Psalms 74

1 God, why have you turned your back on us for so long? Why does your anger burn against us? We are your very own sheep.

2 Remember that you chose us to be your own people a long time ago. Remember that you set us free from slavery to be your very own tribe. Remember Mount Zion, where you lived.

3 Walk through this place that has been torn down beyond repair. See how completely your enemies have destroyed the temple!

4 In the place where you used to meet with us, your enemies have shouted, "We've won the battle!" They have set up their flags to show they have beaten us.

5 They acted like people cutting down a forest with axes.

6 They smashed all of the beautiful wooden walls with their axes and hatchets.

7 They burned your temple to the ground. They polluted the place where your Name is.

8 They had said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!" They burned every place where you were worshiped in the land.

9 You don't give us miraculous signs anymore. There aren't any prophets left. None of us knows how long that will last.

10 God, how long will your enemies make fun of you? Will they attack you with their words forever?

11 Why don't you help us? Why do you hold back your powerful right hand? Use your strong arms to destroy your enemies!

12 God, you have been my king for a long time. The whole earth has seen you save us over and over again.

13 You parted the Red Sea by your power. You broke the heads of that sea monster in Egypt.

14 You crushed the heads of the sea monster Leviathan. You fed it to the creatures of the desert.

15 You opened up streams and springs. You dried up rivers that flow all year long.

16 You rule over the day and the night. You created the sun and the moon.

17 You decided where the borders of the earth would be. You made both summer and winter.

18 Lord, remember how your enemies have made fun of you. Remember how foolish people have attacked you with their words.

19 Don't hand Israel, your dove, over to those wild animals. Don't forget your suffering people forever.

20 Honor the covenant you made with us. Horrible things are happening in every dark corner of the land.

21 Don't let your suffering people be put to shame. May those who are poor and needy praise you.

22 God, rise up. Stand up for your cause. Remember how foolish people make fun of you all day long.

23 Pay close attention to the shouts of your enemies. The trouble they cause never stops.

Psalms 74 Commentary

Chapter 74

The desolations of the sanctuary. (1-11) Pleas for encouraging faith. (12-17) Petitions for deliverances. (18-23)

Verses 1-11 This psalm appears to describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans. The deplorable case of the people of God, at the time, is spread before the Lord, and left with him. They plead the great things God had done for them. If the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was encouragement to hope that he would not cast them off, much more reason have we to believe, that God will not cast off any whom Christ has redeemed with his own blood. Infidels and persecutors may silence faithful ministers, and shut up places of worship, and say they will destroy the people of God and their religion together. For a long time they may prosper in these attempts, and God's oppressed servants may see no prospect of deliverance; but there is a remnant of believers, the seed of a future harvest, and the despised church has survived those who once triumphed over her. When the power of enemies is most threatening, it is comfortable to flee to the power of God by earnest prayer.

Verses 12-17 The church silences her own complaints. What God had done for his people, as their King of old, encouraged them to depend on him. It was the Lord's doing, none besides could do it. This providence was food to faith and hope, to support and encourage in difficulties. The God of Israel is the God of nature. He that is faithful to his covenant about the day and the night, will never cast off those whom he has chosen. We have as much reason to expect affliction, as to expect night and winter. But we have no more reason to despair of the return of comfort, than to despair of day and summer. And in the world above we shall have no more changes.

Verses 18-23 The psalmist begs that God would appear for the church against their enemies. The folly of such as revile his gospel and his servants will be plain to all. Let us call upon our God to enlighten the dark nations of the earth; and to rescue his people, that the poor and needy may praise his name. Blessed Saviour, thou art the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Make thy people more than conquerors. Be thou, Lord, all in all to them in every situation and circumstances; for then thy poor and needy people will praise thy name.

Chapter Summary

Maschil of Asaph. Some think that Asaph, the penman of this psalm, was not the same that lived in the times of David, but some other of the same name, a descendant of his {k}, that lived after the Babylonish captivity, since the psalm treats of things that were done at the time the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, or after; but this hinders not that it might be the same man; for why might he not, under a spirit of prophecy, speak of the sufferings of the church in later ages, as well as David and others testify before hand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow? The psalm is called "Maschil," because it gives knowledge of, and causes to understand what afflictions should befall the church and people of God in later times. The Targum is, "a good understanding by the hands of Asaph."

Some think the occasion of the psalm was the Babylonish captivity, as before observed, when indeed the city and temple were burnt; but then there were prophets, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and after them Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; which is here denied, Psalm 74:9, others think it refers to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; but though prophecy indeed had then ceased, and the temple was profaned, yet not burnt. The Jews apply it to their present captivity, and to the profanation of the temple, by Titus {l}, and to the destruction both of the city and temple by him; so Theodoret: the title of it in the Syriac version is, "when David saw the angel slaying the people, and he wept and said, on me and my seed, and not on these innocent sheep; and again a prediction of the siege of the city of the Jews, forty years after the ascension, by Vespasian the old man, and Titus his son, who killed multitudes of the Jews, and destroyed Jerusalem; and hence the Jews have been wandering to this day."

But then it is not easy to account for it why a psalm of lamentation should be composed for the destruction of that people, which so righteously came upon them for their sins, and particularly for their contempt and rejection of the Messiah. It therefore seems better, with Calvin and Cocceius, to suppose that this psalm refers to the various afflictions, which at different times should come upon the church and people of God; and perhaps the superstition, wickedness, and cruelty of the Romish antichrist, may be hinted at.