Psalms 74

1 (73-1) <Understanding for Asaph.> O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 (73-2) Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

3 (73-3) Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

4 (73-4) And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

5 (73-5) And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

6 (73-6) They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.

7 (73-7) They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.

8 (73-8) They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.

9 (73-9) Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no more.

10 (73-10) How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?

11 (73-11) Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever?

12 (73-12) But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 (73-13) Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14 (73-14) Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him to be meat for the people of the Ethiopians.

15 (73-15) Thou hast broken up the fountains and the torrents: thou hast dried up the Ethan rivers.

16 (73-16) Thine is the day, and thine is the night: thou hast made the morning light and the sun.

17 (73-17) Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.

18 (73-18) Remember this, the enemy hath reproached the Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.

19 (73-19) Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.

20 (73-20) Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.

21 (73-21) Let not the humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.

22 (73-22) Arise, O God, judge thy own cause: remember thy reproaches with which the foolish man hath reproached thee all the day.

23 (73-23) Forget not the voices of thy enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually.

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.