrows of fortune thrown against us at a venture, but the scourges or rods of God which, in his secret and mysterious providence, he prepares and makes use of for chastising our sins. Casting off and anger must here be referred to the apprehension or judgment of the flesh. Properly speaking, God is not angry with his elect, whose diseases he cures by afflictions as it were by medicines; but as the chastisements which we experience powerfully tend to produce in our minds apprehensions of his wrath, the Holy Spirit, by the word anger, admonishes the faithful to acknowledge their guilt in the presence of infinite purity. When, therefore, God executes his vengeance upon us, it is our duty seriously to reflect on what we have deserved, and to consider, that although He is not subject to the emotions of anger, yet it is not owing to us, who have grievously offended him by our sins, that his anger is not kindled against us. Moreover, his people, as a plea for obtaining mercy, flee to the remembrance of the covenant by which they were adopted to be his children. In calling themselves the flock of God’s pastures, they magnify his free choice of them by which they were separated from the Gentiles. This they express more plainly in the following verse.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23 The Church of God being oppressed by the tyranny,…
The Church of God being oppressed by the tyranny, either of the Babylonians or of Antiochus, prayeth to God by whose hand this yoke was laid upon them for their sins.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Psa 74:1 « Maschil of Asaph. » O God,…
Psa 74:1 « Maschil of Asaph. » O God, why hast thou cast [us] off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
A Psalm of Asaph] Concerning the Babylonish captivity, saith Kimchi; which either was here foretold by David’s Asaph, or bewailed by another of that name, who lived at that very time, when the Jews groaned under those grievous calamities.
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Ver. 1. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?] The greatness of their grief and diuturnity of their misery draw from them such expressions of discontent, as if they were doubtful of an utter dereliction.
Why doth thine anger (or thy nose) smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?] Anger is a fire, and in men or other creatures enraged a smoke seemeth to go out of their nostrils. Xenophon saith of the Thebans, when they are angry they breathe fire. This, then, is spoken of God after the manner of men.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Why hast thou cast us of for ever, so…
Why hast thou cast us of for ever, so as to leave us no visible hopes of restitution?
Thine anger; or, thy nose; a metaphor from a man who in a great rage sends forth fumes out of his nostrils.
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Against the sheep of thy pasture; against thy chosen and peculiar people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 18 This psalm is entitled Maschil - a psalm to…
This psalm is entitled Maschil - a psalm to give instruction, for it was penned in a day of affliction, which is intended for instruction; and this instruction in general it gives us, That when we are, upon any account, in distress, it is our wisdom and duty to apply to God by faithful and fervent prayer, and we shall not find it in vain to do so. Three things the people of God here complain of: -
I. The displeasure of God against them, as that which was the cause and bitterness of all their calamities. They look above the instruments of their trouble, who, they knew, could have no power against them unless it were given them from above, and keep their eye upon God, by whose determined counsel they were delivered up into the hands of wicked and unreasonable men. Observe the liberty they take to expostulate with God (Psa 74:1), we hope not too great a liberty, for Christ himself, upon the cross, cried out, My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So the church here, O God! why hast thou forsaken us for ever? Here they speak according to their present dark and melancholy apprehensions; for otherwise, Has God cast away his people? God forbid, Rom 11:1. The people of God must not think that because they are cast down they are therefore cast off, that because men cast them off therefore God does, and that because he seems to cast them off for a time therefore they are really cast off for ever: yet this expostulation intimates that they dreaded God's casting them off more than any thing, that they desired to be owned of him, whatever they suffered from men, and were desirous to know wherefore he thus contended with them: Why does thy anger smoke? that is, why does it rise up to such a degree that all about us take notice of it, and ask, What means the heat of this great anger? Deu 29:24. Compare Psa 74:20, where the anger of the Lord and his jealousy are said to smoke against sinners. Observe what they plead with God, now that they lay under the tokens and apprehensions of his wrath. 1. They plead their relation to him: "We are the sheep of thy pasture, the sheep wherewith thou hast been pleased to stock the pasture, thy peculiar people whom thou art pleased to set apart for thyself and design for thy own glory. That the wolves worry the sheep is not strange; but was ever any shepherd thus displeased at his own sheep? Remember, we are thy congregation (Psa 74:2), incorporated by thee and for thee, and devoted to thy praise; we are the rod, or tribe, of thy inheritance, whom thou hast been pleased to claim a special property in above other people (Deu 32:9), and from whom thou hast received the rents and issues of praise and worship more than from the neighbouring nations. Nay, a man's inheritance may lie at a great distance, but we are pleading for Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt, which has been the place of thy peculiar delight and residence, thy demesne and mansion." 2. They plead the great things God had done for them and the vast expense he had been at upon them: "It is thy congregation, which thou hast not only made with a word's speaking, but purchased of old by many miracles of mercy when they were first formed into a people; it is thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed when they were sold into servitude." God gave Egypt to ruin for their ransom, gave men for them, and people for their life, Isa 43:3, Isa 43:4. "Now, Lord, wilt thou now abandon a people that cost thee so dear, and has been so dear to thee?" And, if the redemption of Israel out of Egypt was an encouragement to hope that he would not cast them off, much more reason have we to hope that God will not cast off any whom Christ has redeemed with his own blood; but the people of his purchase shall be for ever the people of his praise. 3. They plead the calamitous state that they were in (Psa 74:3): "Lift up thy feet; that is, come with speed to repair the desolations that are made in thy sanctuary, which otherwise will be perpetual an irreparable." It has been sometimes said that the divine vengeance strikes with iron hands, yet it comes with leaden feet; and then those who wait for the day of the Lord, cry, Lord, lift up thy feet; exalt thy steps; magnify thyself in the outgoing of thy providence. When the desolations of the sanctuary have continued long we are tempted to think they will be perpetual; but it is a temptation; for God will avenge his own elect, will avenge them speedily, though he bear long with their oppressors and persecutors.
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II. They complain of the outrage and cruelty of their enemies, not so much, no, not at all, of what they had done to the prejudice of their secular interests; here are no complaints of the burning of their cities and ravaging of their country, but only what they had done against the sanctuary and the synagogue. The concerns of religion should lie nearer our hearts and affect us more than any worldly concern whatsoever. The desolation of God's house should grieve us more than the desolation of our own houses; for the matter is not great what becomes of us and our families in this world provided God's name may be sanctified, his kingdom may come, and his will be done.
1. The psalmist complains of the desolations of the sanctuary, as Daniel, Dan 9:17. The temple at Jerusalem was the dwelling-place of God's name, and therefore the sanctuary, or holy place, Psa 74:7. In this the enemies did wickedly (Psa 74:3), for they destroyed it in downright contempt of God and affront to him. (1.) They roared in the midst of God's congregations, Psa 74:4. There where God's faithful people attended on him with a humble reverent silence, or softly speaking, they roared in a riotous revelling manner, being elated with having made themselves masters of that sanctuary of which they had sometimes heard formidable things. (2.) They set up their ensigns for signs. The banners of their army they set up in the temple (Israel's strongest castle, as long as they kept closely to God) as trophies of their victory. There, where the signs of God's presence used to be, now the enemy had set up their ensigns. This daring defiance of God and his power touched his people in a tender part. (3.) They took a pride in destroying the carved work of the temple. As much as formerly men thought it an honour to lend a hand to the building of the temple, and he was thought famous that helped to fell timber for that work, so much now they valued themselves upon their agency in destroying it, Psa 74:5, Psa 74:6. Thus, as formerly those were celebrated for wise men that did service to religion, so now those are applauded as wits that help to run it down. Some read it thus: They show themselves, as one that lifts up axes on high in a thicket of trees, for so do they break down the carved work of the temple they make no more scruple of breaking down the rich wainscot of the temple than woodcutters do of hewing trees in the forest; such indignation have they at the sanctuary that the most curious carving that ever was seen is beaten down by the common soldiers without any regard had to it, either as a dedicated thing or as a piece of exquisite art. (4.) They set fire to it, and so violated or destroyed it to the ground, Psa 74:7. The Chaldeans burnt the house of God, that stately costly fabric, Ch2 36:19. And the Romans left not there one stone upon another (Mat 24:2), rasing it, rasing it, even to the foundations, till Zion, the holy mountain, was, by Titus Vespasian, ploughed as a field.
2. He complains of the desolations of the synagogues, or schools of the prophets, which, before the captivity, were in use, though much more afterwards. There God's word was read and expounded, and his name praised and called upon, without altars or sacrifices. These also they had a spite to (Psa 74:8): Let us destroy them together; not only the temple, but all the places of religious worship and the worshippers with them. Let us destroy them together; let them be consumed in the same flame. Pursuant to this impious resolve they burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land and laid them all waste. So great was their rage against religion that the religious houses, because religious, were all levelled with the ground, that God's worshippers might not glorify God, and edify one another, by meeting in solemn assemblies.
III. The great aggravation of all these calamities was that they had no prospect at all of relief, nor could they foresee an end of them (Psa 74:9): "We see our enemy's sign set up in the sanctuary, but we see not our signs, none of the tokens of God's presence, no hopeful indications of approaching deliverance. There is no more any prophet to tell us how long the trouble will last and when things concerning us shall have an end, that the hope of an issue at last may support us under our troubles." In the captivity in Babylon they had prophets, and had been told how long the captivity should continue, but the day was cloudy and dark (Eze 34:12), and they had not as yet the comfort of these gracious discoveries. God spoke once, yea, twice, good words and comfortable words, but they perceived them not. Observe, They do not complain, "We see not our armies; there are no men of war to command our forces, nor any to go forth with our hosts;" but, "no prophets, none to tell us how long." This puts them upon expostulating with God, as delaying, 1. To assert his honour (Psa 74:10): How long shall the adversary reproach and blaspheme thy name? In the desolations of the sanctuary our chief concern should be for the glory of God, that it may not be injured by the blasphemies of those who persecute his people for his sake, because they are his; and therefore our enquiry should be, not "How long shall we be troubled?" but "How long shall God be blasphemed?" 2. To exert his power (Psa 74:11): "Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and dost not stretch it out, to deliver thy people and destroy thy enemies? Pluck it out of thy bosom, and be not as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save, or will not," Jer 14:9. When the power of enemies is most threatening it is comfortable to fly to the power of God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–22 O God, why hast thou cast us off for…
O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?..... This the church supposed because of the prevalence, oppression, and triumph of the enemy, because of the hardships and afflictions she laboured under, and because of the hidings of the face of God from her, which unbelief interpreted of a casting off; see Psa 77:7 when in reality it was not so, only in appearance, and according to a wrong judgment made of things; for God never did nor never will cast off, nor cast away, his people whom he foreknew, Rom 11:1,
why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? the people of God are called "sheep", because subject to go astray, not only before conversion, but after; and because harmless and inoffensive in their lives and conversations; and because, though exposed to the insults and persecutions of men, and their butcheries and barbarities, and therefore called "the flock of slaughter", Zac 11:4, yet bear all patiently, as the sheep before her shearers is dumb; and because like sheep they are weak and timorous, unable to defend themselves; are clean, and so distinguished from dogs and swine; and are profitable, though not to God, yet to men, and one another; and like sheep are sociable, and love to be together: and they are called the sheep of the Lord's pasture; because he provides good pasture for them, leads them into it, and feeds them himself with Christ, the bread of life, the tree of life, and hidden manna; with covenant grace and promises, even the sure mercies of David; with discoveries of his love and grace, and with his word and ordinances; and yet these, when under afflictions and desertions, are ready to conclude that God is angry with them, yea, is very angry; that his anger burns against them, and his fierce wrath goes over them, signified by smoking; see Deu 19:20, alluding to men, who, when they are angry, become hot, as Kimchi observes, and their breath like smoke comes out of their nostrils.
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(k) Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 29. col. 984. (l) Vid. T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 56. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 This psalm, which so particularly describes the destruction of…
This psalm, which so particularly describes the destruction of Jerusalem, was probably written by another Asaph, who lived at the time of the captivity. He, in the name of the Jews, complains of the miseries they suffered, ver. 1-11. Encourages himself by recollecting the mighty works of God, ver. 12-17. Prays for deliverance, ver. 18-23. Maschil of Asaph Title of the psalm. Maschil of Asaph - Not composed by that famous Asaph, who flourished in David's time, but by some of his posterity, who is called by their father's name, as this psalm speaks of the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem, and of God's people by the Chaldeans.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 The psalmist complains of the desolations of the sanctuary,
PSALM LXXIV
The psalmist complains of the desolations of the sanctuary,
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and pleads with God, 1-3;
shows the insolence and wickedness of their enemies, 4-8;
prays to God to act for them as he had done for their fathers,
whom, by his miraculous power, he had saved, 9-17;
begs God to arise, and vindicate his own honour against his
enemies, and the enemies of his people, 18-23.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXIV
The title is, Maschil of Asaph, or, "A Psalm of Asaph, to give instruction." That this Psalm was written at a time when the temple was ruined, Jerusalem burnt, and the prophets scattered or destroyed, is evident. But it is not so clear whether the desolations here refer to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or to the desolation that took place under the Romans about the seventieth year of the Christian era. Calmet inclines to the former opinion; and supposes the Psalm to be a lamentation over the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 1. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?] Hast thou determined that we shall never more be thy people? Are we never to see an end to our calamities?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Psa 74:1. O God, why hast thou cast us…
Psa 74:1. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever — So as to leave us no visible hopes of restitution? Why doth thine anger smoke? — That is, why doth it rise to such a degree, that all about us take notice of it, and ask, What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Deu 29:24. Compare Psa 74:20, where the anger of the Lord and his jealousy are said to smoke against sinners. Against the sheep of thy pasture — Against thy chosen people.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–23 O God, why hast thou cast us off for…
O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? - Thou seemest to have cast us off forever, or finally. Compare Psa 44:9, note; Psa 13:1, note. “Why doth thine anger smoke.” See Deu 29:20. The presence of smoke indicates fire, and the language here is such as often occurs in the Scriptures, when anger or wrath is compared with fire. See Deu 32:22; Jer 15:14.
Against the sheep of thy pasture - Thy people, represented as a flock. See Psa 79:13; Psa 95:7. This increases the tenderness of the appeal. The wrath of God seemed to be enkindled against his own people, helpless and defenseless, who needed his care, and who might naturally look for it - as a flock needs the care of a shepherd, and as the care of the shepherd might be expected. He seemed to be angry with his people, and to have cast them off, when they had every reason to anticipate his protection.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 74
Psalms 74
Maschil of Asaph
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1 O God, why hast thou cast us off forever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old;
The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed;
This mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations;
Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.
5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up
Axes upon the thick trees.
6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once
With axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary,
They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together:
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs:
There is no more any prophet:
Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 O God how long shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever.
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand?
Pluck it out of thy bosom.
12 For God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces,
And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood:
Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord,
And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked:
Forget not the congregation of thy poor forever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant:
For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed:
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause:
Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies:
The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Superscription, Contents, and Composition.—On Maskil see Introduction, § 8, No. 3. This Psalm can be brought into connection with Asaph in one of two ways. It has been referred by some to one of the later members of this illustrious family of singers (Dathe, Rosenmueller, Hengstenberg); while Delitzsch, holding that it only bears the old Asaphitic stamp generally, would understand by the superscription: a poem after the manner of Asaph. For the attempt to gain credit for the opinion that it was composed by the famous cotemporary of David, on the ground that it contains a prophecy (Clauss, following the Rabbins and the ancient expositors), contradicts the words of the Text, and mistakes the historical situation manifest therein. The words of Psa_74:3; Psa_74:7-8, especially, allude to a destruction of the temple on Zion by fire already completed, preceded by a profanation (Psa_74:4), and accompanied by a plain description of the conduct of the enemy (Psa_74:5-6). We cannot, therefore assume an event earlier than the destruction by the Chaldeans in the year 588 recounted in 2Ch_36:19; Jer_52:13. To this the Psalm might be with great probability referred (De Wette, Köster, Maurer, Hengstenberg, Hupfeld). For the Church of the Second Temple did not experience injuries done to their sacred edifice, such as are here depicted, in the interruptions of building immediately after the return from the exile (Ewald). Neither did such a destruction appear in the outrages committed by the Persian general Bagoses (Ewald formerly), by which the temple was profaned (Josephus, Ant. Psa_11:7). Nor yet was such devastation suffered at the hands of the Syrian oppressors under Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 167 (Targum, Rudinger, Venema, Olshausen, Hitzig, Delitzsch) who also profaned the temple, but only burnt down the gates (1Ma_4:38; 2Ma_1:8; 2Ma_8:33). This result contributes so much the more to an historical solution, when it is taken into consideration that, the closely related 79th Psalm is most readily assigned to the Chaldean period, and also that the assumption of Maccabean Psalms is not only encumbered with grave difficulties of a general kind (compare besides Hassler, Comm. de Psalmis Maccabæis, 1827 and 1832, especially Ehrt, Abfassungszeit und Abschluss des Psalters 1869) but that also in the case before us there are distinct passages such as Psa_74:3 a, which are unfavorable to it, while others, such as Psa_74:4; Psa_74:8-9, admit of an explanation (see below) by which even the supposition of a later insertion of a Maccabæan Psalm in the Canon (Delitzsch) appears to be unnecessary. The points of agreement with Lam_2:2; Lam_2:7; Lam_2:9, may also be adduced in favor of a composition during the exile.
On account of the occurrence of many rare words the sense in numerous passages remained obscure to the ancient translators, and the interpretation of some of them doubtful to the modern expositors. The progress of thought, however, is in the main clear. From the lamentation over the anger of God expressed in the form of questions, (Psa_74:1) there arises (Psa_74:2) the prayer for the deliverance of the Church which passes over (Psa_74:3) into a picture (Psa_74:4-8), of the more particularly described devastations of the sacred places, and after a reiterated lamentation (Psa_74:9-10) over God’s long-continued noninterference (Psa_74:11), the Psalmist calls upon Him to punish his enemies. Then after an allusion to God’s continuing sovereignty, as attested by His mighty deeds in nature and history (Psa_74:12-17), the opposition to that government with its ruinous consequences (Psa_74:18-23), is used as a plea in urging God’s intervention for deliverance and for punishment.
Psa_74:1-2. Cast us off.—The use of the Præterite as distinguished from the imperfect of the following stich, is not to be overlooked. The action is first presented and then the permanent relations. The smoking of the nostrils [אַפְּךָ translated: thine anger in E. V.—J. F. M.] is a figurative expression for the manifestation of anger, Psa_18:9, like snorting, in Psa_80:5, after Deu_29:19. It is characteristic of the period of the Exile to term the Church of God, the sheep of His pasture (Psa_79:13; Psa_95:7; Psa_100:3; Jer_23:1). This appellation means more than that God is the Shepherd and the people His flock (Psa_80:2). It contains an allusion to the fact that God had given the faithful Canaan as a pasture land to this His people (Hos_13:6; Jer_25:36) and that the possession of this land was the question at issue. Allusion is made besides, in various ways, to the establishment and maintaining of the favored relations in which the people had stood to God since they were purchased (Exo_15:17) and redeemed (Exo_15:13; Psa_72:16; Psa_78:35) long before in the days of Moses (Psa_44:2). The prayer in Deu_9:26; Deu_9:29, that God would not reject His people, is also grounded upon this. The statement that God had redeemed His people from Egyptian bondage that they might be the “rod of His inheritance,” brings out the thought that everything which belongs or will belong to the people of God, His peculiar possession, must proceed from this stem or be ingrafted into it. Consequently the deliverance and preservation of the Church bear a part in the fulfilment of the destiny assigned her, and in the execution of God’s purpose in her establishment, and may be urged as a powerful plea in the prayer before us. This reference of the words which appears so suitable to the text, loses its force in some degree, if it is assumed that they imply merely that the unity of all the stems (Isa_63:17; Jer_10:16; Jer_51:19) constitutes the people of God’s inheritance (Kimchi, Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Olshausen, Hupfeld), or represents the whole people in its ethnic distinction from all other nations (Delitzsch) as God’s peculiar race (De Wette). These explanations are, however, more correct than that interpretation which, in the translation virga hereditatis (Vulgate), is not intended to express the idea of a sprouting main-stem but that of a measuring-rod, by which the shares of the possession or of the inheritance were meted out, and understands this metonymically for the inheritance itself (Luther, Calvin and others, Hengst.). For in Deu_32:9, and Eze_40:3, entirely different words appear.
Psa_74:3; Psa_74:8. Perpetual desolations are such as seem as if they might well remain forever desolate and therefore point to a destruction, not lasting (De Wette) nor complete (Gesenius in Lexicon, Böttcher) but so extensive, that it could not have taken place in the Maccabean age. If we follow another etymological explanation, this rare word would describe endless wickedness (Ewald) or incessant invasion by enemies (Hitzig) or boundless presumption (Sept. Vulg.). According to Psa_73:18, however, this is scarcely probable. As regards the sense it is unessential whether we read מֹועֵד written in the singular or plural form, and understand it to mean a festal season, or festal celebration, or festal gathering, or the place where such a gathering is made. For the shouting of the enemy creating confusion might be heard under all these circumstances, and the Temple also, which the context most readily suggests to us, (similarly Lam_2:6.) had several divisions and courts and is sometimes denoted by the plural number (compare Ps. 68:36). The best authorities, moreover, decide for the singular. [Alexander: “The word strictly means a meeting by mutual agreement or appointment, and is specially applied to the meeting between God and His people in the sanctuary, which was therefore designated in the law as the tent of meeting. The full sense, therefore, of the words here used is ‘in the midst of Thy people assembled at the appointed time and place to meet Thee.’ The exclusive local meaning put by some upon the words is quite gratuitous. The plural form which some assume (thine assemblies) varies the meaning only by suggesting the idea of repeated convocations, ‘in the midst of Thy people wherever (or, as often as) they meet Thee thus,’ but without at all conveying the idea of numerous or even of different places.”—J. F. M.] But in Psa_74:8 b this word stands in a different relation. There it is undoubtedly in the plural form and in the closest connection with אֵל And since burning is spoken of the sacred edifices alone must be intended. What are we to understand by the twofold addition “all” and “in the land?” The old translators have ingeniously assumed that synagogues are meant, and since Vitringa has made it clear (De Synagoga Vetere 1:2, 12) that these did not exist until after the Exile, many expositors have discovered in Psa_74:8, the surest proof that the Psalm was composed in the Maccabean period. But the synagogues are never denoted by the term here employed, and with this agrees the fact that the primary idea of that term is not that of an assembly of men, but according to Exo_25:22; Exo_29:42; Exo_36:6, that of a meeting of God with His people, and it is applied only to the one sacred place which God established,—at first to the Tabernacle, and afterwards to the Temple. This circumstance excites just doubts of the correctness of that explanation which makes this passage relate the devastation of the synagogues in the land as the houses of God—even if we have grounds for maintaining, against the doubt expressed by Hupfeld, their existence in the age of the Maccabees, as argued especially from Josephus (Wars, Psa_7:3; Psa_7:3), and Act_15:21. But the same fact decides against an allusion to the sacred places where God manifested Himself during the patriarchal age (J. D. Michaelis, Dathe, Clauss), or to the high places of the old Israelitish worship, which had possibly escaped the efforts at extermination undertaken by Josiah (Gesenius, De Wette, Maurer). And even if the plural can be allowed to refer to the several divisions of the Temple (The Rabbins) it is yet linguistically impossible that the other sacred places in the land could be united with it so as to make one collective term, as Hupfeld assumes. Just as inadmissible is the opinion of Böttcher, who supposes that the worshipping assemblies of the people are described, who perished, as it were, by the same flames which burnt down the Temple. The sentence can be most readily explained from the Israelitish conception, that in the destruction of the Temple the one sanctuary of the worshippers of the true God throughout the nation perished along with it (Hengstenberg). It is not to be denied, however, that this explanation is only an expedient to get rid of the embarrassment caused by the translation “all the places where God makes Himself known,” and effects a round-about interpretation of moëd in order to gain that end. All difficulty would be at an end, if we were permitted to regard the vexed sentence as a continuation of the words of the enemy. The Masoretic text, however, forbids this. The wording of the sentence opposes its interpretation in this sense (Muntinghe, Köster). But is the present text really the original one? We have reason to doubt it from the fact, that the Alex, version not merely does actually give the sentence as a continuation of the enemy’s words, but that the reading κατακαύσωμεν (let us burn down) appeared first as a correction of Jerome instead of the original καταπαύσωμεν (let us bring to silence or make to cease). In it also first appeared the translation ἑορτἁς. If, now, we assume that the LXX have read שבתו we could then make an improvement by annexing ו to the following word and reading שַׁבָּת וְכָל־. This would afford the most suitable sense: let us destroy them all at once, the Sabbath and all the sacred feasts in the land. In this way also the form נִינָם with the suffix of the third person plural would be fully explained and the closest connection restored. Compare Ehrt., p. 18 f., where reference is also made to Lam_2:6 f. Isa_1:13 f. 2Ch_8:13.
[Upon this emendation of the text proposed by the author, I would remark. 1. That the words which we obtain by adopting it are scarcely suitable in the mouths of the invaders. The Chaldeans were not urged at all by religious motives in their attacks, nor was there any evidence of religious animosity in their triumph. They would agree much better with the spirit of the Syrian invaders, but Dr. Moll is opposed to the view which would make these the subject of the verse. 2. The word שבתו seems an unlikely one for the LXX to have assumed. It varies very greatly from the word which has come down to us. The radicals, besides, cannot give a causative sense. The Kal is never transitive; the Piel does not exist. I would suggest that the LXX had in view the form הדמו. This necessitates the change of only one radical and gives the causative sense. The meaning naturally suggested by the words of the verse, seems after all, to be the best. All the others, that of Hengstenberg not excepted, are forced and unnatural. From other considerations, also, we would be inclined to hold the early existence of places of public meeting for God’s worship “throughout the land.” It would be the experience of God’s people then, as it is now, that religion must utterly decay without such privileges and exercises.—J. F. M.]
Psa_74:4-11. Signs for signs.—E. V.: Ensigns for signs]. If we were to assign the composition of the Psalm to the Maccabean period, we would have to refer these words to the profanations of the Temple, (1Ma_1:45 f.). But the expression itself decides against this. It is not to be generalized so far as into “insolent deeds and practices” (Hengst.); but it is also incorrect to make it describe special religious monuments, as idol-images (Luther) which were put in the place of the Israelitish Cherubim, Psa_74:9 (Ewald). Still less proper is the supposition of military ensigns (Jerome, Calvin and others), and altogether unsuitable is that of the oracles (Kimchi, J. H. Michaelis) which Nebuchadnezzar employed (Eze_21:26). The signs are, in general, tokens of supremacy, at the same time political and religious (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Venema, Hupfeld), which might even consist of regulations and ceremonies, for the word before us is in Exo_31:13 employed expressly of the Sabbath and of circumcision. This word also in Psa_74:9, suits the Chaldean period. We must, however, assume that the author was one of those who remained behind in the desolated, prophetless land, and that he could not hear the prophetic strains of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and could therefore gain no answer from revelation to the anxious question: Until when? or, how long? Only upon this hypothesis can the expression in Psa_74:9 b, which otherwise must be connected with 1Ma_4:6; 1Ma_9:27; 1Ma_14:41, be connected with the Chaldean period. For the complaint that there is no prophet, is to be distinguished from the complaint that God gives the prophets, no revelation. But the destruction by fire mentioned in Psa_74:7, alludes decisively to this period, which we can neither restrict to the shattered carvings (Hesse, De Psalmis Maccabæis 1837) nor interpret as a hyperbolical expression (De Jong, Disquisitio de Pss. Macc. 1857), nor confine to the buildings and porticoes which surrounded the Temple itself (Rudinger, Olshausen and others). The Sanctuary itself was made level with the ground and thereby desecrated. God’s restraining Himself from interference in the course of human affairs (Lam_2:8) is represented in Psa_74:11 as the drawing back of the hand into the bosom (Exo_4:7). Hence the pregnant expression of the following stich. [I subjoin the correct translation of this verse, as given by Dr. Alexander. It is the same as that of Moll, except that the ellipses are supplied: Why wilt Thou withdraw Thy hand and Thy right hand? From the midst of Thy bosom (draw it) and consume (them). The sense of Psa_74:5 also, and its relation to Psa_74:6, have been completely misunderstood by our translators. The following rendering seems to be the most correct. It is substantially that given by most of the recent commentators. Our version follows Calvin. “He” (the subject of Psa_74:3) “exhibits himself as one who raises axes on high in the thicket of the woods, and now,” etc. Moll prefers to take the first verb impersonally: “An exhibition is made,” etc. Perowne’s translation is rather free: “He seems as.” etc.—J.F.M.]
Psa_74:12-14. In the midst of the earth.—This is equivalent to saying, on the theatre of the world (Exo_8:18; Psa_77:15), not in a corner (Isa_45:19) at the ends of the earth (Psa_65:8). To restrict it to the thought: in the land (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, De Wette, Hengst.), is inadmissible, since allusion is made first to the passage through the Red Sea, next to the displays of God’s power in Egypt, and then to the wonders wrought in the march through the wilderness (Exo_17:6; Num_20:8; Jos_3:13 f.). The sea-monsters, whose carcasses become a prey to the wild beasts of the desert, are emblems of Egypt (Isa_51:9; Eze_29:3). Instead of the wild beasts of the desert (Psa_72:9), which are repeatedly used to represent a nation (Joe_1:6; Zep_2:14; Pro_30:25), many expositors assume, against the usage of the word, that human inhabitants of deserts are referred to; either Ethiopians (LXX., Aben Ezra, Ewald) or Ichthyophagites (Bochart, Clericus, Muntinghe), or the Israelites in the wilderness (Kimchi, Calvin, Geier, and others).
Psa_74:15-17. The ever-flowing streams [E. V.: mighty rivers]—that is, those streams which do not dry up in summer, do not denote numerous brooks which empty into the Jordan (Kimchi), but. describe graphically the fulness of that river, and at the same time generalize the idea, since the Jordan is intended, though not mentioned. The light-giving [E. V., light], Psa_74:16, may either denote the general, employed in connection with the special, which is here the sun, as in Psa_148:9, trees and cedars (Hupfeld), or mean the moon as the light of the night (Hitzig, Delitzsch). [The former is to be preferred. As analogous examples Hupfeld cites the expressions, Judah and Jerusalem, Ephraim and Samaria, “Eλληνές τε καὶ A̓θηναῖοι. Alexander: Light and sun are related as the genus and the species, like hand and right hand in Psa_74:11, signs and prophet in Psa_74:9.—J. F. M.]. The establishment of the bounds of the earth [E. V., Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, Psa_74:17] brings into view the ordinances of nature, if we may understand the limits imposed upon the sea (Gen_1:9) which it must not pass (Job_38:8 f.; Jer_5:22; Pro_8:29) to be meant; or the natural limits which serve for the boundaries of nations (Deu_32:8; Act_17:26).
Psa_74:19. To the band [Germ.: dem Haufen, E. V.: To the multitude of the wicked].—We employ this rendering on account of its perspicuity, and because it expresses most simply the force of the word, which first, describes the gathering together of the enemy and then the gathering together of the oppressed people of God, and indeed in both connections in allusion to the liveliness of their movements. [Heb. חַיָּה We have no single English word which conveys all these ideas.—Tr.] The expression was possibly suggested by the appellation turtle or dove, applied to the Church (Psa_68:14), and is employed as in Psa_68:11. [This is another of the many passages in this Psalm about which there has been much dispute. But much discussion would be saved if the attempts at solution were to be kept within the limits imposed by the following conditions, which seem to be necessary. First, the word חָיָּה is used in both members of the verse in the manner mentioned above. We must credit the author of the Psalm with such good taste as would him to use the same word in different senses in such a relation. This would lead us to discard such translations as that of Perowne, who in the first member renders “beast” and in the second, “life.” Hengstenberg’s attempt in his rendering of הַיָּת נֶפֶשׁ “greed-life,” only makes the first member obscure. Alexander translates both “herd,” and is certainly correct, as he retains the idea of animal and makes it collective. But the rendering “band” is more directly applicable to human beings (comp. 2Sa_23:11; 2Sa_23:13), though it is less literal. The English Version fails only in the want of a felicitous term. Secondly, We must translate חית in the first member as a construct. This has been disregarded or disputed1 by many, but only by unwarrantable violation of the laws of the language. The most natural way is to connect it with נפשׁ. This Hupfeld opposes, but his objection, that nephesh never occurs as a circumlocution for greedy, is of no force; if we can only gain for it the meaning: greed, the common construction with the construct is quite admissible. This meaning is frequent. His other objection, that it would be against the accents, is of more weight, as l’hayyath has the disjunctive Tiphha Initial. But the necessities of the case force us to conclude that the accents are wrong. Hupfeld himself proposes a much more violent change, namely, to transpose the words and translate: Give not to rage the life, etc. Though the translation of Hengstenberg is grammatically right, his explanation of the first member of the verse is obscure. So far as I know Alexander is the only expositor who has given a rendering both correct and perspicuous. Our translators saw the necessity of rendering hayyath as a construct, and therefore supplied the words in italics. Dr. Moll has disregarded this. He translates: Give not to the band the life of Thy turtle-dove. I would offer the following rendering of the verse:
Give not to the blood-thirsty band the life of Thy turtle-dove,
The band of Thy meek sufferers forget not.—J. F. M.]
Psa_74:20-23. The Covenant might, as in Dan_11:28; Dan_11:30; comp. Psa_74:22, mean the covenant-people (Hitzig), but it is probably to be taken here in its usual application. That the darknesses, Psa_74:20 b, mean the hiding-places, 1Ma_1:53, to which the persecuted confessors fled and in which they were discovered and slain (1Ma_2:26 f.; 2Ma_6:11) is not necessarily contained in the expression. This is the more probable, since the following words appear to allude to Gen_6:11; Gen_6:13, which may be understood as describing the dark places of suffering which are to be found on earth, Psa_23:4; comp. Psa_88:8; Psa_143:3; Lam_3:6 (J. H. Michaelis, Hengst.). A lurking-place of robbers (Calvin, De Wette, et al.) is scarcely to be thought of. Neither is there any occasion to change the punctuation in order to gain the idea of an asylum (Ewald). [Ewald proposes to read מחשׂכי, thus forming a derivative, which is nowhere found, of חשׂך in its rare sense of preserving. He supposes that these asylums correspond to the מועדי of Psa_74:8 b. This alteration is marked by the characteristic ingenuity of Ewald and his characteristic disregard of authority. The explanation given by Moll is the one generally received.—J. F. M.].—The appended words in Psa_74:22 b: the whole day, describe the uninterrupted continuance of the reproaches. [The Eng. Vers. has: reproaches thee daily, which conveys the same idea of continuance. Comp. Pro_21:26.—J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. When men are weighed down by long-continued and severe sufferings, the thought is apt to occur to them that these may never come to an end. And when they perceive in them the traces of God’s wrath, the thought of its endless duration is wont to fill them with anguish. An inquiry into the cause of God’s dealings towards them, which seem fraught with such destruction, then naturally begins. But the character of this inquiry is determined by this: does it, as it were, accuse God and include reproaches against His government of the world? Or does it only lament that God restrains Himself from action? If the latter, does it arise more from human short-sightedness, impatience, faint-heartedness, and want of faith, than from a desire for release from God’s wrath, from a longing for manifestations of His compassion, in a word, from a yearning after holiness? Finally, do the questioning and lamenting end in uncertainty, doubt and despair? or does there arise from out of them a prayer full of faith in God’s mercy, and inspired by the hope of being heard?
2. There befall sometimes God’s Church on earth also, afflictions so severe that they seem to imperil its very existence. Then it is of vast moment to recall the relation between God and His people which He has Himself established, and to keep in mind their Divine election, their miraculous founding, and their preservation until the present moment, along with the part which they must ever play in the history of mankind. A prayer which gives all of these their due place, is both an evidence of faith and a means of strengthening it.
3. The enemies of God and of His Church may indeed destroy her outward sanctuaries, abolish her sacred seasons, forbid the assembling of the faithful, prevent and interrupt the service of God; but they cannot annul the covenant which God has ordained, nor prevent the outward restoration of the Church, when the day of her trial is over. So long, however, as danger, distress and persecution last, the tried ones must not give up their faith, but must, while the enemy continually revile their God, continually resort to Him in prayerful confession. Yet to them also may be afforded the consolation which is to be derived from the displays of God’s love and omnipotence, as discovered in His doings both in history and in nature. On the connection between the order of nature and the covenant of grace, compare Jer_23:21-25; Isa_54:10.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The Church’s seasons of distress as times of trial and awakening.—Injuries inflicted upon the Church from without are not so baleful as distractions within.—The persecuted yet victorious Church.—There is great consolation in the reflection that the faithful covenant-keeping God is at the same time the Almighty Lord of the world and the righteous Judge of all.—Nothing is yet lost while the Lord is our Shepherd and we are still the sheep of His pasture.—God’s grace the salvation of believers; sins unrepented of the destruction of men.—God remains still the Lord of the world, even when sacrilegious men are not willing that He should remain Lord in His own house—Many do not learn to value what they possess in God’s house and word until they are deprived of both.—The darker it is on earth, the more let us long that God would make it bright.—God may be angry even against His own people, but He does not cast them off forever.—There is ever before us an evil day of need, when it is not permitted us to hear God’s word; but it makes a vast difference whether we cannot hear or whether we will not hear.—Respect unto the covenant which God established with us [see Psa_74:20 in the original], to what it entitles us, and what it binds us to do.—The true cause of our misfortunes is the wrath of God against our sins; the ground of our confidence is the acts and tokens of mercy of the Covenant God.—God’s doings in nature and in history as warnings and as a ground of consolation.
Calvin: We know how difficult it is to rise above all doubts so as to continue free and joyful in prayer. Therefore the faithful recall to their recollection the memorials of the compassion and power of God, by which He has shown them in all ages that He is the King of His chosen people.
Starke: In seasons of persecution we are not to have so much regard to our enemies as to God, for without His permission they cannot injure a hair of our heads. 2Sa_16:10. The strongest pillars of consolation to support us in all tribulation, temptation, and despondency, are the blessings of God already bestowed, and the gracious assurance that at all times and in all places He will be present with His own (Isa_43:1-2).—Though all human help is often removed from the children of God, there yet remains to them this support, that they can always appeal to God for a just decision, which will assuredly not be a favorable one to their enemies. (Exo_22:23).—The enemies of the Church are also the enemies of God, who will know how to give His cause a glorious triumph at last (Isa_28:29; Act_9:4-5).—Those who pray in faith, bring their troubles before God, not as though He knew them not, but in reliance upon His truth and with the certain expectation, that He will fulfil His promises, (Psa_69:20).—If God did not spare His own temple and people when they stirred Him up to anger, we also need expect no better treatment, unless we repent sincerely of our sins, and amend our ways.—God employs both hands at once, when He would help those who trust in Him; the right to uphold the pious, the left to punish the ungodly.—In the sorest trials it is found to be a delightful source of consolation to contemplate God as our King.—We can surely cast ourselves upon the gracious covenant which God has made with us; for on His part it is an eternal one.—The present is not the first time that the pious have been loaded with the despite, abuse, and contempt of this world; thus has it been from the beginning until now. Why does it then seem strange to thee, dear soul, that thou must also endure the same? Mat_5:12.
Osiander: No tyrant is so mighty that God cannot bring him so low as that he will become a spoil and object of contempt even to those that are poor and despised.—Selnecker: He who possesses the true religion and remains firmly by it, enjoys the favor of God and may rejoice even if he has to lay down his life for it.—Renschel: Since God cannot allow His own glory to pass away, neither can He forsake His Church; the whole cause is His.—Frisch: As great and precious as are God’s mercy and the treasure of His word, so great and dreadful will be the punishments He will inflict, if men abuse His mercy and pay so little regard to His word.—Rieger: Here we are taught how, when the Church is in distress of any kind, believers should pour out their hearts before God and maintain their trust in his covenant.—Arndt: That is the season of the most severe chastisement and distress of soul, when there is no word of God or prophet in the land, as the enjoyment of His pure word is its greatest consolation, Jeremiah 15. This is not felt until God and the priceless treasures have departed.—Tholuck: The Psalmist prays that even in the deepest ignominy of his people, the eternal claims of that Omnipotence, which rules in history and prescribes to nature her laws, may be made known.—Richter (Hausbibel): Alas how unbelief is laying in ruins the edifices of our pious ancestors reared in faith! Yes, even the temple of the word of God itself! It is permitted us to remind God, how He has helped His people in former times, and plead before Him the innocence of His little band, their weakness and helplessness; and the honor of His own name and of the covenant of grace.—Guenther: Misfortune comes from God as chastisement, it is becoming then to inquire after the wherefore [See Psa_74:1.].—The children of God are the accusers, the wicked are the accused, God is the Judge.—Diedrich: God must often remove from us all external sources of comfort, in order that our spiritual sense may be quickened, to discern the power of His mercy even in death. When the visible is swept away from before us, His kingdom of grace will not long be out of reach, for only then shall it be really renewed, and that by these very means.—Taube: The sum of the consolation and support of God’s people is His gracious election and His gracious power. How much is comprised in these few words, My King of old! All these at once—the testimony to His almighty majesty, the testimony to His unchangeable faithfulness towards His people, the testimony to the believer’s certain experience of them all.—With God’s glory and in His cause are bound up the prosperity and salvation of His own.
[Henry: The concerns of religion should be nearer our hearts and affect us more than any worldly concern whatsoever.—The desolation of God’s house should grieve us more than the desolation of our own houses, for the matter is not great what comes of us and our families in this world, provided God’s name may be sanctified, His kingdom may come and His will be done.
Scott: The true Church is as pleasant and amiable to the Lord as a turtle-dove, though poor and despicable in the world’s estimation.
Barnes: The thought here is of a people dear to God, now timid and alarmed. It is the prayer of a people beloved by God that He will not deliver them into the hand of their enemies.—J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[1][Ewald considers חית to be a play on the word, so as to make it correspond to the same form in the second member. See his Gr., § 173 d. Böttcher (Gr., § 832 a) regards it as though for a form חָיָתִי, “a genitive termination,” of which he finds many examples. It is written defectively, and then, on account of the pause, the Hhirik is dropped. But see Green, Gr. § 196 b.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 1. Why hast thou cast us off for ever—The…
1. Why hast thou cast us off for ever—The rejection and desolation appeared absolute and without remedy. See Psa_74:3; Psa_74:10. In the first three verses the psalmist utters a fervent prayer, which is suspended by the recitals of Psa_74:4-9, and then resumed to the end.
Sheep of thy pasture—See Psa_80:1.
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Smoke—Compare under Psa_80:4. The smouldering ruins of the temple and city fitly illustrated the dark and fiery breath of wrath.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1. for ever] God’s rejection of His people seems…
1. for ever] God’s rejection of His people seems to have become permanent. The same thought recurs in Psa_74:3; Psa_74:10; Psa_74:19, Psa_79:5. Cp. Lam_5:20; Psa_44:23; Lam_3:31.
smoke] A metaphor for the outward signs of the fire of wrath. Cp. Psa_18:8; Psa_80:4; Lam_2:3-4.
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the sheep of thy pasture] The exact phrase recurs only in Psa_79:13; Psa_100:3; Jer_23:1; Eze_34:31; but cp. Psa_95:7. The title implies that Israel has a right to claim God’s loving care in virtue of His relation to it: a relation which Psa_74:2 points out was initiated by God Himself. The representation of God as Israel’s shepherd is common. See Psa_80:1; Psa_77:20; Psa_78:52; Isa_40:11; Jer_31:10; Eze_34:11 ff.
1–3. An appeal to God, Who seems to have abandoned and forgotten the people and city of His choice.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (1) Why hast . . .—Better, why hast thou…
(1) Why hast . . .—Better, why hast thou never ceased abandoning us?
Anger.—Literally, nostril, as in Psa_18:8, “there went a smoke from his nostril.”
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The sheep of thy pasture.—An expression peculiar to the Asaphic psalms and Jer_23:1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–23 "THE misery of the Jews is here at its…
"THE misery of the Jews is here at its deepest" (Four Friends, p. 291). The psalmist describes Jerusalem as fallen into "perpetual ruins" (ver. 3). The temple is violated (ver. 3); its carved work is ruthlessly cut down (ver. 6); the aid of fire has been called in to destroy it, and its walls are cast down to the ground (ver. 7). Nor has Jerusalem alone suffered. The object has been to "make havoc" of Israel "altogether;" and the enemy have spread themselves, and "burnt up all the houses of God in the land" (ver. 8). The prophets have succumbed; their voices are heard no more (ver. 9). A blasphemous enemy lords it over the entire country (vers. 10, 23), and sets up its banners as signs of its dominion (ver. 4). Three periods have been assigned for the composition of the psalm:
(1) the time of the invasion of Shishak;
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(2) that of the Babylonian conquest; and
(3) the early Maceabean period, or the reign of Judas Maccabaens.
In favour of the first is the ascription of the psalm in the "title" to Asaph. But all other considerations are against it. There is no evidence that Shishak ever entered Jerusalem. He certainly did not break down the carved work of the temple, or set the temple on fire, much less "cast it down to the ground." His invasion was a mere raid, and Rehoboam seems to have bought his retreat by the sacrifice of the temple treasury. (2Ki_14:25-28 2Ch_12:2-12) The circumstances described in the psalm are also unsuitable to the reign of Judas Maccabaeus, in whose time the temple suffered desecration at the hands of the Syrians, but was not seriously damaged, much less demolished. Thus the only date suitable for the composition of the psalm is that immediately following the capture of the city under Nebuchadnezzar. We must explain the "title" by the consideration that Asaph, like Jeduthun and Heman, became a tribe name, attaching to all the descendants of the original Asaph, and was equivalent to "son of Asaph". (see Ezr_2:41 Ezr_3:10 Neh_7:44 Neh_11:22)
The psalm consists of three portions:
1. A complaint to God, including a description of all the horrors of the situation (vers. 1-11).
2. An enumeration of God"s mercies in the olden time, as a foundation for hope that he will yet rescue Israel (vers. 12-17).
3. An earnest prayer for relief and restoration, and the re-establishment of the covenant (vers. 18-23).
O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? It could only have been in the extremity of distress that a devout Israelite believed, even for a time, that Israel was cast off forever". (comp. Psa_79:5, which must have been written nearly at the same period as this) Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? God"s anger "smokes" when it is hot and furious. (see Psa_18:8 Psa_104:32 Psa_44:5) It is now smoking "against the sheep of his pasture his own flock, (Psa_78:53) his peculiar people. (comp. Jer_23:4 Jer_50:6, Jer_50:17; and Psa_79:13)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Maschil of Asaph. An instructive Psalm by Asaph. The…
Maschil of Asaph. An instructive Psalm by Asaph. The history of the suffering church is always edifying; when we see how the faithful trusted and wrestled with their God in times of dire distress, we are thereby taught how to behave ourselves under similar circumstances; we learn moreover, that when fiery trial befalls us, no strange thing happened unto us, we are following the trail of the host of God.
From Ps 74:1-11 the poet pleads the sorrows of the nation, and the despite done to the assemblies of the Lord; then he urges former displays of divine power as a reason for present deliverance (Ps 74:12-23). Whether it is a prophetic Psalm, intended for use in troubles foreseen, or whether it was written by a later Asaph, after the invasion by Sennacherib or during the Maccabean wars, it would be very hard to determine, but we see no difficulty in the first supposition.
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Ver. 1. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? To cast us off at all were hard, but when thou dost for so long a time desert they people it is an evil beyond all endurance--the very chief of woes and abyss of misery. It is our wisdom when under chastisement to enquire, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me?" and if the affliction be a protracted one, we should more eagerly enquire the purport of it. Sin is usually at the bottom of all the hiding of the Lord's face; let us ask the Lord to reveal the special form of it to us, that we may repent of it, overcome it, and henceforth forsake it. When a church is in a forsaken condition it must not sit still in apathy, but turn to the hand which smiteth it, and humbly enquire the reason why. At the same time, the enquiry of the text is a faulty one, for it implies two mistakes. There are two questions, which only admit of negative replies. "Hath God cast away his people?" (Ro 11:1); and the other, "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" (Ps 77:7). God is never weary of his people so as to abhor them, and even when his anger is turned against them, it is but for a small moment, and with a view to their eternal good. Grief in its distraction asks strange questions and surmises impossible terrors. It is a wonder of grace that the Lord has not long ago put us away as men lay aside cast off garments, but he hateth putting away, and will still be patient with his chosen.
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? They are thine, they are the objects of thy care, they are poor, silly, and defenceless things: pity them, forgive them, and come to their rescue. They are but sheep, do not continue to be wroth with them. It is a terrible thing when the anger of God smokes, but it is an infinite mercy that it does not break into a devouring flame. It is meet to pray the Lord to remove every sign of his wrath, for it is to those who are truly the Lord's sheep a most painful thing to be the objects of his displeasure. To vex the Holy Spirit is no mean sin, and yet how frequently are we guilty of it; hence it is no marvel that we are often under a cloud.
Whole Psalm. There is one singularity in this Psalm which reminds one strongly of Psalm 44: there is not one mention of national or personal sin throughout, no allusion to the Lord's righteous dealing in their punishment, no supplication for pardon and forgiveness; and yet one can hardly doubt that the writer of the Psalm, be he who he may, must have felt as keenly as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or any other prophet of the captivity, the sins and iniquities which had brought all this sore evil upon them. But still, though there be expostulations, there is no complaint; though there be mourning, there is no murmuring; there is far more the cry of a smitten child, wondering why, and grieving that his father's face is so turned away from him in displeasure, and a father's hand so heavy on the child of his love. Or, as we might almost say, it is like the cry of one of those martyred ones beneath the altar, wondering at the marauder and oppressor, and exclaiming, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And yet it is the appeal of one who was still a sufferer, still groaning under the pressure of his calamities, "Why has thou cast us off for ever? We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet among us." Barton Bouchier.
Whole Psalm. The peculiarity of this Psalm is marred by the very frequent use of the xeg, for ever: Ps 74:1, 3, 10. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Ver. 1. This Psalm, and particularly these words, do contain the church's sad lamentation over her deep affliction, together with her earnest expostulations with God about the cause. Two things there are that the church in these words doth plead with God. First, The greatness of her affliction: secondly, the nearness of he relation.
1. The greatness of her affliction. And there were three things in her affliction that did make it lie very heavy upon her. First, the root of this affliction; and that was God's anger: Why doth thine anger smoke, etc. Secondly, the height of this affliction; God was not only angry, but he did smoke in his anger. Thirdly, the length of this affliction: it was so long that God did seem to cast them off for ever.
2. The nearness of her relation: Against the sheep of thy pasture; as if they should have said, Lord, if thou hadst done this against thine enemies, it had been no wonder; if thou hadst poured out thy wrath against the vessels of wrath, it had not been so much. But what! wilt thou draw out thy sword against the sheep of thy pasture? It were no wonder that thou shouldest take the fat and the strong, and pour out thy judgments upon them; but wilt thou do it to thy sheep?
There be several doctrines that I may raise from these words; as,
First doctrine: That God's people are his sheep.
Second doctrine: That God may be sorely angry with his own people, with his own sheep.
Third doctrine: That when God is angry with his people, it becomes them carefully to enquire into the cause.
Fourth doctrine: That when God's people are under afflictions, they ought to take notice of, and be much affected with, his anger, from which they do proceed.
Fifth doctrine: That God's people under affliction are, or should be, more affected with his anger than with their smart. This is that which the church doth complain of, not that the church did so smart, but that God was displeased and angry; that did most affect them.
Sixth doctrine: That God's people are apt to have misgiving thoughts of God when they are in sore afflictions. God was angry with his people, and their hearts did misgive them, as if God did cast off his people.
Seventh doctrine: That God may be angry with his people, so sore, and so long, that in the judgment of sense it may seem that they are for ever cast off. Eighth doctrine: That though the people of God may not murmur against his proceedings, yet they may humbly expostulate with him about the cause. Joseph Alleine. 1633-1668.
Ver. 1. Why doth thine anger smoke, etc. Anger is a fire; and in men, and other creatures enraged, a smoke seemeth to go out of their nostrils. Xenophon saith of the Thebans, when they are angry they breathe fire. This then is spoken of God, after the manner of men. John Trapp.
Ver. 1. The sheep of thy pasture. There is nothing more imbecile than a sheep: simple, frugal, gentle, tame, patient, prolific, timid, domesticated, stupid, useful. Therefore, while the name of sheep is here used, it is suggested how pressing the necessity is for divine assistance, and how well befitting the Most High it would be to make their cause his own. Lorinus.
Ver. 1.
I. The divine displeasure a fact.
II. It is but in measure, and we are very liable to
exaggerate it.
III. Even while it lasts our relation to him is
unaffected: Sheep of thy pasture.
IV. Our business is to enquire the reason of it, and act
accordingly.
Ver. 1. (second clause). The Lord's anger with his people compared to smoke.
I. It is not a consuming fire.
II. It suggests fear of the fire.
III. It darkens the light of joy.
IV. It blinds the eyes of faith.
V. It checks the breath of life.
VI. It blackens the beauty of our worldly comforts.
Psalms 74:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21 O God, why hast Thou cast us off for…
Psa_74:1-23
O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever?
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why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?
The wail and prayer of a true patriot
I. The wail (Psa_74:1-17).
1. Some communities of men are far more favoured of Heaven than others. The Jews were (Psa_74:1-2). In this diversity of endowment--
(1) There is no just reason for complaining of God. As the Sovereign Author of all life, He has an undoubted right to determine as to whether He should give life to any or not; what kind of life it should be, and to how many; and what kind or measure of power He should give to each.
(2) There is no injury done to any. The man or community least favoured has no right to complain, for he is only responsible for what he has. Obligation is bounded by capacity.
2. The most favoured communities are not exempted from terrible calamities (Psa_74:7-9).
3. These terrible calamities are often inflicted by wicked men.
4. The wicked men who inflict these calamities are ever under the control of God.
(1) He has power to arrest them (Psa_74:10).
(2) This power He has sometimes signally displayed (Psa_74:13-14).
(3) This power is implied in the universality of His dominion.
II. The prayer (Psa_74:18-23).
1. The enemies of God are the enemies both of themselves and of their country (Psa_74:18). A bad man cannot be a good citizen, but must be more or less a curse to his country. An ungodly man can never be a true patriot.
2. The interposition of God is necessary to deliver a country from the pernicious influence of wicked men (Psa_74:22).
(1) The cause of true philanthropy is the cause of God.
(2) The cause of philanthropy is outraged on earth. Men, instead of loving each other as brethren, hate each, oppress each other, murder each other.
(3) The cause of philanthropy is dear to the heart of the good.
Hence the prayer, Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause. In this prayer two things are to be noted--
(i.) The anthropomorphic tendency of the soul.
(ii.) A good mans conscious need of God.
How deeply did this godly patriot feel the necessity of Gods interposition. In the midst of his countrys distress he looked around, but there was help to be found nowhere but in heaven. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 74
Psalms 74
Two periods only correspond to the circumstances described in this psalm and its companion (Psalms 79)-namely, the Chaldean invasion and sack of Jerusalem, and the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes. The general situation outlined in the psalm fits either of these; but, of its details, some are more applicable to the former and others to the later period. The later date is strongly supported by such complaints as those of the cessation of prophecy (Psa_74:9), the flaunting of the invaders signs in the sanctuary (Psa_74:4), and the destruction by fire of all the "meeting places of God in the land," (Psa_74:8). On the other hand, the earlier date better fits other features of the psalm-since Antiochus did not destroy or burn, but simply profaned the Temple, though he did, indeed, set fire to the gates and porch, but to these only. It would appear that, on either hypothesis, something must be allowed for poetical coloring. Calvin, whom Cheyne follows in this, accounts for the introduction of the burning of the Temple into a psalm referring to the desolation wrought by Antiochus, by the supposition that the psalmist speaks in the name of the "faithful, who, looking on the horrid devastation of the Temple, and being warned by so sad a sight, carried back their thoughts to that conflagration by which it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans, and wove the two calamities together into one." It is less difficult to pare down the statement as to the burning of the Temple so as to suit the later date, than that as to the silence of prophecy and the other characteristics mentioned, so as to fit the earlier. The question is still further complicated by the similarities between the two psalms and Jeremiah. {compare Psa_74:4 with Lam_2:7, and Psa_74:9 with Lam_2:9} The prophets well-known fondness for quotations gives probability, other things being equal, to the supposition that he is quoting the psalm, which would, in that case, be older than Lamentations. But this inference scarcely holds good, if there are other grounds on which the later date of the psalm is established. It would be very natural in a singer of the Maccabean period to go back to the prophet whose sad strains had risen at another black hour. On the whole, the balance is in favour of the later date.
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The psalm begins with a complaining cry to God (Psa_74:1-3), which passes into a piteous detail of the nations misery (Psa_74:4-9), whence it rises into petition (Psa_74:10-11), stays trembling faith by gazing upon His past deeds of help and the wonders of His creative power (Psa_74:12-17), and closes with beseeching God to vindicate the honour of His own name by the deliverance of his people (Psa_74:18-23).
The main emphasis of the prayer in Psa_74:1-3 lies on the pleas which it presents, drawn from Israels relation to God. The characteristic Asaphie name "Thy flock" stands in Psa_74:1, and appeals to the Shepherd, both on the ground of His tenderness and of His honour as involved in the security of the sheep. A similar appeal lies in the two words "acquire" and "redeem," in both of which the deliverance from Egypt is referred to, -the former expression suggesting the price at which the acquisition was made, as well as the obligations of ownership; and the latter, the office of the Goel, the Kinsman-Redeemer, on whom devolved the duty of obtaining satisfaction for blood. The double designations of Israel as "Thy congregation" and as "the tribe of Thine inheritance" probably point to the religious and civil aspects of the national life. The strongest plea is put last - namely, Gods dwelling on Zion. For all these reasons, the psalmist asks and expects Him to come with swift footsteps to the desolations, which have endured so long that the impatience of despair blends with the cry for help, and calls them "everlasting," even while it prays that they may be built up again. The fact that the enemy of God and of His flock has marred everything in the sanctuary is enough, the psalmist thinks, to move God to action.
The same thought, that the nations calamities are really dishonouring to God, and therefore worthy of His intervention, colours the whole of the description of these in Psa_74:4-9. The invaders are "Thine adversaries." It is "in the place where Thou didst meet us" that their bestial noises, like those of lions over their prey, echo. It is "Thy sanctuary" which they have set on fire, "the dwelling place of Thy name" which they have profaned. It is "Thy meeting places" which they have burned throughout the land. Only at the end of the sad catalogue is the misery of the people touched on, and that, not so much as inflicted by human foes, as by the withdrawal of Gods Spirit. This is, in fact, the dominant thought of the whole psalm. It says very little about the sufferings resulting from the success of the enemy, but constantly recurs to the insult to God, and the reproach adhering to His name therefrom. The essence of it all is in the concluding prayer, "Plead Thine own cause" (Psa_74:22).
The vivid description of devastation in these verses presents some difficulties in detail, which call for brief treatment. The "signs" in Psa_74:4 b may be taken as military, such as banners or the like; but it is more in accordance with the usage of the word to suppose them to be religious emblems, or possibly idols, such as Antiochus thrust upon the Jews. In Psa_74:5 and Psa_74:6 a change of tense represents the action described in them, as if in progress at the moment before the singers eyes. "They seem" is literally "He is known" (or makes himself known), which may refer to the invaders, the change from plural to singular being frequent in Hebrew; or it may be taken impersonally, =" It seems." In either case it introduces a comparison between the hacking and hewing by the spoilers in the Temple, and the work of a woodman swinging on high his axe in the forest. "And now" seems to indicate the next step in the scene, which the psalmist picturesquely conceives as passing before his horror-stricken sight. The end of that ill-omened activity is that at last it succeeds in shattering the carved work, which, in the absence of statues, was the chief artistic glory of the Temple. All is hewed down, as if it were no more than so much growing timber. With Psa_74:7 the tenses change to the calmer tone of historical narration. The plundered Temple is set on fire-a point which, as has been noticed above, is completely applicable only to the Chaldean invasion. Similarly, the next clause, "they have profaned the dwelling place of Thy name to the ground," does not apply in literality to the action of Antiochus, who did indeed desecrate, but did not destroy, the Temple. The expression is a pregnant one, and calls for some such supplement as is given above, which, however, dilutes its vigour while it elucidates its meaning. In Psa_74:8 the word "let us crush them" has been erroneously taken as a noun, and rendered "their brood," a verb like "we will root out" being supplied. So the LXX and some of the old versions, followed by Hitzig and Baethgen. But, as Delitzsch well asks, -Why are only the children to be rooted out? and why should the object of the action be expressed, and not rather the action, of which the object would be self-evident? The "meeting places of God in the land" cannot be old sanctuaries, nor the high places, which were Israels sin; for no psalmist could have adduced the destruction of these as a reason for Gods intervention. They can only be the synagogues. The expression is a strong argument for the later date of the psalm. Equally strong is the lament in Psa_74:9 over the removal of the "signs"-i.e., as in Psa_74:4, the emblems of religion, or the sacrifices and festivals, suppressed by Antiochus, which were the tokens of the covenant between God and Israel. The silence of prophecy cannot be alleged of the Chaldean period without some straining of facts and of the words here; nor is it true that then there was universal ignorance of the duration of the calamity, for Jeremiah had foretold it.
Psa_74:10 and Psa_74:11 are the kernel of the psalm, the rest of which is folded round them symmetrically. Starting from this centre and working outwards, we note that it is preceded by six verses dilating on the profanations of the name of God, and followed by six setting forth the glories of that name in the past. The connection of these two portions of the psalm is obvious. They are, as it were, the inner shell round the kernel. The outer shell is the prayer in three verses which begins the psalm, and that in six verses which closes it. Psa_74:10 takes up the despairing "How long" from the end of the preceding portion, and turns it into a question to God. It is best to ask Him, when ignorance pains us. But the interrogation does not so much beg for enlightenment as to the duration of the calamity as for its abbreviation. It breathes not precisely impatience, but longing that a state of things so dishonouring to God should end. That aspect, and not personal suffering, is prominent in the verse. It is "Thy name" which is insulted by the adversaries actions, and laid open to their contempt, as the name of a Deity powerless to protect His worshippers. Their action "reproaches," and His inaction lets them "despise," His name. The psalmist cannot endure that this condition should drag on indefinitely, as if "forever," and his prayer question "How long?" is next exchanged for another similar blending of petition and inquiry, "Why dost Thou draw back Thy hand?" Both are immediately translated into that petition which they both really mean. "From the midst of Thy bosom consume," is a pregnant phrase, like that in Psa_74:7 b, and has to be completed as above, though, possibly, the verb stands absolutely as equivalent to "make an end"-i.e., of such a state of things.
The psalmists petition is next grounded on the revelation of Gods name in Israels past, and in creative acts of power. These at once encourage him to expect that God will pluck His hand out from the folds of His robe, where it lies inactive, and appeal to God to be what He has been of old, and to rescue the name which He has thus magnified from insult. There is singular solemnity in the emphatic reiteration of "Thou" in these verses. The Hebrew does not usually express the pronominal nominative to a verb, unless special attention is to be called to it; but in these verses it does so uniformly, with one exception, and the sevenfold repetition of the word brings forcibly into view the Divine personality and former deeds which pledge God to act now. Remembrance of past wonders made present misery more bitter, but it also fanned into a flame the spark of confidence that the future would be like the past. One characteristic of the Asaph psalms is wistful retrospect, which is sometimes the basis of rebuke, and sometimes of hope, and sometimes of deepened sorrow, but is here in part appeal to God and in part consolation. The familiar instances of His working drawn from the Exodus history appear in the psalm. First comes the dividing of the Red Sea, which is regarded chiefly as occasioning the destruction of the Egyptians, who are symbolised by the "sea monsters" and by "leviathan" (the crocodile). Their fate is an omen of what the psalmist hopes may befall the oppressors of his own day. There is great poetic force in the representation that the strong hand, which by a stroke parted the waters, crushed by the same blow the heads of the foul creatures who "floated many a rood" on them. And what an end for the pomp of Pharaoh and his host, to provide a meal for jackals and the other beasts of the desert, who tear the corpses strewing the barren shore! The meaning is completely misapprehended when "the people inhabiting the wilderness" is taken to be wild desert tribes. The expression refers to animals, and its use as designating them has parallels. {as Pro_30:25-26}
In Psa_74:15 another pregnant expression occurs, which is best filled out as above, the reference being to cleaving the rock for the flow of water, with which is contrasted in b the drying up of the Jordan. Thus the whole of the Exodus period is covered. It is noteworthy that the psalmist adduces only wonders wrought on waters, being possibly guided in his selection by the familiar poetic use of floods and seas as emblems of hostile power and unbridled insolence. From the wonders of history he passes to those of creation, and chiefly of that might by which times alternate and each constituent of the Kosmos has its appointed limits. Day and night, summer and winter, recur by Gods continual operation. Is there to be no dawning for Israels night of weeping, and no summer making glad the winter of its discontent? "Thou didst set all the bounds of the earth,"-wilt Thou not bid back this surging ocean which has transgressed its limits and filled the breadth of Thy land? All the lights in the sky, and chiefly the greatest of them, Thou didst establish, -surely Thou wilt end this eclipse in which Thy people grope.
Thus the psalmist lifts himself to the height of confident though humble prayer, with which the psalm closes, recurring to the opening tones. Its centre is, as we have seen, a double remonstrance-"How long?" and "Why?" The encircling circumference is earnest supplication, of which the keynote is "Remember" (Psa_74:2 and Psa_74:18).
The gist of this closing prayer is the same appeal to God to defend His own honour, which we have found in the former verses. It is put in various forms here. Twice (Psa_74:18 and Psa_74:22) God is besought to remember the reproach and contumely heaped on His name, and apparently warranted by His inaction. The claim of Israel for deliverance is based in Psa_74:19 upon its being "Thy turtle dove," which therefore cannot be abandoned without sullying Thy fame. The psalmist spreads the "covenant" before God, as reminding Him of His obligations under it. He asks that such deeds may be done as will give occasion to the afflicted and needy to "praise Thy name," which is being besmirched by their calamities. Finally, in wonderfully bold words, he calls on God to take up what is, after all, "His own" quarrel, and, if the cry of the afflicted does not move Him, to listen to the loud voices of those who blaspheme Him all the day. Reverent earnestness of supplication sometimes sounds like irreverence; but, "when the hearts deeps boil in earnest," God understands the meaning of what sounds strange, and recognises the profound trust in His faithfulness and love which underlies bold words.
The precise rendering of Psa_74:19 is very doubtful. The word rendered above by "company" may mean life or a living creature, or, collectively, a company of such. It has been taken in all these meanings here, and sometimes in one of them in the first clause, and in another in the second, as most recently by Baethgen, who renders "Abandon not to the beast" in a, -and "The life of thine afflicted" in b. But it must have the same meaning in both clauses, and the form of the word shows that it must be construed in both with a following "of." If so, the rendering adopted above is best, though it involves taking the word rendered "greed" (lit., soul) in a somewhat doubtful sense. This rendering is adopted in the R.V. (margin), and is, on the whole, the least difficult, and yields a probable sense. Delitzsch recognises the necessity for giving the ambiguous word the same meaning in both clauses, and takes that meaning to be "creature," which suits well enough in a, but gives a very harsh meaning to b. "Forget not Thy poor animals forever" is surely an impossible rendering. Other attempts have been made to turn the difficulty by textual alteration. Hupfeld would transpose two words in a-and so gets "Give not up to rage the life of Thy dove." Cheyne corrects the difficult word into "to the sword," and Graetz follows Dyserinck in preferring "to death," or Krochmal, who reads "to destruction." If the existing text is retained, probably the rendering adopted above is best.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“A Maschil of Asaph,” i.e., an Instruction of Asaph,…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“A Maschil of Asaph,” i.e., an Instruction of Asaph, a Didactic Song by Asaph. See introduction to Psalms 1.
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“But here we cannot have the least idea of the authorship belonging to David’s time. We must not, however, on this account convict the title of a mistake: for just in proportion as the contents are decidedly and manifestly inconsistent with David’s age, was it unlikely that the title would announce that the Psalm was composed at that time. Asaph was the founder of a family of singers, who went by the name of the sons of Asaph, even in the time of Isaiah (Comp. 2Ch_35:15), yea, even in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ez. 2:41; Ezr_3:10; Neh_7:44; Neh_11:22). That the Holy Ghost, who inspired the founder, continued to exert His influence upon the members of this family from age to age, is manifest from the example of Jehaziel, one of the sons of Asaph in Jehoshaphat’s time, on whom the spirit of the Lord came down in the midst of the assembly (2Ch_20:14). All the sacred compositions of the members of this family were designated songs of Asaph, just as in the title of the 62. Psalm, Jeduthun stands for the Jeduthunic choir. If the family had not possessed a founder so very famous in this department, these Psalms, like those which bear the name of the sons of Korah, would have had inscribed on their titles ‘the sons of Asaph.’ ”—Hengstenberg.
Occasion.—On this expositors are not agreed. Some think that it was written by Asaph, in David’s time, with a prophetical reference to the destruction by the Chaldeans. Others look upon it as historical, and having reference to the destructions wrought at the time of the Maccabees. Others, who regard it as historical, consider that it refers to the Chaldean destruction. The occasion cannot be determined certainly; but the last-named opinion seems to us most likely to be the correct one. It was written at a time of great misery, the temple was desolated and destroyed, the land was ravaged, the enemies of the Church triumphed, and God seemed to have forgotten or cast away His people. The Psalmist bewails their sad condition and prays for deliverance.
THE SUFFERING CHURCH POURING OUT ITS COMPLAINTS UNTO GOD
(Psa_74:1-11.)
I. The description of the Church.
“The sheep of Thy pasture; Thy congregation which Thou hast purchased,” &c. The Church is here represented as—
1. Shepherded by God. We use the word “shepherded,” because we do not know of any other which expresses the various duties of the shepherd to his flock. That Jehovah is the Shepherd of His people is an idea of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures. (Psa_80:1; Psa_95:7; Psa_100:3; Isa_40:11; Eze_34:11-16.) The relationship involves His Guidance. With infallible knowledge and tender care He goeth before His people through all their journeyings. By the mystic and majestic pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night He led His people in their forty years’ journey through the wilderness. And still He leads His people, though by different means. He guides us now by the indications of Providence, by influencing our convictions, and by the teaching of His Word. The relationship involves Protection. The shepherd had to guard his flock against the attacks of robbers and beasts of prey; and frequently displayed great faithfulness and courage in so doing. In this way David, while a mere stripling, slew a lion and a bear (1Sa_17:34-36). So Jehovah guards His people. “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people,” &c. The relationship involves Provision. It was the duty of the shepherd to provide for his sheep, and when one pasture was bare to lead them to another, or when the herbage was deficient to cut down the tender shoots of trees for them to eat, and to see that they had water to drink. In thus providing for them the shepherd frequently underwent long and severe labour. Jehovah thus provides for “His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” His provisions are varied, abundant, exhaustless.
2. Redeemed by God. The Church is spoken of as “purchased of old” by God, and as an inheritance “redeemed” by Him. From Egyptian bondage He redeemed them at an immense cost. The Church is an ancient possession of the Lord’s. He has the most indefeasible right to it as His inheritance. It is His because He called it into being. It owes its origin to Him. He has preserved it in being, watching over it in all the vicissitudes of its fortune. Much of its history resembles the burning bush—“the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed,” and the secret of its mysterious preservation must be traced to Him. He has redeemed it. His ancient people He frequently redeemed out of the hand of their enemies. And the Church to-day He has redeemed with a nobler, Diviner redemption. “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ.” He “gave Himself for us.” What a SELF to give! And how freely was He given by both His Father and Himself! How unspeakably precious is this redemption! How complete and indisputable God’s title to an inheritance so redeemed!
3. Inhabited by God. “Mount Zion wherein Thou hast dwelt.” The mysterious Shekinah, the symbol of God’s special presence, dwelt in the holy of holies. In the Psalms God is represented as both dwelling in His people, and the dwelling-place of His people. “God is in the midst of her.” “In Salem is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion.” So in the Christian Church God is specially present. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” He dwells in His Church to hear and answer prayer, to reveal His will, to bestow His grace, to make known His salvation, and to manifest His glory. He dwells in every humble and believing heart as in His temple by the Holy Ghost.
Reflect how the consideration of these aspects of the Church in relation to God would affect His people. They were “the sheep of His pasture,” yet they were in captivity, and oppressed by their enemies, and far away from Zion. How could they reconcile these things with the guidance, protection, and provision of their Shepherd? They were redeemed by Him at a great cost, yet now they were once more in bondage. Had He ceased to value the inheritance which He had “purchased of old”? They were inhabited by God, but now the glory of His presence has departed. Had He then cast them off for ever? Thus there have often been times when the position and sufferings of the Church have seemed utterly irreconcilable with their most fundamental relations to God.
II. The distress of the Church.
1. Their enemies triumphed over them and spread ruin around them. They had destroyed everything in the sanctuary, had broken down the carved work, had burnt it with fire, and desecrated it to the ground. The Jews gloried in their temple. They spoke of it as a “holy and beautiful house.” It was a costly and magnificent edifice. Around it were gathered many precious and sacred memories. Its associations were most interesting and treasured. To see it ruthlessly destroyed and profaned must have been a great distress to them. The Church in all ages has had its enemies who have sought its destruction. With captious and destructive criticism men seek to destroy the Church, by endeavouring to overthrow the faith of her members in many precious truths in which they have rested. The Church has had foes who have persecuted her by fire and sword, bonds and imprisonments, pains and penalties. Different are the weapons which are used to-day. The theories and arguments of cold intellectual men—men often of large heads, but infinitesimally small hearts; whose knowledge has “grown from more to more,” but in whom no reverence dwells—are the weapons by which it is now sought to overthrow the Church. She has spiritual foes also. “The gates of hell” are arrayed against her. And many in this world by word and deed are foes to the cause of God.
2. Their enemies blasphemed the name of God. Where God had been reverently worshipped by devout hearts they madly shouted their war cry, in the temple they had set up their military standards, and they had reproached and blasphemed the name of God. This was a great grief to the people of God. And to those of them who were faithful and pious the grief would be most deep and acute. The godly heart is most deeply pained in its tenderest part when anything is done by which God is dishonoured. And this blasphemy had been long continued, adding amazement to the grief of the Psalmist, and causing him to inquire, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?”
(1) Man is free to reproach and blaspheme God if he will. We may praise and adore Him, or revile and curse Him if we will. God has made us thus morally free. He allows us the exercise of this freedom.
(2) God has long patience even with the profanest and most outrageous sinners. For a long season He tolerates even blasphemers, giving them time for repentance. He waits to show mercy even to the chief of sinners. He wills not that any should perish.
(3) God’s patience with blasphemers causes sore amazement to His people. They cannot understand why He does not pluck His hand out of His bosom and smite them. They cry, “O God, how long?” Assuredly, not for ever. If the wicked “turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.” But while judgment lingers, and men continue to blaspheme, the people of God are distressed by the blasphemy, and amazed at the delay of judgment.
3. The prophetic voice was silent. The prophetical office of Jeremiah terminated with the destruction of the temple. “It was assuredly the cessation of his office that more immediately gave occasion to the painful cry: there is no longer any prophet. This standing ruin of the prophetical class proclaimed, even in louder accents than the non-appearance of other prophets, that God was no longer Israel’s King. It was necessary that along with the other signs of the dominion of God, this one also should cease for a long period of time, that the people might be taught how they had treated it, wherein they had offended, and might, at the same time, be led with tears of repentance to seek its return.”—Hengstenberg. The cry of the Psalmist reminds me of the words of Saul to the apparition of Samuel, “I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams.” Well may he be distressed! Man cut off from God—severed from the great central Life and Light of the universe—appealing to heaven, and being answered only by stony-hearted silence! How appalling! God had threatened, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land,” &c. (Amo_8:11-12; Comp. Eze_7:26.) That time had come. “Her prophets found no vision from the Lord.” Distress had come upon the people; and no prophet’s voice was heard, either in merciful encouragement, or faithful rebuke, or stern threatening. They have treated the prophetic message with scornful indifference at times, and at times they have cruelly persecuted the Heaven-sent messenger; and now they cry for some word from heaven, some communication from the Divine, and the only answer they receive is inexorable silence. Surely there is warning for us here. How do we treat the great and precious privileges which are granted unto us? The Word of God, do we prize it? The opportunities of worship, are they dear to us? The influence of the Holy Spirit, do we value it? do we profit by it? If we fail to appreciate our spiritual privileges, and practically despise them, God may withdraw them from us, and we may awake to a sense of their value too late.
“Like birds whose beauties languish, half-conceal’d
Till mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold;
How blessings brighten as they take their flight.”—Young.
Let us prize the gifts of God while we have them, lest God should remove them from us for ever.
4. God in anger had cast them off. So they thought; and it was true that their miseries came upon them in consequence of their sins. God was visiting them with the rod of chastisement because of their idolatry, their spiritual apostasy, and rebellion. Their Babylonian enemies were unwittingly the agents of God to punish them. But God had not cast them off for ever. When they turned unto Him in true repentance, He turned unto them and had mercy upon them. Yet at this time they could see no sign of His favour. His anger seemed to smoke against them. Such were some of the distresses of the ancient Church. Their foes were triumphant and were spreading ruin on every side, even destroying their best treasures; the name of God was blasphemed, the prophetic voice was silent, and God seemed to have abandoned them. Their distresses are a picture and parable of sufferings which have befallen the Church in other ages. Their distresses were on account of their sins. So also in subsequent times, in some instances, the Church has been tried and chastened by reason of error, or unfaithfulness, or lukewarmness. In every time of suffering let the Church seek to ascertain the cause and meaning of her suffering; and if it be God’s expostulation with her for her sins, let her repent and do her first works, or He will remove her candlestick out of its place.
III. The prayers of the distressed Church.
1. That God would remember them. God seemed to have forgotten them. They seemed to have passed away from His mind. He bestows no attention upon them. They entreat Him to remember them, thinking that, if He turned His attention to them and saw their miseries, He would surely deliver and save them.
2. That God would interpose for them. “Lift up thy footsteps unto the eternal ruins.” “The Psalmist speaks of eternal ruins, because the complete destruction had cut off all human hope of a restoration.” Man could not deliver them. Their only hope was in God. They pray Him to hasten His approach to them. In the day of their distress they have to seek help from Him whom they neglected in their prosperity, for He alone can help them.
3. That God would interpose for them speedily. God’s help seemed to them long delayed. They were weary of waiting for His appearing. “O God, how long shall the adversary approach? shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?” They longed to hear the sound of the chariot wheels of their Deliverer. They knew not that the waiting for His coming was itself a blessing. Their sufferings made the time seem long. Their anxiety made them impatient. But God delays His salvation until the captivity has fulfilled its mission to them, and suffering has done its work in them, and waiting itself has blessed them.
There is something very touching and effective in the form of expression adopted by the Psalmist in addressing the Lord. “The sheep of Thy pasture. Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast purchased of old; Thine inheritance, which Thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion in which Thou hast dwelt.” He thus brings before Him His interpositions for them in former times, His ancient loving-kindness for them, His relation to them, and His having dwelt in Zion. Thus he pleads not their own misery only, but His mercy also; not their need only, but His fulness and power also, and their relation to Him. Surely He will listen to such pleadings. He will not leave His sheep to perish, or lose His ancient purchase, or suffer His inheritance to be entirely desolated, or leave His glorious dwelling-place a ruin for ever.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Let the enemies of the Church of God take warning. Let them not interpret His silence as nonexistence, or construe His patience into powerlessness. He lives, and His arm has lost none of its ancient strength.
2. Let those who are richly blessed with spiritual privileges remember that they involve corresponding responsibilities. Be wise, prize them, improve them, lest they be the occasion of greater condemnation to you.
3. Let the favoured Church be warned. Be faithful, or God may write “Ichabod” upon your temples and altars.
4. Let the suffering Church take encouragement from her relationship to God, and from His past interpositions on her behalf, and learn how to plead them at His throne.
THE CONSTRUCTIVE AND THE DESTRUCTIVE
(Psa_74:5-6.)
Destruction is sometimes a wise and good employment. It is wise and good to destroy disease, error, evil. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” But destruction is inferior to construction.
I. The constructive is greater and more difficult than the destructive. An idiot might destroy St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; but it needed the genius of Sir C. Wren to design it. A child might destroy a young oak sapling; but the mightiest man cannot create a daisy. A fool might unsettle a man’s faith and destroy his character; but the wisest and holiest of men cannot of himself establish a man’s faith and build up his character.
II. In the kingdom of the truth it is wiser and nobler to aim at building up the true than destroying the false.
1. It is wiser; for you may destroy one error only to make room for another. One evil spirit is expelled, but “other spirits more wicked than himself” enter in his place. But he who builds up the true is effectually destroying old errors and guarding against the entrance of new ones.
2. It is nobler. In destroying even the false and bad, men are often actuated by mean and base motives and feelings, but in aiming at edification in the true and good the motives and feelings are noble.
III. How terrible is it to destroy the true and good! To destroy a noble building, a magnificent city; to destroy life, virtue, truth, beauty, how heinous is this!
IV. God is the great constructor of the good. He is ever engaged in overcoming error and evil by building up souls in truth and grace.
Let us imitate Him in this.
THE SUFFERING CHURCH RECOUNTING THE DOINGS OF GOD IN THE PAST AS AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS HELP IN THE PRESENT
(Psa_74:12-17.)
The poet, in calling to mind and celebrating the interpositions of God on behalf of His people in former times, brings into prominence the Divine Sovereignty. From that Sovereignty, as it had been manifested in past deliverances and blessings, he drew encouragement for himself and the people in their present distresses.
I. The history of God’s dealings with His people reveals His universal sovereignty.
1. He is sovereign over His people. “God is my King.” The people of God loyally and heartily recognise His sovereignty over them. He is sovereign over all men; but His sovereignty is not acknowledged by all men. There are those who disown it and rebel against it; there are others who meanly and slavishly submit to it from base motives. But His own people recognise its righteousness, and wisdom, and goodness, and cordially own Him as their King. To them His “law is holy, and His commandment holy, and just, and good.” He occupies the throne of their affections. In the hearts of His people He is supreme. They serve Him with willing minds. They bow to His authority with loyalty, and love, and reverence.
2. He is sovereign over His enemies. Expositors are pretty generally agreed that by “the dragons” and the “leviathan” whose heads were broken in the waters, the poet intended to set forth the Egyptians and their Pharaoh who were destroyed in the Red Sea. God manifested His sovereignty over them by destroying them for their rebellion against Him, and for their oppression of His people. They would not submit themselves to His authority, so He crushed them by His power. God is sovereign over all men, whether they acknowledge Him or not. The rebellion of the wicked in no way diminishes His right to reign, or His power to do all His pleasure. He is King. “He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.”
3. He is sovereign over nature. The Psalmist speaks of Him as dividing the sea, cleaving the fountain and flood, drying up mighty rivers, preparing the light and the sun, setting all the borders of the earth, making summer and winter. God is not only the great Creator of the universe, but its Sustainer also. We discover in nature not only wise and beneficent laws, but a Lawgiver also. We are acquainted with great forces, and are persuaded that there must be some intelligent and almighty Being who originated and sustains them. We mark a beautiful order and arrangement in nature, and regard them as signs of a Divine presence and power. He is but a superficial student of nature who never pursues his investigations beyond the discovery of mere laws and forces. To the devout and earnest listener nature is eloquent of God. God is the sovereign of nature. He controls her forces. He regulates her operations. He presides over all her processes. He is supreme in all. There is no province of His universe from which He is excluded. His sovereignty is complete and universal. He rules over all nature and all life. The life of the ephemera sporting its little hour in the rays of the summer sun, and the life of the archangel standing in His own presence, are both subject to Him.
II. The History of God’s dealings with His people reveals the beneficence of His sovereignty.
God is a “King working salvation in the midst of the earth.” God is actively engaged in every department of His universe. He is the supreme Worker. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” In the operations of nature He ceaselessly works. In the events of history He works, aiding His servants, restraining the wrath of His foes, directing and controlling all things, so that in the end truth and righteousness and love may be triumphant everywhere. And He works in human souls, delivering them from sin, and educating them into holy living and useful working. The Psalmist recognised the work of God in the past history of His people. He had brought them forth from Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm. He had smitten their enemies with destruction. He had led them through the sea as on dry land. He had wrought for their salvation. It is of the very nature of His sovereignty to work beneficently. And the salvation which He works is gloriously complete. This the Psalmist indicates by the words, “Working salvation in the midst of the earth.” “The words denote the comprehensive nature of the salvation: whoever has obtained possession of the interior of a country has got the ascendency over the whole boundaries,—whatever is done there extends to the whole circumference” (Exo_8:22; Isa_10:23). What God undertakes He carries to completion. His salvation is “unto the uttermost.” He is “mighty to save.” Let us rejoice in God’s sovereignty. “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad.” Man has sadly misrepresented His sovereignty. We have contemplated with horror representations of a Being of unlimited and arbitrary power, which power is often used to crush and curse his creatures, a power which, except in the case of a favourite few, works destruction in the midst of the land. Such is not the sovereignty of God. His rule is a thing of infinite wisdom, and goodness, and beauty. He doeth all things well. Under His sovereignty the race is advancing not to darkness and night, but to the glad and beautiful morning of eternal day. The beneficence of the work of God is seen by the Psalmist when he looks at it through the intervening years. While it is yet in process we cannot discover the significance or beauty of His work. While events are in progress they often seem chaotic, and sometimes even maleficent. Wait until the work has advanced to a period, and then the design of the great Worker will be before you a thing of joy and beauty.
III. The history of God’s dealings with His people is full of encouragement to them.
The poet recounts the doings of Israel’s King to encourage their hearts in their time of distress. His past interpositions are so many reasons for our placing our trust in Him in every time of need. God is unchangeable and eternal,—“the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” He is unchangeable in power: what He has done already He can do again. He is unchangeable in purpose. The design and tendency of His government is to “work salvation.” “He is not a man that He should lie, or the son of man that He should repent.” He is unchangeable in goodness: what He willed to do in the past He will do again. “He abideth faithful.” So past deliverances and blessings encourage us to plead with Him, and to trust Him for help in present distresses. “Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.”
CONCLUSION.—
1. Let us rejoice in the beneficence and universality of the Divine Sovereignty. God—the Supremely Good—is King. He rules in righteousness, wisdom, and love.
2. Let the troubled heart take encouragement from God’s relationship to him, and past dealings with him. He who has led you hitherto will never fail you or forsake you.
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
(Psa_74:12.)
In the time of trouble to which this Psalm refers the Psalmist took encouragement from the consideration of God’s sovereignty. His kingship implies authority. As a Sovereign He proclaims His laws for the government of His subjects. And these laws involve penalties for those who violate them, and rewards for those who obey and honour them. God’s kingship implies the protection of His people. It is the duty of kings to protect their subjects in the enjoyment of their rights. God is our shield. God’s sovereignty is moral. He rules by reason, not by force. The laws which He prescribes are in harmony with the laws of our own nature. Thus, He has made us morally free, and His sovereignty never invades our freedom. He never coerces man into obedience.
In the text His sovereignty is presented in several aspects.
I. As loyally acknowledged. “My King.” The sovereignty of God is universal in its extent, but is only partially acknowledged. There are those who utterly deny it, and are avowed rebels against His government. There are others who acknowledge it as slaves. If they obey His rule at all, it is because they feel compelled to do so by dread of the lash. There are others who acknowledge it as hirelings. They avoid transgression lest they should incur severe penalties; they obey that they might receive the reward of obedience. But there is no spontaneity or heartiness in their obedience. There are others who acknowledge it heartily as loyal subjects. They recognise and admire the justice and benevolence of His laws, and the wisdom of their administration; they cordially acknowledge His right to reign; they venerate Him as their King and God. What is our relation to this government? Are we rebels? slaves? hirelings? or loyal subjects?
II. As of ancient date. “Of old.” God’s sovereignty has existed from everlasting as regards Himself. His fitness for rule, His right to rule, His purpose to rule, are all eternal as Himself. In the solitude of the awful eternity He was supreme. As to His sovereignty over the Jews, by the term “of old” the Psalmist referred to the days when God brought His people out of Egypt with signs, and wonders, and great power. His sovereignty over them may be traced back to the call of Abram. His sovereignty over us began with the beginning of our being, and is coextensive with our being. Earthly monarchs pride themselves upon the antiquity of their dynasties. Here is a dynasty which no beginning knew. “Thy kingdom is established of old; Thou art from everlasting.”
III. As beneficent in operation. “Working salvation.” God’s sovereignty is,—
1. Operative. God works. “He is not sitting down in what men call everlasting repose, calmly or indifferently marking the operations of the universe, and luxuriating in a peace which no storm can invade. That is not the kind of God which guilty, weary, broken-hearted man requires.” He works in nature, in history, in redemption.
2. Operates beneficently. The King works salvation. God’s sovereignty has been grievously misinterpreted. Human notions of favouritism have been set down to God’s sovereignty. Men have formulated a doctrine of reprobation, and have had the audacity to call it God’s sovereignty. Most firmly do we believe in His sovereignty, but we believe in it as “working salvation.” Of the King it was predicted, “He is just and having salvation.” God rules to bless. He works to save men, not to destroy them.
But is it really so? Does God’s government work beneficently? At this time, as the Psalm indicates, His people were in a most desolate and afflicted state. Was the King working for their salvation? Their misery arose from their sin, from their rebellion against His government. At present darkness, suffering, and sorrow are here; but they are here because sin is here. God rules to bless.
IV. As a plea for His help. So the Psalmist uses it on this occasion. He mentions what God had done for them in olden time, and pleads that as their King He would interpose for them again. As their King,—
1. He would possess sovereign authority. None could stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest Thou? He could smite down their foes, and set them free and prosper them.
2. He would be faithful to His sovereign obligations. He would keep His promises and “respect the covenant,” as they entreated Him to do (Psa_74:20).
3. He was immutable. He was the same when this Psalm was written as when He divided the Red Sea. He changes not. And still He has sovereign power to save, and is faithful and unchangeable; and still we may urge His sovereignty as a reason why He should help us. A powerful reason it is. It appeals to His honour, acknowledges His beneficence, &c. This plea may be used by us,—
(1) As communities forming part of His Church. When any portion of His Church languishes, or is afflicted, or is in difficulty, it may plead with the King for help.
(2) As individuals on our own behalf. In our times of perplexity and distress let us go to our King, and plead with Him for guidance and deliverance.
GOD IN NATURE
(Psa_74:16-17.)
The poet was neither,
1. An atheist. He believed in God. Nor,
2. A pantheist. He believed in God as distinct from nature. Nor,
3. A mere naturalist, seeing nothing in nature higher than order, and law, and development. He recognised God in nature. He regards God as—
I. The Creator of nature. “Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter.” God being the Creator of nature, nature is a revelation of God, and as such should be studied by us. He is a superficial or partial student who has not advanced beyond the discovery of laws. Nature reveals the Divine,
1. Power in her stupendous forces.
2. Unchangeableness in the regularity and order of her revolutions.
3. Wisdom in her marvellous and beautiful adaptations of means to ends.
4. Goodness in her ample provisions for the needs of both man and beast
5. Delight in beauty in the countless forms of loveliness, sublimity, and grandeur in earth and sea and sky.
“These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty, Thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair; Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitt’st above these heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen
In these Thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power Divine,”—Milton.
II. The Proprietor of nature. “The day is Thine, the night also is Thine.” He who created has the most indubitable right to His own creations. God being Proprietor of nature, it follows:
1. That we are but stewards. The wealthiest man cannot call an acre absolutely his own.
2. Large possessions involve large responsibilities. We hold our possessions in trust for Him. He who holds most has most accountability.
3. God will call all men to give an account of their stewardship.
III. The Sustainer of nature. The boundaries of the earth remain. Day and night, summer and winter, still alternate as of old. God’s sustenance of nature should inspire man to trust in Him.
THE SUFFERING CHURCH PLEADING THE FAITHFULNESS AND HONOUR OF GOD AS AN ARGUMENT FOR HIS INTERPOSITION
(Psa_74:18-23.)
The sorrowful complaint of the suffering people of God passed into a rehearsal of His former glorious doings on their behalf, which was eminently adapted to inspire and strengthen their faith. And now that rehearsal passes into earnest pleading with God, such pleading that has “power with God and prevails.” The Psalmist pleads—
I. The attitude of their enemies to Him.
The enemies of Israel were arrayed in avowed hostility to God, they blasphemed His name daily, they rose tumultuously against Him, therefore His people call upon Him to plead His own cause and subdue His foes and theirs.
1. Their enemies blasphemed Him. “Remember this, the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and the foolish people have blasphemed Thy name: remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily.” What was done against the people of God may in an important sense be said to be a reproach offered to Him. But more than that is meant here. These cruel persecutors were also profane and daring blasphemers. By oppressing and reviling His people they offered insult and hurled reproach to Him. They had also directly and scandalously blasphemed Him. Yet God forbore to smite them. No lightnings strike them. No thunders alarm them. And His people were amazed at this. These blasphemers were foolish people. “The foolish people have blasphemed Thy name, … the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily.” Wickedness is essential folly. The sinner is a great fool. He is so because
(1) He is wilfully pursuing a course which is incompatible with his true well-being. The conditions upon which alone the noblest capacities and faculties of his being can be developed he rejects with scorn. The highest and divinest joys of life he is a stranger to.
(2) He is educating himself for a dark and miserable hereafter. He is qualifying himself for hell—the hell of sinful habits, evil and furious passions, accusing and tormenting memories, and black and threatening prospects.
(3) He is contending against irresistible forces. Truth, righteousness, love are against him, and they are eternal and must conquer. God is against him. The sinner is a worm fighting against Almightiness. The enemies of God, unless they submit to Him, must be crushed. No sinners are greater fools than those who ridicule religion and reproach the religious. If religion be true, then the folly of those who ridicule it is utter, egregious, and ruinous. If religion be false, then it becomes the duty of those who have made the discovery to lead the religious to truth and reality, and not to treat them with reproach.
2. Their enemies loudly opposed Him. “Forget not the voice of Thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against Thee increaseth continually.” The wicked were clamorous in their fury against Him, and for the destruction of His people. They were making war against Him with loud and defiant cries, like the shouts of battle. They were challenging God to combat.
3. All this is urged by the inspired poet as a reason why God should arise in defence of His own cause and that of His people. These enemies were doing their utmost to tarnish and sully the glory of His name; would He submit to that? They were openly aspersing His honour; would He not appear in self-vindication? Fools were loudly bidding Him defiance; would He not smite them with perpetual dumbness? If He did not care for the sufferings of His people, was He not jealous of His own glory? If He was indifferent as to their cause, was He also indifferent as to His own? “Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause,” and so send us deliverance from our enemies, for they are Thy foes. It is well when the suffering Church can plead for deliverance on the ground that her enemies are also the enemies of God, and that His interests and hers are identical. It is also well when the suffering Church, in strong assurance of the identity of her interests and God’s, can wait with confident expectation and calm patience for His interposition.
II. Their own relation to Him.
1. They were His turtle-dove. “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude.” By comparing themselves to a turtle-dove they plead
(1) Their helplessness. They were weak and utterly defenceless against the fierce host of their foes, if His protection were withdrawn. This is a plea which moves the heart of God. “When I am weak, then am I strong.”
(2) The plaintiveness and incessancy of their cry to Him. “The turtle pours forth from every garden, grove, and wooded hill its melancholy yet soothing ditty, unceasingly from early dawn till sunset. It is from its plaintive note, doubtless, that the Psalmist, in pouring forth his lament to God, compares himself to a turtle-dove.”—Smith’s Bible Dict. The cry of God’s defenceless people was rising constantly and mournfully to Him for His help. Could He close His ear to such appeals?
(3) Their constancy to Him in the future. “From its habit of pairing for life, and its fidelity for its mate, the turtle was a symbol of purity” and faithfulness of affection. The suffering people could not plead their faithfulness to Him in the past. They had wandered far from Him, and often. “The turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord.” But henceforth, as His turtle-dove, they will be constant in their love to Him. “Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?” Let Him have mercy upon them, and they would never forsake Him again.
2. They were the congregation of His poor. God had manifested frequently a special interest in the poor. Those who were specially needy were the objects of His special care. He was pre-eminently the Friend of the fatherless and widow, the afflicted and broken in heart. He had issued particular commands for the treatment of the poor. “I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.” Some of the sternest denunciations of the prophets were directed against those who oppressed the poor. “God has chosen the poor of this world.” They plead that they were His poor, yet they were sorely distressed, and He seemed as though He had forgotten them. Would He forget them for ever? They were HIS poor, they were HIS turtle-dove; would He not appear on behalf of His own? Was their night of oppression to last for ever? Oh, when would He cause their day to dawn by coming to their help?
3. They were His covenanted people. “Have respect unto Thy covenant.” This is the sublimest and most effectual plea of all. Circumstances such as they were now placed in had been described by God through His servant Moses, and He had said, “If then their hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” (Lev_26:33-45). “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said it, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips (Psa_89:30-34). The appeal is made to the truth and faithfulness of God. “If we believe not, He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” How much more will He abide faithful if His people, even in darkness and distress, do believe, and plead His promises, and urge Him to fulfil them! Certainly, if their punishment has done its work in them, if they are truly and sufficiently humbled and penitent, He will respect His covenant by delivering them from their distresses. But, if their sufferings have not led them to genuine and thorough repentance of their sins, He will respect His covenant by withholding His help until they turn to Him with all their heart. He cannot forget His covenant. His faithfulness cannot fail. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words shall not pass away.”
CONCLUSION.—Here are, at least, three lessons for suffering Christians or churches in their pleadings with God.
1. Let us urge His mercy towards us rather than the claims of our miseries upon Him. Perhaps our miseries are all deserved.
2. Let us trust His promises rather than the force or fervour of our petitions. The heartiest prayer does not merit any blessing.
3. If we have broken our share of the covenant, let us be thankful that He abideth faithful, and that in His covenant provision is made for the pardon and restoration of transgressors. “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.… I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.”
THE CHURCH A TURTLE-DOVE
(Psa_74:19.)
I. The church of God is like a turtle-dove.
1. In innocence and inoffensiveness.
2. In defencelessness. We have no defence, but God. Left to ourselves, we are helpless.
3. In purity. “Purifying your hearts by faith.”
4. In fidelity of affection. (See Smith’s Bible Dict., Art. Turtle-Dove.)
II. The church of God is exposed to enemies.
III. The church of God can suffer no real harm unless God should deliver her to her enemies.
IV. The church of God is dear to Him, therefore He will not abandon her. “Thy turtle-dove.”
HINTS FOR A MISSIONARY SERMON
(Psa_74:20.)
I. The state of the heathen world.
1. Darkness. Not without the light of nature, reason, or conscience; but without the light of Revelation 2. Cruelty. Missionary records, and the narratives of explorers afford sadly numerous and painful illustrations of this.
II. The covenant of God in relation to the heathen world. That the heathen are included in it is manifest from both prophecies and promises of the Word (Psa_2:8; Psa_72:8-17; Isa_11:9, et al.)
III. The duty of the church in relation to the heathen world.
1. To plead God’s covenant on its behalf.
2. To carry out the command of God for the fulfilment of the covenant. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 This Psalm contains (1) a complaint; (2) a prayer;…
Psa 74:3
This Psalm contains (1) a complaint; (2) a prayer; (3) several pleas for that prayer.
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I. The complaint. It was a complaint of desolation and oppression. God’s temple was lying waste; God had departed from it, and there was as yet no sign of His return. There was also a positive oppression, an enemy who had done wickedly in the sanctuary, and into whose hand the soul of God’s people was all but utterly and for ever delivered. (1) The language in which the psalmist complains of the desolate condition of God’s sanctuary at Jerusalem should become on our lips a confession of separation from God through sin. (2) No man in this world can be the enemy against whom we are to pray. Our foes are invisible and inward. Sins are the enemies for whose discomfiture God and Christ would teach us to pray.
II. The prayer: "Lift up Thy feet unto the perpetual desolations." It is Christ’s promise that God will do so: "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you."
III. The pleas by which the psalmist enforces his prayer. (1) God is a God of power. If He will save, at least He can. (2) The psalmist draws comfort from the remembrance of that which God had already done for Israel: "God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." (3) The psalmist could appeal to an express word of promise: "Have respect unto Thy covenant, and let not the oppressed return ashamed."
C. J. Vaughan, Harrow Sermons, 1st series, pp. 37, 50.
Reference: Psa 74:3.—E. A. Abbott, Cambridge Sermons, p. 121.
Psa 74:17
I. One of the chiefest charms of summer is its fulness. And in this fulness is its peace. Summer has the deep consciousness of fruitfulness. It knows it has done its work; it rejoices in its own fulness and wealth. Man’s content is in looking back and seeing that his beginning of things has now been led on to some fulfilment, however small, in having accomplished something of his aspiration, in producing some fruit.
II. The real looking forward we should have, the real aspiration, is that which the summer has; and it is one of content, not of discontent. It is the looking forward to harvest, and it is founded on faith, which has its root in the fact that work has been already done. We believe in a harvest of our life, because the fields we have sown are whitening already for harvest.
III. There is another contentment that summer images; it is the contentment of rest. The earth rests from her labour, and her works do follow her. There is no flower, tree, mountain, or lake but seems to half slumber in the humming heat. They know their own beauty, and abide in it as in a shell. There is only one way to win something of God’s peace. It is to learn the lesson nature gives us of daily self-forgetfulness. Content is its reward. It is the lesson summer gives and the reward she wins.
IV. You are God’s unquiet child, and He desires you to rest, but as yet you will not learn to love, the highest things well enough to win your rest. You must first take His yoke of sacrifice upon you. Faith and love will hush your discontent with partial knowledge and partial truth, for you shall know that God will complete at last that which is in part. The knowledge that God loves you will lessen the discontent of trial. Fruitfulness will follow on faith and love, and with fruitfulness there will be content: the deep content of duties fulfilled, of aspirations growing into fulfilment, of moral power secured. That is the summer life of the soul.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 351.
Psa 74:17
What are the winter hopes and joys, what the faith of the winter of old age? They are born out of the natural array of things in wintertide; they are pictured in the winter’s landscape.
I. Winter drives us to our home. We make oar life warm and gay within our walls. We forget the bitter days, save when we remember to give of our plenty to the poor and sorrowful. There are no times that may be happier than winter, if we will. And when age has come, we are also driven home. Our life is naturally made an inner life, and work without is changed for musing memory within.
II. We see in the frost-bound world the picture of death. Is there nothing but death there? Look beneath the surface of the earth, under the shroud of snow. Beneath the winding-sheet is, not death, but life in preparation, hidden, but in slow activity. The forces are being laid up which will be the green leaves of a thousand woods, the roses and lilies of a thousand gardens, the fountain rush of spring. That is what winter tells the man who knows. It is the story it tells also to the Christian, who has found and known the fatherhood of God. He has an inward life that refuses death. In the patient waiting and repose of a faithful age the spiritual forces which will make the form, and colour, and power, and work of his coming life are gathering together into a store that waits but the touch of death to break into immortal energy. He will sleep beneath the snow, but it will be to awaken.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 385.
I. The winter illustrates to us the beneficent principle of distribution acted upon by the Divine providence. We must have our winter, in order that the inhabitants of another part of the world may have their summer. The winter therefore seems to inculcate upon us a great lesson of equity and charity—that we should be willing to share the benefits of the system with the distant portions of our great, widespread family, willing to part with a pleasing possession for a season for their sakes, even if we could retain it.
II. Again, the winter should, by the very circumstance of its unproductiveness, remind us of the care and bounty of Divine providence, in that other seasons are granted us which furnish supplies for this, and for the whole year.
III. The winter has a character of inclemency and rigour, has ideas and feelings associated with it of hardship, infelicity, suffering. In this it should be adapted to excite thoughtful and compassionate sentiments respecting the distress and suffering that are in the world.
IV. Winter shows the transitory quality of the beauty, variety, magnificence, and riches which had been spread over the natural world. This consideration easily carries our thoughts to parallel things in human life.
V. There may be a resemblance to winter in the state of the mind in respect to its best interests. And truly the winter in the soul is worse than any season and aspect of external nature. Observe here one striking point of difference: the natural winter will certainly and necessarily, from a regular and absolute cause, pass away after a while; not so the spiritual winter. It does not belong to the constitution of the human nature that the spiritual warmth and animation must come, must have a season.
VI. Note the resemblance of winter to old age. The old age of the wise and good resembles the winter in one of its most favourable circumstances: that the former seasons improved have laid in a valuable store; and they have to bless God that disposed and enabled them to do so. But the most striking point in the comparison is one of unlikeness. Their winter has no spring to follow it—in this world. But the servants of God say, "That is well!" There is eternal spring before them. What will they not be contemplating of beauty and glory while those who have yet many years on earth are seeing returning springs and summers?
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 278.
References: Psa 74:17.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 336. Psa 74:18.—E. V. Hall, Sermons in Worcester Cathedral, p. 66. Psa 74:20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1451. Psa 75:6, Psa 75:7.—A. K. H. B., From a Quiet Place, p. 64. Psa 76:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 791. Psa 76:5.—S. Baring-Gould, The Preacher’s Pocket, p. 119.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The enemy being God’s enemy a plea for deliverance.
The enemy being God’s enemy a plea for deliverance.
Maskil of Asaph.
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In the second psalm of the Third Book we have the enemy in the sanctuary, and the destruction of that with which all blessing for the nation was connected, around which its religious life clustered and intertwined itself. Thus the desolation of the sanctuary was the casting off of the people of God, -the writing Lo-Ammi on them. It is difficult for us as Christians to put ourselves into the position of a man of that dispensation, where all spiritual blessings were sealed and symbolized to them by outward means. To say, "I am continually with Thee," was itself comparatively easy while Jehovah’s tent was in their midst; but with the sanctuary desolated, how different would this be! Yet this might be used of God to bring the individual soul, after all, nearer to Him, -to make faith more fully aware of that personal link with Him which never could be broken. In Judaism, with all things right, the personal link founded itself upon and grew out of the corporate one. In Christianity, where things are right, the personal link is the foundation of all, and it is the union of those who believe which forms the body. The Judaized, ritualistic Christianity reverts to the old order, which was but probationary, and leaves the soul’s personal interests secondary and doubtful. God, to bring His people into the blessings He designs for them; suffers the collapse of the Jewish system. That which was of course on the one hand the penalty of their national sins (and indeed apostasy), becomes in the mercy of God, through individual exercise and the conviction of legal unrighteousness, a wholesome and effective discipline for the remnant of His ancient people, who find their way to Him. not on the ground of the Jewish covenant, but as mere "sinners of the Gentiles." We have had their picture before us in the touching history of Ruth.
No wonder, therefore, that this is another Maskil psalm, -a special "instruction" for Israel in the last days; although it needs for full understanding to be put in connection with the thirty-second psalm, which as the first of these maskilim is the beginning of all true intelligence, and in living relation to them all. (See Notes.)
1. The psalm begins with a cry to God, as thus (as a people) abandoned by Him. They are -not "forever," as if they were predicting the future, but "perpetually," that is, as a matter of day by day experience, -forsaken of Him. They beseech Him; as it were, to "lift His feet," that is to come and look at these perpetual desolations: they are indeed the terrible and demonstrative proof of their abandonment; for they are the ruins of His own dwelling-place among them. But who could have accomplished this, so long as He owned it as that in any wise? how impossible for an enemy to prevail against God!
But they are "the sheep of His pasture," whom He has thus forsaken! Not that by this is meant to assert any righteousness on their part. It is not that they have been tractable, docile, obedient to government: who could assert this for them? No, it is privilege that they are thinking of, -of His provision for them; of that into which He had brought them, little as they might have responded to His care. They were His assembly, His in a relationship which Himself had formed with them: for He had purchased them; He had redeemed them: whatever they might be, would the unrepenting One deny His work! He had chosen Zion and dwelt there: could He altogether forsake it?
Thus we see that there is no self-righteousness in this plea that is made with God. It is really founded on that covenant name, Jehovah, though this does not, with good reason, appear. But in the power of that name it was that He redeemed them out of Egypt at the first. He will be true to it: He will act according to His own nature, not as if He repented, or changed because men changed. And this ground taken is really that of grace -of the thirty-second psalm -of purchase and redemption, which implies the putting away of sin.
2. But the psalmist goes on to picture the enemy’s work in all its desperate profanity as against God. Not the least sign was there of fear, or of regard: Thine adversaries roar in the midst of Thy place of assembly." There is worse abomination: there, where the tokens have been seen of the worship of the true God only, "they set up their signs as signs." "By ’signs,’" says Delitzsch, "we must not understand military insignia; the scene of the Temple and the supplanting of the Israelite’s national insignia to be found there, by the substitution of other insignia, requires that the word should have the religious reference in which it is used of circumcision and of the Sabbath (Exo 22:13); such heathen ’signs’ which were thrust upon the Temple and congregation of Jehovah as henceforth the lawful ones were those which are set forth in 1Ma 1:45-49, and more particularly the so-called abomination of desolation ’ mentioned in verse 54 of the same chapter." The application therefore to the time of the end, to which all these psalms look forward, is evident.
Mere malice seems to guide the hands and strengthen the arms of the invaders of the holy places. They seem like men leveling trees in a thicket; but no, it is the carved work of the sanctuary which is ruthlessly demolished with axes and hammers. Then they set it on fire and burn it profanely to the ground. And this flame spreads far and wide throughout the land against every place of gathering that owns the Name of the "Mighty One," thus assailed by the pitiful weak arms of men His creatures.
And who knows the limit? There is no prophet any more: there is none who knows how long. But here the extremity of evil rouses afresh the appeal to God, who does know.
3. He must appear; He must vindicate Himself, for His name is openly reproached. The fool scoffs at it; and though he show himself by this a "fool," yet how can God suffer it? "Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand?" aye, "Thy right hand?" why is the blow, which seems so often about to fall, so constantly delayed? "Get it ready from inside Thy bosom!"
4. The psalmist now goes back to the history of old, to comfort himself with the experience of God’s wonders in behalf of the people, when He led them out of Egypt into this very land, where now so terrible a calamity has fallen upon them. "For God is my King of old," he says, "working deliverances in the midst of the earth," -there where the eyes of men would be most upon them. Egypt, of which he goes on to speak, was such a place; and the haughty king of it was just the person in whom God could make His power known, and declare His name throughout all the earth. "Thou didst in Thy might cleave asunder the sea: Thou brakest the heads of the monsters on the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan* in pieces: and gavest him for food to a people, -dwellers in the desert." These last, spite of the objection that the word used only conveys the thought of animals of the desert, surely refers to Israel; to whom, though for a time only dwellers in the wilderness, their enemies became a spoil. Similarly, Caleb and Joshua speak of the Canaanites afterwards: "they shall be food for us" (Num 14:9); and the words "to a people" seem to be put to guard us from the usual meaning. Delitzsch urges the application of "a people" to the ants in Pro 30:25; but the figurative use is there quite plain, while here it would have no meaning. Israel’s difficulties only become God’s opportunities; their adversaries only furnish them with food: "happy are the people that are in such a case!" but so it is with all the people of God.
{*The crocodile, often the symbol of Egypt. "Leviathan" is from levi, "joined," referring to its scales, and than, almost the same as the word for "monsters," "tannin" in the previous verse.}
The experiences of the onward way are given only in two instances, in some sort evidently contrasted with each other, and chosen on that account, to show nature’s various acting under the power of God. In the first instance in the presence of human need, a "place of springs and brooks" is cleft in the flinty rock, and the people are nourished from the barren breast of the desert. In the other case the impetuous Jordan -no winter-torrent merely, and at its flood-tide -is dammed back and dries up. The long journey ends with the same display of power with which it had begun.
From these special interventions of God in history, the psalmist passes on to His general and orderly government in creation. Israel’s God is the Creator; and His general government is in harmony with His gracious relationship to His people. The stars in their courses fight against Sisera, and all things work together for good to them that love Him. And yet no less does He make His sun to rise upon the evil and upon the good, and send His rain upon the just and unjust. These things are, of course, in no wise contradictory, for it is unbelief itself which makes that which otherwise would be blessing turn to its very opposite. So Christ in the world, in fashion as a man, was fullest, richest blessing for every one, the source of all blessing: yet men stumbled over Him, and to that, says the apostle, (1Pe 2:8,) "they were appointed." There can be no blessing for faith, but unbelief will stumble over it. In the nature of things, faith and unbelief being contraries, there can be nothing that shall be blessing for faith, but unbelief shall take it for the opposite; and He who appoints, therefore, the blessing for faith, appoints thereby the stumbling-block for unbelief. How terrible a thing is sin, then!
But to know that our Father is the Lord of heaven and earth, what unspeakable joy! The day and the night are His alike; and the night unveils a peopled heavens, which even the glory of the day, as that, shuts out. So it has been for us spiritually, as we know. The very going down of Eden glory has but been the occasion of the display of manifold glory. And for us all the night of sorrow has revealed the luminaries with which God has lighted it. For us the day comes only with the sun: it is not earth-manufacture but heaven’s gift.
The next verse, according to its number, speaks of limits. In a world of contraries, and of perpetual conflict, what need for One who shall put limits to this. The limits of the land itself are in this way fixed by God, and a little knowledge of physical geography will teach us its importance. Compare land-locked Siberia, with its mountains cutting off the south, and the countries laved by the currents from the equator. And this therefore, is intimately connected with that "arrangement" of summer and autumn, so necessary to man’s subsistence. When the expected time of blessing for the earth shall come, it may take but an extra throe of earthquake to send man’s wheat-harvests far up towards the pole!*
{*The coal-beds of the polar regions, and even the name of "Greenland" are witness to a very different climate once in those ice-bound tracts. And it was Lyell’s belief, with which many have expressed their concurrence, that a different arrangement of sea and land would suffice to account for so great a difference as that between its present condition and the sub-tropical one argued by the presence of coal and coral.}
Thank God, these physical limits are but signs of power in His hand used in other than material things to restrain and bound; and so we are to read them.
5. From this the psalm goes on to appeal to this strong and stable government of God for recompense to those that are His adversaries as well as theirs, -theirs even on His account. The occasion calls for His intervention now. It is Jehovah Himself whom the enemy reproaches! it is that glorious and terrible Name that the fool scorns and defies. Then with Israel’s Redeemer the psalmist pleads that it is His turtle-dove -defenceless, and as far as the enemy is concerned, innocent -that is in danger. Can He give it up to men inspired in common only by their lusts? -His community, now in a common condition, indeed, in their affliction: can they be perpetually forgotten?
{Verse 29 ’community’: Chajath, as in Psa 68:10: literally, a "living creature"; but used for a "troop, company," also: a body of people, as it were, inspired with one spirit, living one life. It must surely be translated alike in the two parts of one verse, and in measure is so in the common version; the revised, with most, disconnects them by rendering them "wild beast" and "life." With the rendering I have given, however, the nephesh following, usually rendered "soul," is better taken as qualifying chajath, (which is in the construct,) and like the similar psuchikos of the New Testament, Jas 3:15; Jud 1:19.}
Their hope, their refuge, still could be the "covenant." Not, indeed, that terrible legal one which they had violated, and which pleaded only against them; but rather that, back centuries before Sinai, and which in its sign of circumcision spoke of the incapacity of the flesh to accomplish anything towards the fulfilment of the divine promise. Like their father Abraham, with his "body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old," they could still believe in the God of resurrection, and fall back upon that "covenant of promise" given, when as yet there was no law to saddle it with conditions (Gal 3:15-17). Thus in all their forlorn state they could rise to be truly children of their father Abraham; and the divine mercy had here foreseen and provided for the destitution and helplessness in which they are now found. "How good is the God we adore!"
Though, therefore, in the darkened earth, the habitations of violence are everywhere round about, their need shall be an effectual plea with One able to show Himself fully out to such humbled ones. They can plead that the oppressed shall not turn back ashamed, -that the poor and needy shall be made to praise His Name. And again that brings back the realization of how the fool is scoffing at it. Let Jehovah plead, then, His own cause, and remember these reproaches, in which surely in divine government the end must be reached. The tumult of rebellion rising up continually to heaven challenges the power of God to show itself supreme above it.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 74, 79 seem to reflect the same historical…
Psalms 74, 79 seem to reflect the same historical situation, and are usually ascribed to the same author. Both were written in a time of national calamity, when the Temple was profaned (Psalms 74), and the Israelites ruthlessly slaughtered (Psalms 79) by a heathen enemy. The occasion described must have been either the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar's army (586 b.c., 2 Kings 24; 2Ch_36:11 f; Jer_39:1-8; Jer_52:1-4), or the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes (168-165 b.c.: see 1 Maccabees 1-4 and the Intro, to Daniel). Psa_74:7 seems to point to the former, Psa_74:8-9 to the latter period. After an opening appeal to God (Psa_74:1-2) the Ps. describes the ravages of the enemy in the Temple (Psa_74:3-7), and the distressed condition of Israel (Psa_74:8-9). A second appeal (Psa_74:10-11) is followed by recollection of God's past mercies, especially in leading His people from Egypt to Canaan (Psa_74:12-15). Next comes an ascription of praise to God as the Ruler of Nature (Psa_74:16-17), followed by a final prayer that He will vindicate His own glory, which the heathen have dishonoured (Psa_74:18-23).
Title.—Maschil] see on Psalms 32.
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1. Smoke] Like a dark thunder-cloud threatening a flock: see Psa_18:8.
2. The rod.. redeemed] RV 'which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance.'
3. Lift up thy feet unto] Hasten to see.
4. Their ensigns] either military standards or religious emblems: see 1Ma_1:47, 1Ma_1:54-55, 1Ma_1:59.
5. A man.. lifted up] RP 'They seemed as men that lifted up.' The thick trees] RV 'a thicket of trees.'
8. Synagogues] The mention of these points to the later date for the Ps., as they only arose after the return from the Babylonian exile.
9. Our signs] either God's miraculous interpositions, or Jewish religious customs such as sacrifice, circumcision, and sabbath-observance, all of which Antiochus Epiphanes forbade under the heaviest penalties: see 1Ma_1:45, 1Ma_1:48, 1Ma_1:50. No more any prophet, etc.] This hardly applies to the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem, when both Jeremiah and Ezekiel were alive, and when the former had foretold that the captivity would last 70 years. For the absence of prophets in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes see 1Ma_4:46; 1Ma_9:27; 1Ma_14:41.
11. The last clause is condensed in the original. RV adds to the last clause, and consume them.'
13. The sea] the Red Sea: Exo_14:21. The dragons] 'sea monsters,' a figure for Egypt.
14. Leviathan] probably the crocodile, another figure for Egypt: cp. Eze_29:3-5; Eze_32:1-5
The people inhabiting the wilderness] the wild beasts of the desert.
15. Cleave the fountain] i.e. cleave the rock from which the fountain flowed: see Exo_17:6; Num_20:8. Rivers] the Jordan: Jos_3:13; Jos_4:23.
16, 17. The signs of God's presence in nature.
18. The foolish people] RV 'a foolish people,' a heathen nation: see Deu_32:21.
20. Of the earth] better, 'of the land,' the hiding-places to which the Israelites were pursued by their enemies: see 1Ma_1:53; 1Ma_2:27-38.
23. Increaseth] RV 'ascendeth.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Maschil, instruction.
Maschil
Maschil, instruction.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 74
Psalm 74
The Enemy in the Sanctuary
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1. The Prayer on account of the enemy (Psa 74:1-3)
2. The work of the enemy (Psa 74:4-9)
3. Intercession for intervention (Psa 74:10-23)
This is a Psalm for instruction, a Maschil Psalm. The enemy is seen in the sanctuary. This has been applied to the defilement of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, but prophetically it rather refers to that end-time, when the enemy will defile the temple with the abomination of desolation (Mat 24:15). Then the remnant loving the sanctuary tells the Lord about it as we read in this Psalm, and in a mighty intercession pleads for intervention. “O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove (Israel) unto the multitude of the wicked--Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.” How true that will be during the great time of trouble. And then the cry to God to arise.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Prayer for the Preservation of the Church.
Prayer for the Preservation of the Church.
Maschil, a didactic poem, of Asaph, a prophetic psalm, foretelling some of the afflictions which would befall the Church of God, in the Old Testament as well as in the New.
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v. 1. O God, why hast Thou cast us off forever? this being the conclusion reached by the psalmist in considering the condition of the spiritual Israel as he saw it in spirit. Why doth Thine anger smoke, the smoking of the nostrils as with an inner fire being the picture frequently used in the Hebrew language to denote violent anger, against the sheep of Thy pasture? this being a common designation of the believers throughout the Bible. Cf John 10.
v. 2. Remember Thy congregation, not only thinking of it in mercy, but showing His favor in deeds of kindness, which Thou hast purchased of old, which had become His possession by the deliverance from the serfdom of Egypt; the rod of Thine inheritance, the tribe or nation of His possession, which Thou hast redeemed, this statement pointing both backward to the purchase out of Egypt’s slavery and forward to the eternal redemption by Jesus Christ; this Mount Zion, His own holy Church of all times, wherein Thou hast dwelt. Note the climax in the terms to denote the relation of God to the people of His covenant.
v. 3. Lift up Thy feet, in long and hurried steps, unto the perpetual desolations, the ruins of His spiritual Temple; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the Sanctuary, the desecrations of the Old Testament being due principally to idolatry, those of the New Testament consisting in false doctrine and the perversions of the means of grace.
v. 4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of Thy congregations, in the place where God revealed Himself in the assembled congregation in His Word; they set up their ensigns for signs, heathen customs and ceremonies taking the place of the forms of Worship instituted or approved by God. That this was done in the Chaldean and the Maccabean periods is a matter of historical fact; that it is being done today is evident to every observer.
v. 5. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees, or, He, the enemy, shows himself, makes known himself, as one who raises axes on high in the thicket of the woods;
v. 6. but now they break down the carved work thereof, the costly and artistic; paneling of the Temple, at once with axes and hammers, in deliberate and ruthless vandalism, exactly as the present-day enemies attempt to desecrate the spiritual temple of the Lord.
v. 7. They have cast fire into Thy sanctuary, deliberately burning the house of Jehovah; they have defiled, by casting down, the dwelling-place of Thy name, where the Lord revealed Himself to His people in the Word, to the ground, the profanation of all things holy being the delight of the Lord’s enemies always.
v. 8. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together, bringing the believers into subjection with cruelty and violence; they have burned up all the synagogs of God in the land, all the places of assembly, whether the schools of prophets are here meant or the synagogs proper as they existed after the Exile.
v. 9. We see not our signs, the customs of regular worship had been discontinued; there is no more any prophet, this lament containing a true description not only of the last centuries of the pre-Christian era, but also of many other periods of the Church’s life; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long, that is, how long the time of such persecution and tribulation would last.
v. 10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? sneeringly state that Israel had been forsaken by God. Shall the enemy, by such jeering remarks, blaspheme Thy name, the entire revelation of the power and attributes of Jehovah, forever?
v. 11. Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? this being the symbol of God’s almighty power. Pluck it out of Thy bosom, where it seemed that the Lord had hidden it; He should show His might, the psalmist pleads, by sending destruction upon the enemies.
v. 12. For God is my King of old, in spite of the gloominess of the present outlook the poet clings to this trust, working salvation in the midst of the earth, that is, throughout the habitable world He makes known and works His redemption.
v. 13. Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength, cleaving the Red Sea asunder for the passage of Israel; Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters, the expression referring to the Egyptian tyrants.
v. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan, the crocodile, the most powerful animal of Egypt, in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness, food for the wilderness dwellers, the wild beasts of the desert consuming the carcasses of the Egyptians after their overthrow in the Red Sea. Thus the monsters mentioned here are emblems of Egypt, whose power was overthrown by the might of Jehovah.
v. 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood, in giving the Israelites water out of the rock, Exo 17:5; Num 20:11; Thou driedst up mighty rivers, the reference being chiefly to the passage of Jordan, Jos 3:13.
v. 16. The day is Thine, the night also is Thine, He, as the great Sovereign, has fixed the laws governing their course; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun, the light-bodies being His creatures and subject to Him.
v. 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, not only by dividing it from the sea, but also by fixing the natural boundaries of nations; Thou hast made summer and winter, the seasons also being His creatures and therefore subject to His command. Thus the absolute, limitless power of God is described, this description serving as a basis of the supplication following.
v. 18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people, the enemies gone mad with their rejection of Jehovah, have blasphemed Thy name, v. 10.
v. 19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove, the individual believer and the entire Church being included in this designation on account of the manner in which the dove seeks refuge when danger is near, unto the multitude of the wicked, the band which is so active in planning its destruction. Forget not the congregation of Thy poor, the meek sufferers for the sake of His name, forever.
v. 20. Have respect unto the covenant, regarding His promise to uphold the fellowship between Himself and His people; for the dark places of the earth, the eaves and hiding-places of the persecuted believers, are full of the habitations of cruelty, since it happened repeatedly in the history of the Church that the enemies searched out and killed the faithful even in the mountain fastnesses (period of the Maccabees, the Huguenot persecution, etc. ).
v. 21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed, on account of the Lord’s refusal to give him the assistance he craved; let the poor and needy, the afflicted members of His Church, praise Thy name, thanking Him for the deliverance which He was requested to provide.
v. 22. Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause, for it was, after all, Jehovah’s cause which was in danger on account of the action of the enemies; remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily, Jehovah’s own honor thereby being assailed.
v. 23. Forget not the voice of Thine enemies, their sneering blasphemies; the tumult of those that rise up against Thee, in open rebellion against His sovereign rule, increaseth continually, rising up threateningly against the throne of the Most High. That is a prayer which is bound to have its effect, when the believers boldly point out to the Lord that it is His own interests in the world which are endangered on account of the attitude of the enemies.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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A maschil of Asaph
"This is a maschil that Asaph wrote."
A maschil
This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in Psalms 32:1.
God, why have you rejected us forever?
This can be translated as a statement. AT: "God, we have done nothing wrong, but you have rejected us forever!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?
This can be translated as a statement. AT: "We are the ones you have promised to care for, and we have done nothing wrong, but now you are angry with us!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
the sheep of your pasture
Asaph speaks of the people of Israel as if they were sheep. AT: "against Israel, who are like the sheep whom you feed in your pasture" (See: Metaphor)
Call to mind
"Pay attention to." God has not forgotten his people, but he does not seem to be thinking about them.
your own heritage
"yours forever"
translationWords
Asaph
God
reject
eternity
anger
ewe
call
mind
people of God
redeem
Zion
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 12, 14, 15, 19 Ps 74 The psalmist laments the destruction of the…
Ps 74 The psalmist laments the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (586 BC) with vivid imagery, questions, fresh memories, and a direct appeal for the Lord to act (74:19-23).
74:1-2 In the aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall, it seemed that God had forgotten his special covenant relationship with his people.
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74:1 God rejected his people because their sin aroused his anger (106:34-46). • Like a tender shepherd, God cares for his people, the sheep of his pasture (Pss 23; 100:3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.