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![PSALM 74 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
A maskil[a] of Asaph.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , “TITLE. 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.
DIVISIO . From Psalms 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 (Psalms 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.
ELLICOTT, “Two periods only in the history of the Jews offer possible place for
the composition of this psalm—that immediately after the Chaldæan invasion, and
that of the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C 167). Against the former of
these is the statement in Psalms 74:9 (see ote), which could not have been spoken
while Jeremiah was alive. Hence, with a certainty allowed by no other of the psalms,
this, with Psalms 79, can be referred to the year before the patriotic rise of the
Asmoneans. Indeed, as Delitzsch remarks, their contents coincide with the prayer of
Judas Maccabæus preserved in 2 Maccabees 8:1-4. The only argument of any
weight against this conclusion is the expression in Psalms 74:3, “ruins,” which
appears at first sight too strong a term for the mischief wrought by the Syrians at
the command of Antiochus. But we must allow at such a crisis a little licence to
patriotism and poetry; and, unless the words must be limited to the sanctuary
(which is not absolutely necessary: see ote), the picture given in the Book of
Maccabees of the state of the Holy City, is such as to bear out the psalm. The
poetical form is irregular.
COKE, “Title. משׂכיל ףּלאס maskiil leasaph.— This psalm seems to have been
composed just upon the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans.
The author, after lamenting the calamities of his country, and the insults of his
enemies, calls to remembrance the glorious exploits which God had performed in
ancient days for his people, and prays him to exert himself afresh in their cause,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-1-2048.jpg)
![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? Deuteronomy 29:24. Compare Psalms 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.
WHEDO , “1. Why hast thou cast us off for ever—The rejection and desolation
appeared absolute and without remedy. See Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:10. In the first
three verses the psalmist utters a fervent prayer, which is suspended by the recitals
of Psalms 74:4-9, and then resumed to the end.
Sheep of thy pasture—See Psalms 80:1.
Smoke—Compare under Psalms 80:4. The smouldering ruins of the temple and city
fitly illustrated the dark and fiery breath of wrath.
COFFMA , “A LAME T FOLLOWI G THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
This is another of the Psalms accredited to Asaph. However, "Asaph, like Jeduthun
and Heman, became a tribe-name, attaching to all the descendants of the original
Asaph, and was equivalent to `the son of Asaph.'"[1]
The occasion for this Psalm has been assigned to three different dates: "These
identifications are (1) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by
ebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. (2 Kings 24), (2) the suppression of a Jewish
insurrection by a Persian King Artaxerxes Ochus in 351 B.C., and (3) the profaning
of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C.[2] Despite the skillful arguments
of Delitzsch who favored the Maccabean date, our conclusion is that only the total
destruction of the Temple by ebuchadnezzar in 587 fills the bill as the correct date
for this psalm.
There are apparently some powerful arguments against this in the psalm itself,
which we shall discuss in the notes below.
The determining factor in this question is that this psalm represents the temple itself
as having been burned; and that definitely did not occur either in the times of
Shishak or those of the Maccabeans.
An example of how scholars can go "overboard" for an incorrect conclusion, based
upon a few facts, is that of Addis.
"Synagogues are everywhere in the land, and no prophet has arisen... Everything
points to the composition of the Psalm between 168 B.C. and 165 B.C."[3]
Such a conclusion is in error, because the Second Temple was never burned, until
the rebuilt version of it by Herod the Great was burned by the soldiers of Vespasian
and Titus in the year 70 A.D. Addis' arguments, however, are important, and we
shall examine them more closely in the text below.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-7-2048.jpg)
![A very significant peculiarity of this psalm was pointed out by Spurgeon. "There is
not a single mention of either personal or national sin in this psalm; and yet one
cannot doubt that the writer was fully aware of the sins and iniquities of Israel that
had brought all of this misery upon them."[4]
Leupold, Rawlinson and Ash, along with most present day scholars, agree that the
most likely date is that following the destruction of the Temple by ebuchadnezzar
in 587 B.C. As McCullough stated it, " one of the suggested dates is free from
difficulty, but the first (that of 587 B.C.) is most likely."[5]
Psalms 74:1-2
"O God, why hast thou cast us off forever?
Why dost thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,
Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance;
And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt."
The plight of Israel at this time was indeed pitiful. Their sins had finally reached a
level that required their captivity and the dissolution of their earthly kingdom. The
true people of God, after this time, were no longer to be found in the land of Israel,
but in Babylon. The Israelites still remaining in "the land" did not understand this.
"Why hast thou cast us off forever" (Psalms 74:1)? The "kingdom" in the sense of
an earthly monarchy, was indeed cast off forever. It had never been God's will in
the first place; and the reprobacy, idolatry, and wickedness of Israel's kings had at
last made their removal absolutely necessary.
"Remember thy congregation" (Psalms 74:2). God did indeed remember "the
congregation," which at that time had been transferred to Babylon; but the psalmist
was apparently still in Jerusalem, from which God's presence had been removed,
and in which the temple itself had been profaned, plundered, desecrated and burned
to the ground. God was forever finished with that "earthly kingdom" of Israel.
Pitiful indeed was the plight of the few true children of God who, along with the
psalmist, were still left among that conceited, rebellious, and soon to be destroyed
residue of the people that yet remained in Jerusalem.
CO STABLE, “Verses 1-23
Psalm 74
The writer appears to have written this communal lament psalm after one of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-8-2048.jpg)
![Israel"s enemies destroyed the sanctuary. [ ote: See Ralph W. Klein, Israel in
Exile: A Theological Interpretation, pp19-20.] The Babylonian destruction of
Jerusalem and the temple in586 B.C. may therefore be the background. The writer
asked the Lord to remember His people and defeat her enemies, as He had in the
past, for His own glory (cf. Psalm 79; Psalm 137; Lam.).
"The temple has been violated. The key symbol of life has been lost. Things in all
parts of life fall apart-precisely because the center has not held. This psalm of
protest and grief does not concern simply a historical invasion and the loss of a
building. It speaks about the violation of the sacral key to all reality, the glue that
holds the world together." [ ote: Brueggemann, p68.]
EBC, “Two periods only correspond to the circumstances described in this psalm
and its companion (Psalms 79:1-13)-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 (Psalms 74:9), the flaunting of
the invaders’ signs in the sanctuary (Psalms 74:4), and the destruction by fire of all
the "meeting places of God in the land," (Psalms 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
Psalms 74:4 with Lamentations 2:7, and Psalms 74:9 with Lamentations 2:9} The
prophet’s 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.
The psalm begins with a complaining cry to God (Psalms 74:1-3), which passes into
a piteous detail of the nation’s misery (Psalms 74:4-9), whence it rises into petition
(Psalms 74:10-11), stays trembling faith by gazing upon His past deeds of help and
the wonders of His creative power (Psalms 74:12-17), and closes with beseeching
God to vindicate the honour of His own name by the deliverance of his people](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-9-2048.jpg)
![feet implies punishment, the bringing under by force being usually expressed by
treading under the feet. Henry Hammond.
Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet, etc. To these desolations they seek that God would lift up his
footsteps, that is, that he would approach. In Genesis 29:1, there occurs the phrase,
to lift the feet; here the expression is much more marked--to lift up the footsteps --
and must be taken to mean a swift, impetuous, majestic, and powerful approach;
like a hero, who strikes the ground with heavy tread, and advances rapidly with far
sounding footsteps. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 3. In the sanctuary. Their cities had been laid waste, their provinces, their
farms, their vineyards, their oliveyards. They themselves had been everywhere cut
down without striking a blow in defence, and their means of life had been snatched
away without resistance. Yet they speak not of these things; not because things of
this sort ought not to cause grief, nor yet because the saints are not touched with a
sense of their loss; but because those things which threatened the extinction of
religion and the worship of God, overtopped the feeling of all these other
misfortunes with an intolerable sorrow. Musculus.
BE SO , “Psalms 74:3. Lift up thy feet — This is spoken after the manner of men,
and means, Come speedily to our rescue, and do not delay, as men do when they sit
or stand still; unto — Or rather, because of, the perpetual desolations — amely,
those ruins of the city and country, which had lasted so very long, and which, if God
did not come to their help, he intimates, would be perpetual and irrecoverable. Even
all that the enemy hath done wickedly, &c. — God had deserted his sanctuary, and
the shechinah, or cloud of glory, emblematical of the divine presence, had gone up
from between the cherubim: see Ezekiel 10:4. In consequence of which the heathen
people had invaded that holy place, and laid it waste. And the psalmist here
supplicates and urges God’s return to them, as that which alone could restore their
temple, city, and country to their former happy state.
ELLICOTT,”(3) Lift up thy feet.—Better, Lift thy steps. A poetical expression. God
is invoked to hasten to view the desolation of the Temple. A somewhat similar
expression will be found in Genesis 29:1 (margin).
Perpetual desolations.—The word rendered “desolations” occurs also in Psalms
73:18, where it is rendered “destruction.” Here, perhaps, we should render ruins
which must be ever ruins, or complete ruins, or possibly, taking the first meaning of
netsach, ruins of splendour. Isaiah 11:4 does not offer a parallel, since the Hebrew is
different, and plainly refers to the long time the places have been in ruins.
Even all . . .—Better, the enemy hath devastated all in the holy place. 1 Maccabees
1:38-40; 1 Maccabees 3:45 (“ ow Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness”) give the best
explanation of the verse, descriptive, as it is, of the condition of the whole of Zion.
WHEDO , “3. Lift up thy feet—Hasten thy footsteps to the places utterly desolate.
This lifting up of the foot, [or hand,] implies the purpose of doing something, as in
Genesis 41:44 : “Without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot [that is, to
execute a purpose] in all Egypt.” The lifting up the foot is sometimes for trampling](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-20-2048.jpg)
![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 Israel’s sin; for no psalmist could have adduced the destruction
of these as a reason for God’s 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 Psalms 74:9 over the removal of the "signs"-i.e., as in Psalms 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.
K&D 4-8, “The poet now more minutely describes how the enemy has gone on. Since
שׁ ֶּדק in Psa_74:3 is the Temple, ָיך ֶד ֲּועמ in Psa_74:4 ought likewise to mean the Temple
with reference to the several courts; but the plural would here (cf. Psa_74:8) be
misleading, and is, too, only a various reading. Baer has rightly decided in favour of ך ֶמועד
;
(Note: The reading מעודיך is received, e.g., by Elias Hutter and Nissel; the Targum
translates it, Kimchi follows it in his interpretation, and Abraham of Zante follows it
in his paraphrase; it is tolerably widely known, but, according to the lxx and Syriac
versions and MSS, it is to be rejected.)
ד ֵּועמ, as in Lam_2:6., is the instituted (Num_17:1-13 :19 [4]) place of God's intercourse
with His congregation (cf. Arab. mı‛âd, a rendezvous). What Jeremiah says in Lam_2:7
(cf. ,שׁאג Jer_2:15) is here more briefly expressed. By ם ָּתתּוא (Psa_74:4) we must not
understand military insignia; the scene of the Temple and the supplanting of the
Israelitish 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_31:13); such heathen ּותתּא, which were thrust
upon the Temple and the congregation of Jahve as henceforth the lawful ones, were
those which are set forth in 1 Macc. 1:45-49, and more particularly the so-called
abomination of desolation mentioned in v. 54 of the same chapter. With ע ַדָוִּי (Psa_74:5)
the terrible scene which was at that time taking place before their eyes (Psa_79:10) is
introduced. יא ִב ֵמ ְⅴ is the subject; it became visible, tangible, noticeable, i.e., it looked, and
one experienced it, as if a man caused the axe to enter into the thicket of the wood, i.e.,
struck into or at it right and left. The plural ּות ֻ ַק forces itself into the simile because it is
the many heathen warriors who are, as in Jer_46:22., likened to these hewers of wood.
Norzi calls the Kametz of ־עץ ְך ָבסב Kametz chatuph; the combining form would then be a
contraction of ְּךב ְס (Ewald, Olshausen), for the long ā of ְך ָב ְס does not admit of any
contraction. According to another view it is to be read bi-sbāch-etz, as in Est_4:8 kethāb-
hadāth with counter-tone Metheg beside the long vowel, as e.g., ןָ ַֽץ־ה ֵ,ע Gen_2:16). The](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-27-2048.jpg)
![person, who understands his business, lifteth up the axe in the thick wood, so now
men set themselves to work to demolish the ornaments and timbers of the
sanctuary.” They neither regard the sacredness of the place, nor the exquisite
curiosity and art of the work, (here signified by the term carved work,) but cut it
down as indifferently and rashly as men cut down the thick and entangled boughs of
the trees of the forest. “The words,” adds Dr. H., “suggest another reason why God
should arise and have mercy upon Zion, lest his name should be blasphemed among
the nations, when they saw and heard of the sacrilegious and horrible destruction
wrought by the enemy; whom neither the majesty of the temple, nor the reverence of
its divine inhabitant, could restrain from defacing the beauty of holiness. The
ornaments of the internal and spiritual temple sometimes suffer as much from the
fury of inordinate affections, as the carved work of the sanctuary ever did from the
armies of ebuchadnezzar or Antiochus.”
WHEDO , “5. Lifted up axes upon the thick trees—The description, in Psalms
74:5-6, is to this effect: The temple appeared as when one had lifted up axes in a
thick wood, for they had struck down the beautiful carved work and panelling of
the temple with hatchets and hammers, with the indifference of a woodman. This
was with a view to despoiling it of its costly ornaments preparatory to setting it on
fire. See this despoiling detailed, Jeremiah 52:17-23
COFFMA , “Verse 5
"They seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
And now all the carved work thereof
They brake down with hatchet and hammers."
These verses describe the destruction of the holy temple itself. The conquering
enemy soldiers assaulted the sanctuary just like a company of woodsmen chopping
down a grove of trees. "The interior walls of Solomon's Temple were paneled with
cedar and decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and flowers."[6] It was
more than the mere instinct of vandals however that motivated all that chopping. "
1 Kings 6:21f reveals that all that carved work was overlaid with pure gold."[7]
6 They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-32-2048.jpg)
![We learn from 1 Maccabees 4:38, and Josephus, Antt. xii., 7:6, that Judas
Maccabæus, in coming to restore the Temple, found that the gates had been burnt.
COFFMA , “Verse 7
"They have set thy sanctuary on fire;
They have profaned the dwelling place of thy ame by casting it to the ground.
They said in their hearts,
Let us make havoc of them altogether:
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land."
"Thy sanctuary on fire... God's dwelling place cast to the ground" (Psalms 74:7).
The total destruction of the temple is indicated in these lines, a disaster that came
only once, namely, in 586 B.C. at the end of the reign of Zedekiah.
"They ... burned up all the synagogues" (Psalms 74:8). There is hardly any doubt
that this is a mistranslation. It is the only place in the Old Testament that
synagogues are mentioned, synagogues usually being associated with the times after
Antiochus Epiphanes had profaned the temple and forbade the reading of the
Torah, cutting off the Temple worship. This verse is "the big reason" why some
scholars refer this psalm to the times of that era.
"The RSV renders the word here translated `synagogues' as `holy places.'"[8]
Jamieson suggested that such places as "the schools of the prophets"[9] may be
meant. "The key word may also mean `appointed feasts,' but would require another
verb for that meaning."[10] One thing is certain, "Synagogues" is not the correct
rendition. As Kidner suggested, "Perhaps the Septuagint (LXX) has the key to the
problem."[11] That rendition is, "Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from
the earth."[12] One thing that definitely favors the Septuagint (LXX) rendition is
the fact that the abolition of the Jewish feast days was indeed accomplished by the
Babylonians. They were not observed at all during the captivity!
8 They said in their hearts, “We will crush them
completely!”
They burned every place where God was](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-37-2048.jpg)
![How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?"
"There is no more any prophet" (Psalms 74:9). This does not appear to be a
reference to that long inter-testamental period of Israel's history, during which the
voice of prophecy in Israel was providentially silenced. As Ash suggested, we believe
this refers to the time when there was no longer any prophet in Jerusalem and
Judaea.[13]
If this psalm was written after Jeremiah had been taken to Egypt, Psalms 74:9 and
Psalms 74:10, below, would be properly understood as reference to the fact that
there was no longer any prophet in "the land" of Israel. With Daniel and Ezekiel in
Babylon, and with Jeremiah no longer in Jerusalem, there would indeed have been
"no prophet" anymore. To us this appears to be the certain meaning of the passage.
The rebellious residue of Israel that was still in Jerusalem were very conceited,
believing that only they themselves were any longer the object of God's concern,
whereas, in truth, God's true people at that time were in no sense whatever
identified with Jerusalem, but with Babylon. The psalmist appears to be, in a class
with Jeremiah, that is, a member of God's "true people." Thus with Jeremiah
having been forcefully taken to Egypt, there would have been indeed "no prophet"
available to the psalmist.
Certainly Ash's statement is correct that there are enough alternative explanations
of what is meant by 'no prophet,' "To warrant the conclusion that this verse could
refer to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 to 586 B.C."[14]
K&D, 9-11, “The worst thing the poet has to complain of is that God has not
acknowledged His people during this time of suffering as at other times. “Our signs” is
the direct antithesis to “their sings” (Psa_74:4), hence they are not to be understood,
after Psa_86:17, as signs which God works. The suffix demands, besides, something of a
perpetual character; they are the instituted ordinances of divine worship by means of
which God is pleased to stand in fellowship with His people, and which are now no
longer to be seen because the enemies have set them aside. The complaint “there is not
prophet any more” would seem strange in the period immediately after the destruction
of Jerusalem, for Jeremiah's term of active service lasted beyond this. Moreover, a year
before (in the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign) he had predicted that the Babylonian
domination, and relatively the Exile, would last seventy years; besides, six years before
the destruction Ezekiel appeared, who was in communication with those who remained
behind in the land. The reference to Lam_2:9 (cf. Eze_7:26) does not satisfy one; for
there it is assumed that there were prophets, a fact which is here denied. Only perhaps
as a voice coming out of the Exile, the middle of which (cf. Hos_3:4; 2Ch_15:3, and
besides Canticum trium puerorum, Psa_74:14 : καᆳ οᆒκ ᅞστιν ᅚν τሬ καιρሬ τούτሩ ᅎρχων καᆳ
προφήτης καᆳ ᅧγούµενος) was truly thus devoid of signs or miracles, and devoid of the
prophetic word of consolation, can Psa_74:9 be comprehended. The seventy years of
Jeremiah were then still a riddle without any generally known solution (Dan. 9). If,
however, synagogues are meant in Psa_74:8, Psa_74:9 now too accords with the like-
sounding lament in the calamitous times of Antiochus (1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41). In](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-50-2048.jpg)
![miseries. Why withdrawest thou thy hand? — Why dost thou suspend or forbear
the exercise of that power which thou hast so often exerted in behalf of thy people?
Pluck it out of thy bosom — In which thou now seemest to hide it, as idle persons
used to do. This is spoken after the manner of men. It means, Why art thou an
inactive spectator of our miseries? Why dost thou not put forth thy power and
deliver us? For God is my king of old — In a singular manner. It belongs to thine
office to protect and save us; working salvation in the midst of the earth — In the
view of the world: saving thy people so eminently and gloriously, that all the nations
around observed and admired it.
ELLICOTT, “(10-15) ln the true prophetic spirit, as Moses brought the cries of
distress “by reason of their bondage” from the oppressed Israelites to God (Exodus
5:22), so this poet carries to the same God the pathos of this later cry, How long?
how long? In answer, the deliverances of old rush into his mind. He recalls the right
hand once stretched out to save (now thrust in inaction into the bosom), the wonders
at the Red Sea, and all the long-continued providential guiding. Surely the same
God will do the same wonders now!
CO STABLE, “?Verses 10-17
3. An appeal for divine help74:10-17
The psalmist pleaded for God to help His people and to subdue their enemy. The
Lord"s reputation fell with the sanctuary in the eyes of Israel"s neighbors. Ancient
ear Easterners regarded a god"s temple as the reflection of his glory. ow that the
temple on Mt. Zion had suffered damage, the nations would have concluded that
Yahweh was unable to defend His people.
Asaph recalled God"s mighty acts in the past in order to motivate Him to act for His
people by defeating their enemy in the present ( Psalm 74:12-17). Psalm 74:13-14
describe the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus.
". . . the language of Psalm 74:12-14, while tailored to reflect the redemptive
character of the Exodus event, also alludes to God"s victory over chaos at creation."
[ ote: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p260.]
The sea monsters refer to Pharaoh"s soldiers, and Leviathan was a mythical
monster that the writer used to describe Egypt here. The creatures of the wilderness
are the Israelites. Psalm 74:15 recalls events in the wilderness wanderings and the
crossing of the Jordan. Psalm 74:16-17 go back to God"s creation of the cosmos.
"The point here is that what Baal had claimed in the realm of myth, God had done
in the realm of history-and done for His people, working salvation." [ ote: Kidner,
Psalm 73-150 , p268.]
EBC, “Psalms 74:10 and Psalms 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](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-54-2048.jpg)
![ELLICOTT, “(14) Leviathan.—See last note.
And gavest him . . .—The crocodile was eaten by the people of Elephantine (Herod.
ii. 69), but there is no allusion here to that custom, nor to the Ichthyophagi
mentioned by Agatharchides, nor to the Æthiopians (as in the LXX.). It is the
Egyptian corpses thrown up by the Red Sea that are to be devoured (comp. Ezekiel
29:3-5) by the “wild beasts,” called here “people,” as the ants and conies are
(Proverbs 30:25-26).
WHEDO , “14. Leviathan—A different word in the original from “dragons” in
preceding verse, but of similar import. In Isaiah 27:1, it is described as a serpent,
crooked and tortuous, but crocodiles often present that form. So Job 26:13. These
names are not given according to scientific classification, but generally signify
saurian monsters of any kind, and are here used interchangeably. In Psalms 104:26,
it evidently means a mammal of the Mediterranean, the whale, which formerly
inhabited that sea.
Gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness— The Egyptians
proper held the crocodile sacred, and worshipped it as a god, hence they never ate
its flesh. But others, like the inhabitants of the city of Elephantine, in Upper Egypt,
of whom Herodotus speaks, (book ii, sec. 69,) freely ate it. But we may take “people”
in the figurative sense of Proverbs 30:25, “The ants are a people not strong,” and
apply the term to the wild beasts of the desert. The crushing the head of the
crocodile and throwing out the carcass as common food for desert men or beasts,
was the contempt which Jehovah inflicted upon its worshippers.
COFFMA , “Verse 14
"Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:
Thou driedst up mighty rivers."
We reject as irresponsible the claims of certain radicals that we have in this passage
references to, "Primitive creation mythology, the Akkadian creation myth, and to
the mythical conflict between Marduk and Tiamat."[15] It may be freely admitted,
of course, that some of the terminology here was also used in some of the ancient
myths referred to; but as Kidner expressed it, "What Baal had done in the realm of
myth, God had actually done in the realm of history, and had done it for his people,
'working salvation' (Psalms 74:12). What these verses survey is the Exodus and the
crossing of the Jordan."[16]
Rhodes reminds us that, "The Babylonians and Canaanites believed their myths to
be true, but our psalmist did not. He used some of their language in referring to the
Lord in order to state symbolically his power as the one true God and Creator."[17]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-72-2048.jpg)
![As Dummelow pointed out, "The terms 'sea-monsters' and 'Leviathan' (or
crocodile) are simply figures of speech for Egypt."[18]
"Food to the people inhabiting the wilderness" (Psalms 74:14). This does not mean
that Israel fed, literally, upon the bodies of Pharaoh's army washed ashore, but that
Israel was armed with the weapons of the destroyed enemy. The dead bodies no
doubt became the food of wild birds and beasts. Dummelow stated that "the people"
here refers to the wild animals.[19]
"Thou driedst up mighty rivers" (Psalms 74:15). The plural is evidently used here
for emphasis. Certainly, the primary reference is to Israel's crossing the Jordan at
flood stage, and doing so upon dry land!
15 It was you who opened up springs and streams;
you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
BAR ES, “Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood - That is, the source of
the streams and the streams themselves. The main allusion is probably to the Jordan,
and the idea is, that God had, as it were, divided all the waters, or prevented any
obstruction to his people from the river in any respect; as if the waters in the very
springs and fountains, and the waters in the channel of the river flowing from those
springs and fountains, had been so restrained and divided that there was a safe passage
through them. Jos_3:14-17.
Thou driedst up mighty rivers - Margin, “rivers of strength.” The Hebrew - איתן
'êythân - (compare Deu_21:4; Amo_5:24; 1Ki_8:2) - means rather perennial, constant,
ever-flowing. The allusion is to rivers or streams that flow constantly, or that do not dry
up. It was this which made the miracle so apparent. It could not be pretended that they
had gone over the bed of a stream which was accustomed to be dry at certain seasons of
the year. They passed over rivers that never dried up; and, therefore, it could have been
only by miracle. The main allusion is undoubtedly to the passage of the Jordan.
CLARKE, “Thou didst cleave the fountain - Thou didst cleave the rock in the
wilderness, of which all the congregation drank.
Thou driedst up mighty rivers - Does not this refer to the cutting off the waters of
the Jordan, so that the people passed over dryshod?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-73-2048.jpg)
![song is all for God, and the prayer is all directed to him. The argument is that he
who wrought such wonders would be pleased to do the like now that an emergency
had arisen.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Ver. 15. Flood. God in dividing Jordan did not only divide the water that ordinarily
belonged to the river, or the water which came from its fountains, but also the
extraordinary additional waters by the great rains a little before harvest. So God
cleaved both the fountain, i.e., the fountain water, and the flood. Jonathan Edwards.
BE SO , “Psalms 74:15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood — That is,
thou didst, by cleaving the rock, make a fountain in it, and a flood or stream to flow
from it, for the refreshment of thy people in those dry deserts. Thou driedst up
mighty rivers — Hebrew, איתן נהרות rivers of strength. The Seventy, however,
render it, ποταµους ηθαµ, taking the latter word, eethan, for a proper name.
Undoubtedly Jordan is meant: so that “two other remarkable exertions of the divine
power, in favour of the Israelites, are here referred to. Water was brought out of the
rock to satisfy their thirst in the time of drought; and the river Jordan was dried up
to open the passage for them into Canaan.”
COKE, “Psalms 74:15. Mighty rivers— Perpetual springs. Schultens. Psalms 74:16.
The light] The luminary, or receptacle of light, according to the original, The word
מאור maour is collective, and means all the luminaries, with their chief the sun. The
Psalmist here proceeds to shew, that God's power is manifested not only by the
foregoing instances of it in particular, but also by the works of creation in general.
EBC, “In Psalms 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 God’s continual operation. Is there to be no
dawning for Israel’s 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" (Psalms 74:2 and Psalms
74:18).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-75-2048.jpg)
![Thou has made summer and winter."
This psalm is called didactic, that is, a teaching psalm; and here the teaching relates
to the basic truth that the God of Israel is the true Creator of everything, the day,
the night, the sun, the winter, the summer, the land and the sea, everything!
Significantly, this comes right after the use of that terminology from some of the
ancient mythology believed by the pagan world of antiquity. We like what Baigent
had to say about this:
"The vocabulary of ancient ear Eastern lore is here applied as metaphor to the
Exodus. Pagan religious poets traditionally described their god's victory over the sea
and monsters like Leviathan. Israel triumphantly claimed such language for what
God did on their behalf when they crossed the Red Sea and when they crossed
Jordan on dry land. The lord of sacred history is also the powerful God of creation
and providence."[20]
ISBET, “ALTER ATIO S A D CO SOLATIO S
‘The day … the night.’
Psalms 74:16
I. The alternation of day and night is part of a universal law.—(1) Everywhere in
nature. (2) In our daily life. (3) In our spiritual experiences. (4) In all history.
II. All these alternations are Divinely regulated and controlled.—God rules the
darkness as well as the light. Our misfortunes as well as blessings are under His
control. ‘I, the Lord, create light, and I create darkness.’
III. Side by side with this law of alternation there is another—viz. the law of
compensation.—Darkness and light are not opposing forces. ight has its beauties,
its pleasures, and its purposes as well as day. (1) ight reveals more of the heavens
than we see by day. ‘Sorrow brings out truths as night brings out the stars.’ (2) If
day afford opportunity for work, night brings rest. (3) If day yields heat, night
brings the cool refreshing dews. (4) ight is quite as essential as day. ‘It is good for
me that I have been afflicted.’
IV. These laws of alternation and compensation have many valuable lessons for
us.—(1) We must expect changes and vicissitudes. (2) We should learn lessons of
contentment. (3) We should learn to trust in the Lord at all times. (4) We should
remember that the night of death as well as the short day of life is in God’s hands.
He will wake us in the morning where there are no more alternations.
17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the
earth;](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-81-2048.jpg)
![men grow worse and more audacious, we may reasonably take heart, for the hour of
their judgment is evidently near.
BE SO , “Psalms 74:18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached thee —
Though we deserve to be forgotten and destroyed, yet remember thyself, and do not
suffer thine and our enemies to reproach and blaspheme the name of that great and
glorious Being, the Creator and sovereign Lord of the whole world, whom they
ought always to reverence and adore; and that the foolish people have blasphemed
thy name — Who, though they think themselves, and are thought by others, to be
wise, yet in truth are fools, and herein show their stupendous folly, that they vilify
and provoke that God whose powerful anger they can neither resist, nor escape, nor
endure.
COFFMA , “Verse 18
"Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah,
And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast:
Forget not the life of thy poor forever."
"Remember" (Psalms 74:18). Did God indeed remember to avenge himself upon
Babylon? Indeed yes; but in the meanwhile, which included the days of the psalmist,
God was using Babylon to discipline and correct his rebellious children of Israel.
"A foolish people" (Psalms 74:18). "The word `foolish,' both here and in Psalms
74:22 is the very same word that is rendered `fool' in Psalms 14:1 and Psalms
53:1."[21]
"Deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove to the wild beast" (Psalms 74:19). "This is
the only place in the Bible where this metaphor is used of Israel."[22] Did God
indeed deliver Israel? Yes, indeed. o, God did not deliver the rebellious Israel, but
the true Israel, at that time, the captive remnant of the apostate nation who were
captives in Babylon.
CO STABLE, “Verses 18-23
4. An appeal to the covenant74:18-23
The writer also appealed for action because of God"s reputation ("Thy name,"
Psalm 74:18). He compared Israel to a harmless dove and the enemy to a raging wild
beast ( Psalm 74:19). God had promised to hear His people"s cries for help and had
done so in the past (cf. Judges), but now He was silent. Consequently Asaph asked
God to remember His covenant promises to Israel ( Psalm 74:20). This may be a
reference to the promises to Abraham ( Genesis 12:1-3) or to the blessings and
curses of the Mosaic Covenant ( Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). Deliverance would](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-88-2048.jpg)
![lead God"s people to praise Him ( Psalm 74:21). The foolish man ( Psalm 74:22) is
the enemy who does not regard God"s revelation of the fate of those who oppose His
people. Israel"s adversaries evidently mocked Yahweh as they devastated His
sanctuary ( Psalm 74:23).
"The acts of God are primarily a vindication of his name and secondarily of his
people." [ ote: VanGemeren, p490.]
This psalm is a good example of prayer based on the person and promises of God.
When God"s people suffer for their sins, they can call out to Him for help, but He
may continue the discipline even when they base their petitions on His character
and covenant.
K&D 18-23, “The poet, after he has thus consoled himself by the contemplation of the
power of God which He has displayed for His people's good as their Redeemer, and for
the good of the whole of mankind as the Creator, rises anew to prayer, but all the more
cheerfully and boldly. Since ever present facts of creation have been referred to just now,
and the historical mighty deeds of God only further back, ּאתז refers rather forwards to
the blaspheming of the enemies which He suffers now to go on unpunished, as though
He took no cognizance of it. ף ֵר ֵח has Pasek after it in order to separate the word, which
signifies reviling, from the most holy Name. The epithet ל ָבָם־נ ַע reminds one of Deu_
32:21. In Psa_74:19 according to the accents תַ ַח is the absolute state (the primary form
of הָ ַ,ח vid., on Psa_61:1): give not over, abandon not to the wild beast (beasts), the soul
of Thy turtle-dove. This is probably correct, since שׁ ֶפֶנ תַ ַח ְ,ל “to the eager wild beast,” this
inversion of the well-known expression הָ ַח שׁ ֶפֶ,נ which on the contrary yields the sense of
vita animae, is an improbable and exampleless expression. If נפשׁ were intended to be
thus understood, the poet might have written תורך הָ ַח לנפשׁ ,אל־תתן “give not Thy turtle-
dove over to the desire of the wild beast.” Hupfeld thinks that the “old, stupid reading”
may be set right at one stroke, inasmuch as he reads תורך חית לנפש תתן ,אל and renders it
“give not to rage the life Thy turtle-dove;” but where is any support to be found for this
,לנפשׁ “to rage,” or rather (Psychology, S. 202; tr. p. 239) “to eager desire?” The word
cannot signify this in such an isolated position. Israel, which is also compared to a dove
in Psa_68:14, is called a turtle-dove (ּור ). In Psa_74:19 תַ ַח has the same signification as
in Psa_74:19, and the same sense as Psa_68:11 (cf. Ps 69:37): the creatures of Thy
miserable ones, i.e., Thy poor, miserable creatures - a figurative designation of the
ecclesia pressa. The church, which it is the custom of the Asaphic Psalms to designate
with emblematical names taken from the animal world, finds itself now like sheep
among wolves, and seems to itself as if it were forgotten by God. The cry of prayer ט ֵ ַה
ית ִר ְ ַל comes forth out of circumstances such as were those of the Maccabaean age. ית ִר ְ is
the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17); the persecution of the age of the Seleucidae put
faith to the severe test, that circumcision, this sign which was the pledge to Israel of
God's gracious protection, became just the sign by which the Syrians knew their victims.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-89-2048.jpg)
![devotion received its just recompense.
SIMEO , “GOD’S I TEREST I HIS PEOPLE
Psalms 74:22. Arise, O God! plead thine own cause.
O one can have ever heard or read the account given us of Abraham’s intercession
for Sodom, without being struck with the condescension of God in suffering a poor
sinful worm so to urge his requests as to make every fresh concession an occasion of
still larger demands. Yet, methinks, the petition offered in my text is incomparably
more bold than perhaps any other that was ever offered by fallen man.
In unfolding this petition, I will shew you,
I. That there is an identity of interests between God and his people—
This the psalm before us clearly proves—
[Great was the distress of God’s people at the time it was written: they appear to
have been forsaken of their God, and delivered over into the hands of their enemies.
But the writer speaks, throughout the psalm, as if their cause was God’s; and calls
upon God to take it up altogether as his own: “O God, why hast thou cast us off for
ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 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 [ ote: ver. 1, 2.]!”
“Have respect unto the Covenant [ ote: ver. 20.].” “Arise, O God! plead thine own
cause.” Who would imagine that this is the address of a sinner imploring mercy for
himself and for his people? Yet such it is: and this clearly proves that God considers
his people’s cause as his own, and their interests as identified with his.]
The whole Scriptures also speak to the same effect—
[When the people murmured against Moses, he warned them that their murmuring
was not against him, but against God himself [ ote: Exodus 16:8.]. When the people
of Israel desired to have no longer a judge, like Samuel, but a king, like other
nations around them, Samuel told them, that it was not him that they had rejected,
but God [ ote: 1 Samuel 8:7.]. The Prophet Zechariah confirms this, in terms
peculiarly strong and energetic, when he represents God as saying to his oppressed
people, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye [ ote: Zechariah
2:8.].” Our blessed Lord and Saviour speaks to the same effect; and so identifies
himself with his people, that, whether they be benefited or injured, he considers it as
done to himself. Is any poor servant of his clothed or fed or visited, Christ says, “In
doing it to him, ye did it to me [ ote: Matthew 25:40.].” On the other hand, is any
one of them oppressed, Christ feels the stroke as inflicted on himself: “Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me [ ote: Acts 9:4.]?”]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-108-2048.jpg)
![This being clear, I proceed to shew,
II. Whence this identity arises—
It arises,
1. From the relation in which they stand to God—
[In the psalm before us this is strongly marked. The Jewish nation being “his
sheep,” “his congregation,” “his inheritance,” was a reason why he should consider
“their cause as his own.” The whole people of Israel were accounted by God as “his
portion and inheritance,” and the more religious part of them as “his peculiar
treasure” and “his jewels.” Yea, he accounted himself as their Father, and them as
his children. ow, is there a parent in the universe who, if his child were injured,
would not account the injury as done to himself? We wonder not, then, that God
should regard his children’s cause as identified with his own.]
2. From the union which subsists between them and the Lord Jesus Christ—
[They have been “bought with the precious blood of Christ,” who therefore
considers them as “his own [ ote: 1 Corinthians 6:20.].” And how near their union
with him is, may be seen by the images under which it is described. He is “the
foundation” on which they stand [ ote: 1 Peter 2:4-5.], and consequently one with
the superstructure built upon him. He is “the Husband” of his Church, and
therefore one with his spouse [ ote: Ephesians 5:32.]. But the union is far closer
than this: for “He is the vine, and they are the branches,” vitally united to him, and
deriving all their sap and nourishment from him [ ote: John 15:4-5.]. But neither
does that come up to the full idea of our union with him: for “we are members of his
body, even of his flesh and of his bones [ ote: Ephesians 5:30.],” yea, and are also
“one Spirit with him [ ote: 1 Corinthians 6:17.],” he being “the very life that liveth
in us [ ote: Colossians 3:4 and Galatians 2:20.].” In fact, there is no union with
which it can be compared, but that which exists between the Father and Christ
[ ote: John 17:21.]: and hence St. Paul calls the collective members of his body by
the very name of Christ: “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ [ ote: 1
Corinthians 12:12.];” that is, so also is the Church of Christ, which is so identified
with him, that it may well bear his very name. How can it be, then, but that he
should make our cause his own?]
3. From the connexion which there is between their prosperity and his glory—
[When God threatened to extirpate Israel for their heinous provocations, Moses
urged on God the consideration of his own glory, which would suffer, if that threat
were carried into execution [ ote: Exodus 32:11-13. umbers 14:13-16.]. On the
other hand, God’s honour is represented as greatly advanced by their welfare. If
they flourish as “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord [ ote: Isaiah
61:3.],” and “bring forth much fruit, God is glorified [ ote: John 15:8.].” Hence, in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-109-2048.jpg)
![the book of Psalms, this consideration is urged with earnest importunity as a plea
for speedy and effectual relief: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy
name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy name’s sake. Wherefore
should the heathen say, Where is their God [ ote: Psalms 79:9-10.]?” In a word, as
children by their conduct may reflect either honour or disgrace upon their parents
according as that conduct may deserve, so God himself participates in the honour or
disgrace of his people; “being blasphemed,” when they violate their duty [ ote:
Romans 2:4.]; and lauded, when they approve themselves faithful in the discharge
of it [ ote: 1 Peter 4:14.].]
This point being clear, let us consider,
III. The use which we should make of it in our addresses at the throne of grace—
We should plead with God precisely as the Psalmist does in the words of our text.
Whatever be the pressure under which we labour, whether it be from men or devils,
we shall do well in offering up this prayer, “Arise, O God, and plead thine own
cause.”
[Let us suppose a person bowed down with a sense of sin, and an apprehension of
God’s heavy displeasure: Is that a case wherein this plea may be urged? Yes,
assuredly; for so it was urged by the Church of old, in language peculiarly strong,
and, I had almost said, presumptuous: “We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness,
and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for
thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy
covenant with us [ ote: Jeremiah 14:20-21.].” Precisely thus, however, may we also
address the Father of mercies: for he has covenanted to receive all who come to him
humbly in his Son’s name; and if he should cast out one, he would violate his
covenant, and “disgrace the throne of his glory” — — — In like manner, if we are
suffering under persecution, we may come to God in this very manner, and entreat
him to plead his own cause: “Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with
me: fight thou against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler,
and stand up for mine help: draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them
that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation ….. This thou hast seen, O
Lord; keep not silence: O Lord, be not thou far from me! Stir up thyself, and awake
to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God, and my Lord [ ote: Psalms 35:1-3;
Psalms 35:22-23.].” There can be no situation whatever, where this plea is not
proper; nor any in winch it shall not prevail, if it be offered in humility and faith —
— —]
1. A word of caution, however, may not be unseasonable—
[It may be supposed, that, whilst we thus consider God as engaged to help us, we are
at liberty to sit down in sloth and inactivity. But God will help those only who
endeavour, as far as they are able, to help themselves. Hence, when the Church of
old cried to him, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord! awake as in the ancient days,
in the generations of old!” he replied, “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem!” and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-110-2048.jpg)
![again, “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion [ ote: Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 51:17;
Isaiah 52:1.]!” The paralytic, notwithstanding his impotence, endeavoured to put
forth his arm; and in that effort he was healed [ ote: Matthew 12:13.]. And so also
shall it be with us: let us labour to the uttermost to maintain our own cause, and
God will then both make it his own, and plead it for us — — —]
2. A word of encouragement, at all events, must not be omitted—
[If God make our cause his own, what have we to fear? for “who can be against us,
if He be for us?” Let our Saviour’s consolations in the depth of all his troubles be
applied by you for the comfort of your own souls: “The Lord God will help me;
therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I
know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend
with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all
shall wax old us a garment; the moth shall eat them up [ ote: Isaiah 50:7-9.].” Rely
on God thus, and all will be well: for of “those who thus trust in God, not one shall
ever be confounded.”]
23 Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies, which rises
continually.
BAR ES, “Forget not the voice of thine enemies - The voice of thine enemies
clamoring for the destruction of thy people. Compare Psa_137:7. The prayer is, that God
would bring deserved chastisement upon them for their purposes and their aims against
his people. It is not necessarily a prayer for vengeance; it is a prayer for just retribution.
The tumult of those that rise up against thee - Of those that make war on thee,
and on thy people. The word ““tumult” here means clamor or shout - as the shout of
battle. The reference is to the movement of a host pressing on to conquest, encouraging
and exciting each other, and endeavoring to intimidate their enemies by the loud clamor
of the war-cry. It is a description of what had occurred among the main events referred
to in the psalm, when the enemy came in to lay waste the capital, and to spread
desolation throughout the land.
Increaseth continually - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Ascendeth.” That is, it seems to go
up; it is the swelling clamor of a great multitude of warriors intent on conquest. A cry or
clamor thus seems to swell or rise on the air, and (as it were) to ascend to God. The
prayer here is, that God would regard that cry, not in the sense that he would grant them](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/psalm74commentary-160604025752/75/Psalm-74-commentary-111-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byGLENN PEASE
Psalm 74 commentary
Psalm 74 is a maskil of Asaph which reflects on the suffering of the Jewish people and their plea to God during times of distress, lamenting His apparent absence and anger towards them. The psalmist recalls God's past deliverances and seeks to understand their current plight, questioning why God has seemingly forsaken them. It serves as an instructive example of turning to prayer and remembering God's covenant during affliction, emphasizing that adversity is not a sign of permanent abandonment by God.
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Psalm 74 commentary
- 1. PSALM 74 COMMETARY EDITED BY GLE PEASE A maskil[a] of Asaph. I TRODUCTIO SPURGEO , “TITLE. 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. DIVISIO . From Psalms 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 (Psalms 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. ELLICOTT, “Two periods only in the history of the Jews offer possible place for the composition of this psalm—that immediately after the Chaldæan invasion, and that of the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C 167). Against the former of these is the statement in Psalms 74:9 (see ote), which could not have been spoken while Jeremiah was alive. Hence, with a certainty allowed by no other of the psalms, this, with Psalms 79, can be referred to the year before the patriotic rise of the Asmoneans. Indeed, as Delitzsch remarks, their contents coincide with the prayer of Judas Maccabæus preserved in 2 Maccabees 8:1-4. The only argument of any weight against this conclusion is the expression in Psalms 74:3, “ruins,” which appears at first sight too strong a term for the mischief wrought by the Syrians at the command of Antiochus. But we must allow at such a crisis a little licence to patriotism and poetry; and, unless the words must be limited to the sanctuary (which is not absolutely necessary: see ote), the picture given in the Book of Maccabees of the state of the Holy City, is such as to bear out the psalm. The poetical form is irregular. COKE, “Title. משׂכיל ףּלאס maskiil leasaph.— This psalm seems to have been composed just upon the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans. The author, after lamenting the calamities of his country, and the insults of his enemies, calls to remembrance the glorious exploits which God had performed in ancient days for his people, and prays him to exert himself afresh in their cause,
- 2. which by theblasphemous defiance of the enemy was now become his own. It could not certainly have been composed by the same Asaph who wrote the foregoing psalm; (See 2 Chronicles 29:30.) but, as Bishop Patrick thinks, by some person of his posterity, who, during the captivity, was suffered to remain at Jerusalem with the Chaldeans. 1 O God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? BAR ES, “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. CLARKE, “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? GILL, “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
- 3. God never didnor 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", Zec_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. HE RY, “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. JAMISO , “Psa_74:1-23. If the historical allusions of Psa_74:6-8, etc., be referred, as is probable, to the period of the captivity, the author was probably a descendant and namesake of Asaph, David’s contemporary and singer (compare 2Ch_35:15; Ezr_2:41).
- 4. He complains ofGod’s desertion of His Church, and appeals for aid, encouraging himself by recounting some of God’s mighty deeds, and urges his prayer on the ground of God’s covenant relation to His people, and the wickedness of His and their common enemy. cast ... off — with abhorrence (compare Psa_43:2; Psa_44:9). There is no disavowal of guilt implied. The figure of fire to denote God’s anger is often used; and here, and in Deu_29:20, by the word “smoke,” suggests its continuance. sheep ... pasture — (Compare Psa_80:1; Psa_95:7). CALVI , “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
- 5. the Gentiles. Thisthey express more plainly in the following verse. SPURGEO , “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?" (Romans 11:1); and the other, "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" (Psalms 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. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Whole Psalm. There is one singularity in this Psalm which reminds one strongly of Psalms 44:1-26 : 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:, Psalms 74:1; Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:10. E. W. Hengstenberg.
- 6. Ver. 1. ThisPsalm, 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. BE SO , “Psalms 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
- 7. doth it riseto such a degree, that all about us take notice of it, and ask, What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Deuteronomy 29:24. Compare Psalms 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. WHEDO , “1. Why hast thou cast us off for ever—The rejection and desolation appeared absolute and without remedy. See Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:10. In the first three verses the psalmist utters a fervent prayer, which is suspended by the recitals of Psalms 74:4-9, and then resumed to the end. Sheep of thy pasture—See Psalms 80:1. Smoke—Compare under Psalms 80:4. The smouldering ruins of the temple and city fitly illustrated the dark and fiery breath of wrath. COFFMA , “A LAME T FOLLOWI G THE FALL OF JERUSALEM This is another of the Psalms accredited to Asaph. However, "Asaph, like Jeduthun and Heman, became a tribe-name, attaching to all the descendants of the original Asaph, and was equivalent to `the son of Asaph.'"[1] The occasion for this Psalm has been assigned to three different dates: "These identifications are (1) the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by ebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. (2 Kings 24), (2) the suppression of a Jewish insurrection by a Persian King Artaxerxes Ochus in 351 B.C., and (3) the profaning of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C.[2] Despite the skillful arguments of Delitzsch who favored the Maccabean date, our conclusion is that only the total destruction of the Temple by ebuchadnezzar in 587 fills the bill as the correct date for this psalm. There are apparently some powerful arguments against this in the psalm itself, which we shall discuss in the notes below. The determining factor in this question is that this psalm represents the temple itself as having been burned; and that definitely did not occur either in the times of Shishak or those of the Maccabeans. An example of how scholars can go "overboard" for an incorrect conclusion, based upon a few facts, is that of Addis. "Synagogues are everywhere in the land, and no prophet has arisen... Everything points to the composition of the Psalm between 168 B.C. and 165 B.C."[3] Such a conclusion is in error, because the Second Temple was never burned, until the rebuilt version of it by Herod the Great was burned by the soldiers of Vespasian and Titus in the year 70 A.D. Addis' arguments, however, are important, and we shall examine them more closely in the text below.
- 8. A very significantpeculiarity of this psalm was pointed out by Spurgeon. "There is not a single mention of either personal or national sin in this psalm; and yet one cannot doubt that the writer was fully aware of the sins and iniquities of Israel that had brought all of this misery upon them."[4] Leupold, Rawlinson and Ash, along with most present day scholars, agree that the most likely date is that following the destruction of the Temple by ebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. As McCullough stated it, " one of the suggested dates is free from difficulty, but the first (that of 587 B.C.) is most likely."[5] Psalms 74:1-2 "O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why dost thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt." The plight of Israel at this time was indeed pitiful. Their sins had finally reached a level that required their captivity and the dissolution of their earthly kingdom. The true people of God, after this time, were no longer to be found in the land of Israel, but in Babylon. The Israelites still remaining in "the land" did not understand this. "Why hast thou cast us off forever" (Psalms 74:1)? The "kingdom" in the sense of an earthly monarchy, was indeed cast off forever. It had never been God's will in the first place; and the reprobacy, idolatry, and wickedness of Israel's kings had at last made their removal absolutely necessary. "Remember thy congregation" (Psalms 74:2). God did indeed remember "the congregation," which at that time had been transferred to Babylon; but the psalmist was apparently still in Jerusalem, from which God's presence had been removed, and in which the temple itself had been profaned, plundered, desecrated and burned to the ground. God was forever finished with that "earthly kingdom" of Israel. Pitiful indeed was the plight of the few true children of God who, along with the psalmist, were still left among that conceited, rebellious, and soon to be destroyed residue of the people that yet remained in Jerusalem. CO STABLE, “Verses 1-23 Psalm 74 The writer appears to have written this communal lament psalm after one of
- 9. Israel"s enemies destroyedthe sanctuary. [ ote: See Ralph W. Klein, Israel in Exile: A Theological Interpretation, pp19-20.] The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in586 B.C. may therefore be the background. The writer asked the Lord to remember His people and defeat her enemies, as He had in the past, for His own glory (cf. Psalm 79; Psalm 137; Lam.). "The temple has been violated. The key symbol of life has been lost. Things in all parts of life fall apart-precisely because the center has not held. This psalm of protest and grief does not concern simply a historical invasion and the loss of a building. It speaks about the violation of the sacral key to all reality, the glue that holds the world together." [ ote: Brueggemann, p68.] EBC, “Two periods only correspond to the circumstances described in this psalm and its companion (Psalms 79:1-13)-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 (Psalms 74:9), the flaunting of the invaders’ signs in the sanctuary (Psalms 74:4), and the destruction by fire of all the "meeting places of God in the land," (Psalms 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 Psalms 74:4 with Lamentations 2:7, and Psalms 74:9 with Lamentations 2:9} The prophet’s 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. The psalm begins with a complaining cry to God (Psalms 74:1-3), which passes into a piteous detail of the nation’s misery (Psalms 74:4-9), whence it rises into petition (Psalms 74:10-11), stays trembling faith by gazing upon His past deeds of help and the wonders of His creative power (Psalms 74:12-17), and closes with beseeching God to vindicate the honour of His own name by the deliverance of his people
- 10. (Psalms 74:18-23). The mainemphasis of the prayer in Psalms 74:1-3 lies on the pleas which it presents, drawn from Israel’s relation to God. The characteristic Asaphie name "Thy flock" stands in Psalms 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, God’s 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 nation’s calamities are really dishonouring to God, and therefore worthy of His intervention, colours the whole of the description of these in Psalms 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 God’s 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" (Psalms 74:22). K&D 1-3, “The poet begins with the earnest prayer that God would again have compassion upon His church, upon which His judgment of anger has fallen, and would again set up the ruins of Zion. Why for ever (Psa_74:10, Psa_79:5; Psa_89:47, cf. Psa_13:2)? is equivalent to, why so continually and, as it seems, without end? The preterite denotes the act of casting off, the future, Psa_74:1, that lasting condition of this casting off. למהלמהלמה,למה when the initial of the following word is a guttural, and particularly if it has a merely half-vowel (although in other instances also, Gen_12:19; Gen_27:45; Son_ 1:7), is deprived of its Dagesh and accented on the ultima, in order (as Mose ha-Nakdan expressly observes) to guard against the swallowing up of the ah; cf. on Psa_10:1. Concerning the smoking of anger, vid., Psa_18:9. The characteristically Asaphic expression ּותי ִע ְר ַמ ּאןצּותי ִע ְר ַמ ּאןצּותי ִע ְר ַמ ּאןצּותי ִע ְר ַמ ּאןצ is not less Jeremianic, Jer_ 23:1. In Psa_74:2 God is reminded of what He has once done for the
- 11. congregation of Hispeople. ם ֶד ֶקם ֶד ֶקם ֶד ֶקם ֶד ֶ,ק as in Psa_44:2, points back into the Mosaic time of old, to the redemption out of Egypt, which is represented in קנהקנהקנהקנה (Exo_15:17) as a purchasing, and in גאלגאלגאלגאל (Psa_77:15; Psa_78:35, Exo_15:13) as a ransoming (redemptio). ָך ֶת ָל ֲֽחַנ ט ֶב ֵשָׁך ֶת ָל ֲֽחַנ ט ֶב ֵשָׁך ֶת ָל ֲֽחַנ ט ֶב ֵשָׁך ֶת ָל ֲֽחַנ ט ֶב ֵשׁ is a factitive object; ט ֶב ֵשׁט ֶב ֵשׁט ֶב ֵשׁט ֶב ֵשׁ is the name given to the whole nation in its distinctness of race from other peoples, as in Jer_ 10:16; Jer_51:19, cf. Isa_63:17. הֶזהֶזהֶזהֶז (Psa_74:2) is rightly separated from הר־ציוןהר־ציוןהר־ציוןהר־ציון (Mugrash); it stands directly for ר ֶשׁ ֲאר ֶשׁ ֲאר ֶשׁ ֲאר ֶשׁ ֲ,א as in Psa_104:8, Psa_104:26; Pro_ 23:22; Job_15:17 (Ges. §122, 2). The congregation of the people and its central abode are, as though forgotten of God, in a condition which sadly contrasts with their election. ח ַצֶנ ּותא ֻ ַמח ַצֶנ ּותא ֻ ַמח ַצֶנ ּותא ֻ ַמח ַצֶנ ּותא ֻ ַמ are ruins (vid., Psa_73:18) in a state of such total destruction, that all hope of their restoration vanishes before it; ח ַצֶנח ַצֶנח ַצֶנח ַצֶנ here looks forward, just as ם ָּולעם ָּולעם ָּולעם ָּולע (חרבותחרבותחרבות,)חרבות Isa_63:12; Psa_61:4, looks backwards. May God then lift His feet up high (ים ִמ ָע ְים ִמ ָע ְים ִמ ָע ְים ִמ ָע ְ poetical for םִי ַל ְג ַרםִי ַל ְג ַרםִי ַל ְג ַרםִי ַל ְג ַ,ר cf. Psa_58:11 with Psa_68:24), i.e., with long hurried steps, without stopping, move towards His dwelling - lace that now lies in ruins, that by virtue of His interposition it may rise again. Hath the enemy made merciless havoc - he hath ill-treated (ע ַר ֵהע ַר ֵהע ַר ֵהע ַר ֵ,ה as in Psa_44:3) everything (ּלⅴּלⅴּלⅴּלⅴ, as in Psa_8:7, Zep_1:2, for ּלⅴ ַחּלⅴ ַחּלⅴ ַחּלⅴ ַח or ּלⅴת־ ֶאּלⅴת־ ֶאּלⅴת־ ֶאּלⅴת־ ֶ)א in the sanctuary - how is it possible that this sacrilegious vandalism should remain unpunished! BI 1-23, “O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever? 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).
- 12. (3) This poweris 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 man’s conscious need of God. How deeply did this godly patriot feel the necessity of God’s interposition. In the midst of his country’s distress he looked around, but there was help to be found nowhere but in heaven. (Homilist.) 2 Remember the nation you purchased long ago, the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed— Mount Zion, where you dwelt. BAR ES, “Remember thy congregation - The word rendered “congregation” means properly an “assembly,” a “community,” and it is frequently applied to the Israelites, or the Jewish people, considered as a body or a community associated for the service of God. Exo_12:3; Exo_16:1-2, Exo_16:9; Lev_4:15; Num_27:17. The word used by the Septuagint is συναγωγή sunagōgē - synagogue - but refers here to the whole Jewish people, not to a particular synagogue or congregation. Which thou hast purchased of old - In ancient times; in a former age. That is,
- 13. Thou hast “purchased”them to thyself, or as thine own, by redeeming them from bondage, thus securing to thyself the right to them, as one does who redeems or purchases a thing. See the notes at Isa_43:3. The rod of thine inheritance - Margin, as in Hebrew, “tribe.” The Hebrew word - שׁבט shêbet - means properly “a staff,” stick, rod; then, a shepherd’s staff, a crook; then, a scepter; and then it is used to denote a “tribe,” so called from the staff or scepter which the chief of the tribe carried as the symbol of authority. Exo_28:21; Jdg_20:2. The word “inheritance” is frequently applied to the children of Israel considered as belonging to God, as property inherited belongs to him who owns it - perhaps suggesting the idea that the right to them had come down, as inherited property does, from age to age. It was a right over them acquired long before, in the days of the patriarchs. Which thou hast redeemed - By delivering them out of Egyptian bondage. So the church is now redeemed, and, as such, it belongs to God. This mount Zion - Jerusalem - the seat of government, and of public worship - the capital of the nation. Wherein thou last dwelt - By the visible symbol of thy presence and power. - On all these considerations the psalmist prays that God would not forget Jerusalem in the present time of desolation and trouble. CLARKE, “Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old - We are the descendants of that people whom thou didst take unto thyself; the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Wilt thou never more be reconciled to us? GILL, “Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old,.... Alluding to the redemption of the congregation of Israel out of Egypt, when they were said to be "purchased", Exo_15:16 and as that people were typical of the people of God, they may be said to be "purchased then", even of old; though the purchase in reality was not made till the blood of Christ was shed, with which he purchased his church, Act_ 20:28, indeed he was the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, in the purpose and promise of God, and in the typical sacrifices so early offered up, Rev_13:8, and besides, the words may be considered as the words of the church of God groaning under antichristian oppression and cruelty, hundreds of years since the death of Christ, and so may be said to be of old purchased; and which is called a "congregation", because a select number, chosen of God, and called out of the world, and brought into one body, and into fellowship with Christ and one another; and though they may not meet together in one place, they are all of one body, and will one day make one general assembly and church of the firstborn, called "the congregation of the righteous", Psa_1:5 now it is desired of the Lord for these, that they might be remembered with his lovingkindness and tender mercies, with his covenant and promises, and be delivered and saved out of the hands of their enemies: the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; the Targum adds, out of Egypt; but this is to be understood not of the redemption of the people of Israel, but of the redemption of the church of God from sin, Satan, the law, the world, hell, and death; who are chosen by the Lord for his inheritance, his peculiar treasure and portion; and which he highly values and esteems, and is dear unto him as such, as the redemption of
- 14. them by theblood of Christ shows: this Mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt; meaning the church of God, which often goes by this name, both in the Old and in the New Testament, comparable to the mount of Zion for its height, holiness, and immoveableness; where the Lord has promised to dwell, and where he does dwell, and will for evermore. As the reference to Sion literally understood, it is called "this Sion", because well known, and because the psalm might be composed or said in it, as Kimchi observes; and which shows that it was written before the destruction of the city and temple, and while Zion was the seat of religious worship, and therefore a prophecy of future times. HE RY, “ 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. JAMISO , “The terms to denote God’s relation to His people increase in force: “congregation” - “purchased” - “redeemed” - “Zion,” His dwelling. CALVI , “2.Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed of old. (214) Here they boast of having been the peculiar people of God, not on account of any merit of their own, but by the grace of adoption. They boast in like manner of their antiquity, — that they are not subjects who have come under the government of God only within a few months ago, but such as had fallen to him by right of inheritance. The longer the period during which he had continued his love towards the seed of Abraham, the more fully was their faith confirmed. They declare, therefore, that they had been God’s people from the beginning, that is, ever since he had entered into an inviolable covenant with Abraham. There is also added the redemption by which the adoption was ratified; for God did not only signify by word, but also showed by deed at the time when this redemption was effected, that he was their King and Protector. These benefits which they had received from God
- 15. they set beforethemselves as an encouragement to their trusting in him, and they recount them before him, the benefactor who bestowed them, as an argument with him not to forsake the work of his own hands. Inspired with confidence by the same benefits, they call themselves the rod of his inheritance; that is to say, the heritage which he had measured out for himself. The allusion is to the custom which then prevailed of measuring or marking out the boundaries of grounds with poles as with cords or lines. Some would rather translate the word ,שבטshebet, which we have rendered rod, by tribe; but I prefer the other translation, taking the meaning to be, that God separated Israel from the other nations to be his own proper ground, by the secret pre-ordination which originated in his own good pleasure, as by a measuring rod. In the last place, the temple in which God had promised to dwell is mentioned; not that his essence was enclosed in that place, — an observation which has already been frequently made, — but because his people experienced that there he was near at hand, and present with them by his power and grace. We now clearly perceive whence the people derived confidence in prayer; it was from God’s free election and promises, and from the sacred worship which had been set up among them. SPURGEO , “Ver. 2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old. What a mighty plea is redemption. O God, canst thou see the blood mark on thine own sheep, and yet allow grievous wolves to devour them? The church is no new purchase of the Lord; from before the world's foundation the chosen were regarded as redeemed by the Lamb slain; shall ancient love die out, and the eternal purpose become frustrate? The Lord would have his people remember the paschal Lamb, the bloodstained lintel, and the overthrow of Egypt; and will he forget all this himself? Let us put him in remembrance, let us plead together. Can he desert his blood bought and forsake his redeemed? Can election fail and eternal love cease to glow? Impossible. The woes of Calvary, and the covenant of which they are the seal, are the security of the saints. The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed. So sweet a plea deserved to be repeated and enlarged upon. The Lord's portion is his people--will he lose his inheritance? His church is his kingdom, over which he stretches the rod of sovereignty; will he allow his possessions to be torn from him? God's property in us is a fact full of comfort: his value of us, his dominion over us, his connection with us are all so many lights to cheer our darkness. o man will willingly lose his inheritance, and no prince will relinquish his dominions; therefore we believe that the King of kings will hold his own, and maintain his rights against all comers. This mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. The Lord's having made Zion the especial centre of his worship, and place of his manifestation, is yet another plea for the preservation of Jerusalem. Shall the sacred temple of Jehovah be desecrated by heathen, and the throne of the Great King be defiled by his enemies? Has the Spirit of God dwelt in our hearts, and will he leave them to become a haunt for the devil? Has he sanctified us by his indwelling, and will he, after all, vacate the throne? God forbid. It may be well to note that this Psalm was evidently written with a view to the temple upon Zion, and not to the tabernacle which was there in David's time, and was a mere tent; but the destructions here bewailed were exercised upon the carved work of a substantial structure. Those who had seen the glory of God in
- 16. Solomon's peerless templemight well mourn in bitterness, when the Lord allowed his enemies to make an utter ruin of that matchless edifice. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 2. Remember thy congregation. It is not without reason that they do not say, Remember us, but Remember thy congregation, not ours, but thine; nor that because it has now begun to be thine, but which thou hast purchased of old, the rod of thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed: likewise, this Mount Zion; not wherein we, but wherein thou hast dwelt. They had nothing which they could bring before an angry God with greater confidence, than the ancient lovingkindness shown to their fathers in former days. Musculus. Ver. 2. The rod of thine inheritance. hlxg jbv, the inheritance rod is the staff with which the inheritance is measured; jkv hdmh hgq, the land surveyor's rod (Ezekiel 40:3); and this is used as lrwg, the lot, is for the portion, for the inheritance itself. E. W. Hengstenberg. Ver. 2. Thine inheritance. It signifies a nation, which through all successions God had a peculiar right and title to. Henry Hammond. Ver. 2. Thou hast redeemed, i.e., the purchased people, by restoring them when they had been alienated, and had fallen into the hands of others: like a goel, or near kinsman, who ransoms a brother hurried into captivity, and regains an inheritance that has been sold. Hermann Venema. BE SO ,”Psalms 74:2. Remember thy congregation — That is, the Israelites, who are thy church, and whom at the expense of so many miracles, thou didst make thy peculiar people; show by thine actions that thou hast not utterly forgotten and forsaken them; which thou hast purchased — Hebrew, ,קנית kanita, rendered bought, Deuteronomy 32:6, but which also signifies acquired or procured, though without price, as Ruth 4:9-10 . Of old — When thou didst bring them out of Egypt, and form them into a commonwealth; gavest them laws, and didst enter into covenant with them at Sinai. The rod of thine inheritance — That people which thou hast measured out, as it were, by rod, to be thy portion: or, the tribe (as the word ,שׁבשׂ shebet, here rendered rod, commonly signifies) of thine inheritance, that is, the tribe of Judah, which thou hast, in a special manner, chosen for thine inheritance, and for the seat of thy church and kingdom, and the birth of the Messiah. And thus here is an elegant gradation from the general to particulars: First, the congregation, consisting of all the tribes; then the tribe of Judah; and lastly, mount Zion. or is it strange that he mentions this tribe particularly, because the calamity and captivity here lamented principally befell this tribe and Benjamin, which was united with it, and subject to it; and those who returned from the captivity were generally of this tribe. This mount Zion — Which is often put for the temple, or the hill of Moriah, on which it was built. WHEDO , “2. Thy congregation—That is, thy Church. Compare Psalms 22:22; Hebrews 2:12. Purchased—The language is that of endearment. Deuteronomy 9:29; Psalms 78:54. Compare Isaiah 43:3 : “I gave Egypt for thy ransom.”
- 17. Rod of thineinheritance— “The inheritance rod is the staff with which the inheritance is measured; the land surveyor’s rod. Ezekiel 40:3.”—Hengstenberg. See Revelation 11:1. The word rendered “rod” in the original often stands for tribe, and also for sceptre, either of which makes a good sense here. ELLICOTT, “(2) Purchased.—Or, as in LXX., acquired. This word, together with the word “redeemed” in the next clause, and “right hand” in Psalms 74:11, show that Exodus 15 was in the writer’s mind. (See especially Psalms 74:12-13; Psalms 74:16 of that chapter.) The word “congregation” here, as in the Mosaic books, presents the people in its religious aspect, as the expression “rod (or, tribe) of thine inheritance” presents it in its political character. The rod of . . .—Better, which thou hast redeemed as the tribe of thine inheritance, i.e., as thine own tribe. The expression, “rod of thine inheritance,” comes from Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19. (Comp. Isaiah 63:17.) It refers not to the shepherd’s crook, but to the sceptre, or leading staff, of the prince of a tribe, and so passes into a term for the tribe itself (Exodus 28:21; Judges 20:2). 3 Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary. BAR ES, “Lift up thy feet - That is, Advance, or draw near. Come and look directly and personally on the desolations which now exist in the holy city. Unto the perpetual desolations - Hebrew, “the ruins of perpetuity,” or eternity; that is, such as have been long continued, and threaten to continue forever. The ruin had not suddenly come, and it did not seem likely soon to pass away, but appeared to be entire and permanent. The destruction of the city seemed to be complete and final.
- 18. Even all thatthe enemy hath done wickedly - That is, with wicked intent and purpose. The reference seems to be to the Chaldeans, and to the ruin which they had brought upon the temple and city. In the sanctuary - That is, either Jerusalem, considered as a holy place; or the temple, the place of the public worship of God. CLARKE, “Lift up thy feet - Arise, and return to us, our desolations still continue. Thy sanctuary is profaned by thine and our enemies. GILL, “Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations,.... That is, arise, hasten, move swiftly, and in the greatness of strength, and come and see the desolations made by the enemy, which look as if they would remain for ever; meaning either the desolations made in the city and temple of Jerusalem, either by Nebuchadnezzar, or by Titus; or the havocs and devastations made in the church of God by the tyranny and persecutions of antichrist; which have continued so long, that an end of them has been almost despaired of. So Jacob is said to "lift up his feet"; which we render went on his way, Gen_29:1. Some take these words in a different sense, as a prayer for the destruction of the church's enemies; so the Targum, "lift up thy feet or goings, to make desolate the nations for ever;'' and Kimchi makes but one sentence of this and the following clause, and reads it thus, "lift up thy feet, to make desolate for ever every enemy that does wickedly in the sanctuary:'' but the accent "athnach", which divides propositions, and is upon the word ,נצח forbids such a reading. The former sense is best, and most agreeable to the context; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary; by profaning and destroying the temple, as did Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and Titus; or by antichrist sitting in the temple and church of God, setting up idolatrous worship in it, and blaspheming the tabernacle of God, and those that dwell therein, 2Th_2:4. HE RY, “. 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. JAMISO , “Lift ... feet — (Gen_29:1) - that is, Come (to behold) the desolations (Psa_73:19).
- 19. CALVI , “3.Liftup thy strokes. Here the people of God, on the other hand, beseech him to inflict a deadly wound upon their enemies, corresponding to the cruelty with which they had raged against his sanctuary. They would intimate, that a moderate degree of punishment was not sufficient for such impious and sacrilegious fury; and that, therefore, those who had shown themselves such violent enemies of the temple and of the worshippers of God should be completely destroyed, their impiety being altogether desperate. As the Holy Spirit has dictated this form of prayer, we may infer from it, in the first place, the infinite love which God bears towards us, when he is pleased to punish so severely the wrongs inflicted upon us; and, in the second place, the high estimation in which he holds the worship yielded to his Divine majesty, when he pursues with such rigour those who have violated it. With respect to the words, some translate ,פעמים pheamim, which we have rendered strokes, by feet or steps, (215) and understand the Church as praying that the Lord would lift up his feet, and run swiftly to strike her enemies. Others translate it hammers, (216) which suits very well. I have, however, no hesitation in following the opinion of those who consider the reference to be to the act of striking, and that the strokes themselves are denoted. The last clause of the verse is explained by some as meaning that the enemy had corrupted all things in the sanctuary. (217) But as this construction is not to be found elsewhere, I would not depart from the received and approved reading. SPURGEO , “Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations. The ruin made had already long been an eyesore to the suppliant, and there seemed no hope of restoration. Havoc lorded it not only for a day or a year, but with perpetual power. This is another argument with God. Would Jehovah sit still and see his own land made a wilderness, his own palace a desolation? Until he should arise, and draw near, the desolation would remain; only his presence could cure the evil, therefore is he entreated to hasten with uplifted feet for the deliverance of his people. Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Every stone in the ruined temple appealed to the Lord; on all sides were the marks of impious spoilers, the holiest places bore evidence of their malicious wickedness; would the Lord for ever permit this? Would he not hasten to overthrow the foe who defied him to his face, and profaned the throne of his glory? Faith finds pleas in the worst circumstances, she uses even the fallen stones of her desolate palaces, and assails with them the gates of heaven, casting them forth with the great engine of prayer. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet. Or, thy hammers, that is, "thy strokes, "to "stamp" or "beat down" the enemy "unto perpetual desolations." Thus the "feet" are used to "tread down with, " Isaiah 26:6; and so the Greek taketh it here, changing the metaphor, and translating it, "Thy hands, "which are also instruments to strike down with. Or, lift up thy feet, that is, come quickly to see the perpetual desolations, which the enemy hath made. Henry Ainsworth. Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet. Abu Walid renders it, Tread hard upon thine enemies. The Jewish Arab, Shew forth thy punishment, adding in a note that the lifting up the
- 20. feet implies punishment,the bringing under by force being usually expressed by treading under the feet. Henry Hammond. Ver. 3. Lift up thy feet, etc. To these desolations they seek that God would lift up his footsteps, that is, that he would approach. In Genesis 29:1, there occurs the phrase, to lift the feet; here the expression is much more marked--to lift up the footsteps -- and must be taken to mean a swift, impetuous, majestic, and powerful approach; like a hero, who strikes the ground with heavy tread, and advances rapidly with far sounding footsteps. Hermann Venema. Ver. 3. In the sanctuary. Their cities had been laid waste, their provinces, their farms, their vineyards, their oliveyards. They themselves had been everywhere cut down without striking a blow in defence, and their means of life had been snatched away without resistance. Yet they speak not of these things; not because things of this sort ought not to cause grief, nor yet because the saints are not touched with a sense of their loss; but because those things which threatened the extinction of religion and the worship of God, overtopped the feeling of all these other misfortunes with an intolerable sorrow. Musculus. BE SO , “Psalms 74:3. Lift up thy feet — This is spoken after the manner of men, and means, Come speedily to our rescue, and do not delay, as men do when they sit or stand still; unto — Or rather, because of, the perpetual desolations — amely, those ruins of the city and country, which had lasted so very long, and which, if God did not come to their help, he intimates, would be perpetual and irrecoverable. Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly, &c. — God had deserted his sanctuary, and the shechinah, or cloud of glory, emblematical of the divine presence, had gone up from between the cherubim: see Ezekiel 10:4. In consequence of which the heathen people had invaded that holy place, and laid it waste. And the psalmist here supplicates and urges God’s return to them, as that which alone could restore their temple, city, and country to their former happy state. ELLICOTT,”(3) Lift up thy feet.—Better, Lift thy steps. A poetical expression. God is invoked to hasten to view the desolation of the Temple. A somewhat similar expression will be found in Genesis 29:1 (margin). Perpetual desolations.—The word rendered “desolations” occurs also in Psalms 73:18, where it is rendered “destruction.” Here, perhaps, we should render ruins which must be ever ruins, or complete ruins, or possibly, taking the first meaning of netsach, ruins of splendour. Isaiah 11:4 does not offer a parallel, since the Hebrew is different, and plainly refers to the long time the places have been in ruins. Even all . . .—Better, the enemy hath devastated all in the holy place. 1 Maccabees 1:38-40; 1 Maccabees 3:45 (“ ow Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness”) give the best explanation of the verse, descriptive, as it is, of the condition of the whole of Zion. WHEDO , “3. Lift up thy feet—Hasten thy footsteps to the places utterly desolate. This lifting up of the foot, [or hand,] implies the purpose of doing something, as in Genesis 41:44 : “Without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot [that is, to execute a purpose] in all Egypt.” The lifting up the foot is sometimes for trampling
- 21. down, in judgment;but here for haste to witness the work of the enemy, with the implied idea of recompense. See Psalms 7:5; Daniel 8:7. Perpetual—Without end, eternal. Psalms 74:1. So the desolations appeared to the crushed spirit. In the sanctuary—The desolations reach even to the temple. COFFMA , “Verse 3 "Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary. Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs." "The perpetual ruins" (Psalms 74:3). Expressions of this kind force the conclusion that the period following the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was the time of the psalm, because in no other period of Jewish history was there anything like this. Solomon's Temple lay in ruins for generations after 586 B.C. "All the evil that the enemy, ..." (Psalms 74:3). The marginal reading here is, "The enemy hath wrought all evil in the sanctuary." "They have set up their ensigns for signs" (Psalms 74:4). The military insignia and standards of the Babylonian conquerors were everywhere, even in the ruins of the temple. CO STABLE,”There is no record that any of Israel"s enemies ever destroyed Israel"s central sanctuary in David"s day, or the temple in Solomon"s, to the extent that this verse implies. Perhaps Asaph was speaking hyperbolically, namely, describing the destruction in extreme terms for the sake of the effect. Probably this description is of what took place when the Babylonians destroyed the temple in586 B.C. This would mean the writer was an Asaph who lived much later than David"s day, or perhaps Asaph stands for the order of musicians he headed. Another possibility is that this psalm is a prophecy. 4 Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
- 22. they set uptheir standards as signs. BAR ES, “Thine enemies roar - This refers to the shout and tumult of war. They raised up the war-cry even in the very place where the congregations had been assembled; where God had been worshipped. The word rendered “roar” properly has reference to wild beasts; and the meaning is, that their war-cry resembled the howling of beasts of prey. In the midst of thy congregations - literally, “in the midst of thine assembly.” This is a different word from that which is rendered “congregation” in Psa_74:2. This word - מועד mô‛êd - means a meeting together by mutual appointment, and is often applied to the meeting of God with his people at the tabernacle, which was therefore called “the tent of the congregation,” or, more properly, “the tent of meeting,” as the place where God met with his people, Exo_29:10, Exo_29:44; Exo_33:7; Lev_3:8, Lev_ 3:13; Lev_10:7, Lev_10:9; “et saepe.” The meaning here is, that they roared like wild beasts in the very place which God had appointed as the place where he would meet with his people. They set up their ensigns for signs - That is, they set up “their” banners or standards, as “the” standards of the place; as that which indicated sovereignty over the place. They proclaimed thus that it was a conquered place, and they set up their own standards as denoting their title to it, or as declaring that they ruled there. It was no longer a place sacred to God; it was publicly seen to belong to a foreign power. CLARKE, “Thine enemies roar - Thy people, who were formerly a distinct and separate people, and who would not even touch a Gentile, are now obliged to mingle with the most profane. Their boisterous mirth, their cruel mockings, their insulting commands, are heard every where in all our assemblies. They set up their ensigns for signs - אתות אותתם שמו samu othotham othoth, they set up their standards in the place of ours. All the ensigns and trophies were those of our enemies; our own were no longer to be seen. The fifth, sixth, and seventh verses give a correct historical account of the ravages committed by the Babylonians, as we may see from 2Ki_25:4, 2Ki_25:7-9, and Jer_52:7, Jer_52:18, Jer_52:19 : “And the city was broken up, and all the men fled by night by the way of the gate. They took Zedekiah, and slew his sons before his eyes; and put out his eyes, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. And on the second day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, came unto Jerusalem; and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and every great man’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem burnt he with fire. And they broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And the pillars of brass and the bases, and the brazen sea, they broke in pieces, and carried the brass to Babylon. And the pots, shovels, snuffers and spoons, and the fire pans and bowls, and
- 23. such things aswere of gold and silver, they took away.” Thus they broke down, and carried away, and destroyed this beautiful house; and in the true barbarian spirit, neither sanctity, beauty, symmetry, nor elegance of workmanship, was any thing in their eyes. What hammers and axes could ruin, was ruined; Jerusalem was totally destroyed, and its walls laid level with the ground. Well might the psalmist sigh over such a desolation. GILL, “Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations,.... Particular churches, gathered out of the world in Gospel order, and which meet together at particular times and places; in the midst of these, and against them their enemies, and who are the Lord's enemies, roar like lions, as Satan, and bloody persecutors, and particularly antichrist, whose mouth is the mouth of a lion, which is opened in blasphemy against God and his people, Rev_13:2, they set up their ensigns for signs; or "signs", "signs", false ones for true ones; meaning either military signs, as the Roman eagle, set as signs and trophies of victory; or idolatrous statues and images, such an one as Antiochus brought into the temple; or false miracles and antichristian marks, in the room of true miracles, and the true mark of Christ's followers; see 2Th_2:9. The Jewish writers generally interpret it of the divinations and superstitions rites used by the king of Babylon, when he was coming up against Jerusalem, Eze_21:21. HE RY, “ 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. JAMISO , “roar — with bestial fury. congregations — literally, “worshipping assemblies.” ensigns — literally, “signs” - substituted their idolatrous objects, or tokens of authority, for those articles of the temple which denoted God’s presence. CALVI , “4.Thy adversaries have roared in the midst of thy sanctuaries. Here the people of God compare their enemies to lions, (Amos 3:8,) to point out the cruelty which they exercised even in the very sanctuaries of God. (218) In this passage we are to understand the temple of Jerusalem as spoken of rather than the Jewish
- 24. synagogues; nor isit any objection to this interpretation that the temple is here called in the plural number sanctuaries, as is frequently the case in other places, it being so called because it was divided into three parts. If any, however, think it preferable to consider synagogues as intended, I would not dispute the point. Yea, without any impropriety, it may be extended to the whole land, which God had consecrated to himself. But the language is much more emphatic when we consider the temple as meant. It thus intimates, that the rage of the enemy was so unbounded and indiscriminate that they did not even spare the temple of God. When it is said, They have set up their signs, (219) this serves to show their insulting and contemptuous conduct, that in erecting their standards they proudly triumphed even over God himself. Some explain this of magical divinations, (220) even as Ezekiel testifies, (Ezekiel 21:21,) that ebuchadnezzar sought counsel from the flight and the voice of birds; but this sense is too restricted. The explanation which I have given may be viewed as very suitable. Whoever entered into the Holy Land knew that the worship of God which flourished there was of a special character, and different from that which was performed in any other part of the world: (221) the temple was a token of the presence of God, and by it he seemed, as if with banners displayed, to hold that people under his authority and dominion. With these symbols, which distinguished the chosen tribes from the heathen nations, the prophet here contrasts the sacrilegious standards which their enemies had brought into the temple. (222) By repeating the word signs twice, he means to aggravate the abominable nature of their act; for having thrown down the tokens and ensigns of the true service of God, they set up in their stead strange symbols. SPURGEO , “Ver. 4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations. Where thy people sang like angels, these barbarians roar like beasts. When thy saints come together for worship, these cruel men attack them with all the fury of lions. They have no respect for the most solemn gatherings, but intrude themselves and their blasphemies into our most hallowed meetings. How often in times of persecution or prevalent heresy has the church learned the meaning of such language. May the Lord spare us such misery. When hypocrites abound in the church, and pollute her worship, the case is parallel to that before us; Lord save us from so severe a trial. They set up their ensigns for signs. Idolatrous emblems used in war were set up over God's altar, as an insulting token of victory, and of contempt for the vanquished and their God. Papists, Arians, and the modern school of eologians, have, in their day, set up their ensigns for signs. Superstition, unbelief, and carnal wisdom have endeavoured to usurp the place of Christ crucified, to the grief of the church of God. The enemies without do us small damage, but those within the church cause her serious harm; by supplanting the truth and placing error in its stead, they deceive the people, and lead multitudes to destruction. As a Jew felt a holy horror when he saw an idolatrous emblem set up in the holy place, even so do we when in a Protestant church we see the fooleries of Rome, and when from pulpits, once occupied by men of God, we hear philosophy and vain deceit. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 4. Thine enemies roar, etc. The word gav is used especially of the roar of the lion... In this place we may justly extend the application of the verb to those noisy words, whether mirthful or boastful, blasphemous against God and calamitous to
- 25. his people (Psalms74:10), breathing terror and threatenings through edicts; or rude and senseless, as in their idolatrous worship; or in their prayers and thoughtless songs. As in Isaiah 52:5, its meaning is to howl. Hermann Venema. Ver. 4. They set up their ensigns for signs. The meaning is, that the enemy, having abolished the signs of the true God, of his people and religion, such as circumcision, the feasts, sacrifices, the other ordinances of religion, and other marks of liberty, substituted his own idolatrous signs, as the signs of his authority and religion. Hermann Venema. Ver. 4-7. (The persecution under Antiochus. B.C. 168.) Athenaeus proceeded to Jerusalem, where, with the assistance of the garrison, he prohibited and suppressed every observance of the Jewish religion, forced the people to profane the Sabbath, to eat swine's flesh, and other unclean food, and expressly forbade the national rite of circumcision. The Temple was dedicated to Jupiter Olympus: the statue of that deity was erected on part of the altar of burnt offerings, and sacrifice duly performed... As a last insult, the feasts of the Bacchanalia, the license of which, as they were celebrated in the later ages of Greece, shocked the severe virtue of the older Romans, were substituted for the national festival of Tabernacles. The reluctant Jews were forced to join in these riotous orgies, and to carry the ivy, the insignia of the god. So near was the Jewish nation, and the worship of Jehovah, to total extermination. Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), in "A History of the Jews." (Under Titus.) And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamation of joy. Josephus. BE SO , “Psalms 74:4. Thine enemies roar — Make loud outcries; either out of rage and fury against the conquered and captivated Israelites, now in their power; or rather, in the way of triumph for their success and victory. In the midst of thy congregations — In the places where thy people used to assemble together for thy worship; whereby they designed to insult, not only over us, but over thee also, as if their idols had been too strong for thee. They set up their ensigns for signs — As trophies, in token of their victory over us and over thee. “ o sound,” says Dr. Horne, “can be more shocking than the confused clamours of a heathen army sacking the temple; no sight so afflicting as that of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. Turbulent passions are the enemies which raise an uproar of confusion in the heart; wealth, power, and pleasure are the idols which profane that sanctuary.” ELLICOTT,”(4) Thine enemies . . .—As the text stands, render, Thine enemies have roared in the midst of thine assembly, but many MSS. have the plural as in Psalms 74:8, where see ote for the meaning of the word. For “roared,” see Psalms 22:1, ote, and comp. Lamentations 2:7, where a similar scene is described. Instead of the voices of priest and choir, there have been heard the brutal cries of the heathen as they shouted at their work of destruction like lions
- 26. roaring over theirprey; or if, as some think, the reference in the next clause is to military ensigns, we have a picture of a wild soldiery exulting round the emblem of their triumph. They set up their ensigns for signs.—The Hebrew for ensigns and signs is the same. Possibly the poet meant to have written some word meaning idols, but avoids it from dislike of mentioning the abominable things, and instead of places their idols as signs, writes, places their signs as signs. WHEDO , “4. Thine enemies roar—Having taken the city and entered the temple, the fierce cry of the soldiery was like the roaring of wild beasts. In the midst of thy congregations—Here to be understood of the places of assembly of the people for worship, chiefly the temple and its courts. They set up their ensigns for signs—They have erected their military standards, bearing the insignia of their gods, as trophies or signals of victory, in the holy places. This was a direct challenge to Jehovah, on the part of the heathen conquerors, to deliver his people if he could, as in Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:18; Psalms 74:22. See Psalms 79:10; Isaiah 10:13; Habakkuk 1:11; Habakkuk 1:16 EBC, “The vivid description of devastation in these verses presents some difficulties in detail, which call for brief treatment. The "signs" in Psalms 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 Psalms 74:5 and Psalms 74:6 a change of tense represents the action described in them, as if in progress at the moment before the singer’s 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 Psalms 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 Psalms 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
- 27. of the oldversions, 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 Israel’s sin; for no psalmist could have adduced the destruction of these as a reason for God’s 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 Psalms 74:9 over the removal of the "signs"-i.e., as in Psalms 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. K&D 4-8, “The poet now more minutely describes how the enemy has gone on. Since שׁ ֶּדק in Psa_74:3 is the Temple, ָיך ֶד ֲּועמ in Psa_74:4 ought likewise to mean the Temple with reference to the several courts; but the plural would here (cf. Psa_74:8) be misleading, and is, too, only a various reading. Baer has rightly decided in favour of ך ֶמועד ; (Note: The reading מעודיך is received, e.g., by Elias Hutter and Nissel; the Targum translates it, Kimchi follows it in his interpretation, and Abraham of Zante follows it in his paraphrase; it is tolerably widely known, but, according to the lxx and Syriac versions and MSS, it is to be rejected.) ד ֵּועמ, as in Lam_2:6., is the instituted (Num_17:1-13 :19 [4]) place of God's intercourse with His congregation (cf. Arab. mı‛âd, a rendezvous). What Jeremiah says in Lam_2:7 (cf. ,שׁאג Jer_2:15) is here more briefly expressed. By ם ָּתתּוא (Psa_74:4) we must not understand military insignia; the scene of the Temple and the supplanting of the Israelitish 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_31:13); such heathen ּותתּא, which were thrust upon the Temple and the congregation of Jahve as henceforth the lawful ones, were those which are set forth in 1 Macc. 1:45-49, and more particularly the so-called abomination of desolation mentioned in v. 54 of the same chapter. With ע ַדָוִּי (Psa_74:5) the terrible scene which was at that time taking place before their eyes (Psa_79:10) is introduced. יא ִב ֵמ ְⅴ is the subject; it became visible, tangible, noticeable, i.e., it looked, and one experienced it, as if a man caused the axe to enter into the thicket of the wood, i.e., struck into or at it right and left. The plural ּות ֻ ַק forces itself into the simile because it is the many heathen warriors who are, as in Jer_46:22., likened to these hewers of wood. Norzi calls the Kametz of ־עץ ְך ָבסב Kametz chatuph; the combining form would then be a contraction of ְּךב ְס (Ewald, Olshausen), for the long ā of ְך ָב ְס does not admit of any contraction. According to another view it is to be read bi-sbāch-etz, as in Est_4:8 kethāb- hadāth with counter-tone Metheg beside the long vowel, as e.g., ןָ ַֽץ־ה ֵ,ע Gen_2:16). The
- 28. poet follows thework of destruction up to the destroying stroke, which is introduced by the ועת (perhaps ת ֵעְ,ו Kerî ה ָ ַעְ,)ו which arrests one's attention. In Psa_74:5 the usual, unbroken quiet is depicted, as is the heavy Cyclopean labour in the Virgilian illi inter sese, etc.; in jahalomûn, Psa_74:6 (now and then pointed jahlomûn), we hear the stroke of the uplifted axes, which break in pieces the costly carved work of the Temple. The suffix of ָיה ֶוּח ִ (the carved works thereof) refers, according to the sense, to .מועדך The lxx, favouring the Maccabaean interpretation, renders: ᅚξέκοψαν τάς θύρας αᆒτᇿς ( ָיה ֶח ָת ְ ). This shattering of the panelling is followed in Psa_74:7 by the burning, first of all, as we may suppose, of this panelling itself so far as it consists of wood. The guaranteed reading here is ְך ֶ,מקדשׁ not ְיך ֶ.מקדשׁ שׁ ֵא ָ ח ַ ִשׁ signifies to set on fire, immittere igni, differing from שׁ ֵא ח ַ ִשׁ ְ , to set fire to, immittere ignem. On לוּ ְ ִח ץ ֶרፎ ָ,ל cf. Lam_2:2; Jer_19:13. Hitzig, following the lxx, Targum, and Jerome, derives the exclamation of the enemies םָינִנ from יןִ:נ their whole generation (viz., we will root out)! But נין is posterity, descendants; why therefore only the young and not the aged? And why is it an expression of the object and not rather of the action, the object of which would be self-evident? םָינִנ is fut. Kal of הָנָ,י here = Hiph. הָּונה, to force, oppress, tyrannize over, and like סַנፎ, to compel by violence, in later Hebrew. םֵינֵנ (from הֶינִ,י like ה ֶיפִ)י is changed in pause into םָינִ;נ cf. the future forms in Num_21:30; Exo_34:19, and also in Psa_118:10-12. Now, after mention has been made of the burning of the Temple framework, ל ֵי־א ֵד ֲֽועּמ cannot denote the place of the divine manifestation after its divisions (Hengstenberg), still less the festive assemblies (Böttcher), which the enemy could only have burnt up by setting fire to the Temple over their heads, and כל does not at all suit this. The expression apparently has reference to synagogues (and this ought not to be disputed), as Aquila and Symmachus render the word. For there is no room for thinking of the separate services conducted by the prophets in the northern kingdom (2Ki_4:23), because this kingdom no longer existed at the time this Psalm was written; nor of the ּותמ ָ , the burning down of which no pious Israelite would have bewailed; nor of the sacred places memorable from the early history of Israel, which are nowhere called ,מועדים and after the founding of the central sanctuary appear only as the seats of false religious rites. The expression points (like ד ַעַו ית ֵ , Sota ix. 15) to places of assembly for religious purposes, to houses for prayer and teaching, that is to say, to synagogues - a weighty instance in favour of the Maccabaean origin of the Psalm. 5 They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees.
- 29. BAR ES, “Aman was famous - literally, “He is known;” or, shall be known. That is, he was or shall be celebrated. According as he had lifted up axes - literally, “As one raising on high axes;” that is, as one lifts up his axe high in the air in order to strike an effectual stroke. Upon the thick trees - The clumps of trees; the trees standing thick together. That is, As he showed skill and ability in cutting these down, and laying them low. His celebrity was founded on the rapidity with which the strokes of the axe fell on the trees, and his success in laying low the pride of the forest. According to our common translation the meaning is, that “formerly” a man derived his fame from his skill and success in wielding his axe so as to lay the forest low, but that “now” his fame was to be derived from another source, namely, the skill and power with which he cut down the elaborately-carved work of the sanctuary, despoiled the columns of their ornaments, and demolished the columns themselves. But another interpretation may be given to this, as has been suggested by Prof. Alexander. It is, that “the ruthless enemy is known or recognized as dealing with the sanctuary no more tenderly than a woodman with the forest which he fells.” The former, however, is the more natural, as well as the more common interpretation. Luther renders it, “One sees the axe glitter on high, as one cuts wood in the forest.” The Vulgate, and the Septuagint, “The signs pointing to the entrance above that they did not know.” What idea was attached to this rendering, it is impossible to determine. GILL, “A man was famous,.... Or, "it was", or "is known" (m); the desolations the enemy made, the wickedness they committed, the terror they spread, and the signs they set in the sanctuary of the Lord: according as he had lifted up, or "as one that lifts up" axes upon the thick trees (n); that is, the above things were as visible, and as well known, being as easy to be seen as such an action is, a man being obliged to lift his axe above his head, to cut down a thick tree: or rather the sense is, formerly a man was famous for, and it gave him some credit and esteem, to be an hewer of wood in the forest of Lebanon, where he lifted up his axe, and cut down the thick trees for the building of the temple, as the servants of Hiram king of Tyre did; and such an action was esteemed as if a man brought an offering to God; agreeably to which is Kimchi's note, "when the temple was built, he who lifted up his axe upon a thick tree, to cut it down for the building, was known, as if he lifted it up above in heaven before the throne of glory; all so rejoiced and gloried in the building:'' and Aben Ezra interprets it of acclamations made above on that account. The words, according to the accents, should be rendered thus, "he" or "it was known, as he that lifteth up on high; even as he that lifteth up on high, axes upon the thick tree". HE RY 5-7, “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
- 30. 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, 2Ch_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. JAMISO , “Though some terms and clauses here are very obscure, the general sense is that the spoilers destroyed the beauties of the temple with the violence of woodmen. was famous — literally, “was known.” CALVI , “5.He who lifted up the axe upon the thick trees was renowned. The prophet again aggravates still more the barbarous and brutal cruelty of the enemies of his countrymen, from the circumstance, that they savagely demolished an edifice which had been built at such vast expense, which was embellished with such beauty and magnificence, and finished with so great labor and art. There is some obscurity in the words; but the sense in which they are almost universally understood is, that when the temple was about to be built, those who cut and prepared the wood required for it were in great reputation and renown. Some take the verb ,מביא mebi, in an active sense, and explain the words as meaning that the persons spoken of were illustrious and well known, as if they had offered sacrifices to God. The thickness of the trees is set in opposition to the polished beams, to show the more clearly with what exquisite art the rough and unwrought timber was brought into a form of the greatest beauty and magnificence. Or the prophet means, what I am inclined to think is the more correct interpretation, that in the thick forests, where there was vast abundance of wood, great care was taken in the selection of the trees, that none might be cut down but such as were of the very best quality. May it not perhaps be understood in this sense, That in these thick forests the trees to which the axe was to be applied were well known and marked, as being already of great height, and exposed to the view of beholders? Whatever may be as to this, the prophet, there is no doubt, in this verse commends the excellence of the material which was selected with such care, and was so exquisite, that it attracted the gaze and excited the admiration of all who saw it; even as in the following verse, by the carved orgraven work is meant the beauty of the building, which was finished with unequalled art, But now it is declared, that the Chaldeans, with utter recklessness,
- 31. made havoc withtheir axes upon this splendid edifice, as if it had been their object to tread under foot the glory of God by destroying so magnificent a structure. (223) SPURGEO , “Ver. 5. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. Once men were renowned for felling the cedars and preparing them for building the temple, but now the axe finds other work, and men are as proud of destroying as their fathers were of erecting. Thus in the olden times our sires dealt sturdy blows against the forests of error, and laboured hard to lay the axe at the root of the trees; but, alas! their sons appear to be quite as diligent to destroy the truth and to overthrow all that their fathers built up. O for the good old times again! O for an hour of Luther's hatchet, or Calvin's mighty axe! EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 4-7. See Psalms on "Psalms 74:4" for further information. (Under Titus.) And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamation of joy. Josephus. Ver. 5. A man was famous, etc. It enhances the cruelty of the enemy that the temple which had been at the cost of so much treasure, adorned with such great elegance and splendour, and finished with untiring industry and consummate skill, was not saved thereby from their barbarous hands, but was utterly overthrown. There is a simile in these verses. The enemies breaking to pieces with great violence and casting down the altars and beams of the temple, are compared to the woodman, who with axe in hand cuts down the strong trees of the wood. Mollerus. Ver. 5. A man was famous, etc. That is, very renowned were the workmen, who, by Hiram's order, cut down the rough cedars and firs in the thick Tyrian forests, for the building of thy Temple, and thereby they did an acceptable service to thee. Thomas Fenton. BE SO , “Verse 5-6 Psalms 74:5-6. A man was famous, &c. — The meaning, according to this translation, is this: The temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great honour to any man to be employed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the trees of Lebanon. And this interpretation is favoured by the opposition in the next verse. But now, &c. — Some learned expositors, however, translate the first words of this verse, ,יודע not, He was famous, but, as is more literal, It is, or will be, well known; and they interpret the two verses thus: “It is, or rather, will be, known or manifest; it will be published to all posterity, as matter of astonishment and admiration, that, as one lifteth up axes in the thick wood, or upon thick trees, to cut them down; so now they, the enemies above mentioned, break down the carved wood thereof, namely, of the sanctuary, with axes and hammers.” It has been ingeniously observed by some, that the two words thus rendered are not Hebrew, but Chaldee or Syriac words, to point out the time when this was done, even when the Chaldeans brought in their language, together with their arms, among the Israelites. Dr. Horne thinks that the Hebrew word above mentioned may be translated a knowing, or skilful person; and then the sense is, “As a skilful
- 32. person, who understandshis business, lifteth up the axe in the thick wood, so now men set themselves to work to demolish the ornaments and timbers of the sanctuary.” They neither regard the sacredness of the place, nor the exquisite curiosity and art of the work, (here signified by the term carved work,) but cut it down as indifferently and rashly as men cut down the thick and entangled boughs of the trees of the forest. “The words,” adds Dr. H., “suggest another reason why God should arise and have mercy upon Zion, lest his name should be blasphemed among the nations, when they saw and heard of the sacrilegious and horrible destruction wrought by the enemy; whom neither the majesty of the temple, nor the reverence of its divine inhabitant, could restrain from defacing the beauty of holiness. The ornaments of the internal and spiritual temple sometimes suffer as much from the fury of inordinate affections, as the carved work of the sanctuary ever did from the armies of ebuchadnezzar or Antiochus.” WHEDO , “5. Lifted up axes upon the thick trees—The description, in Psalms 74:5-6, is to this effect: The temple appeared as when one had lifted up axes in a thick wood, for they had struck down the beautiful carved work and panelling of the temple with hatchets and hammers, with the indifference of a woodman. This was with a view to despoiling it of its costly ornaments preparatory to setting it on fire. See this despoiling detailed, Jeremiah 52:17-23 COFFMA , “Verse 5 "They seemed as men that lifted up Axes upon a thicket of trees. And now all the carved work thereof They brake down with hatchet and hammers." These verses describe the destruction of the holy temple itself. The conquering enemy soldiers assaulted the sanctuary just like a company of woodsmen chopping down a grove of trees. "The interior walls of Solomon's Temple were paneled with cedar and decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and flowers."[6] It was more than the mere instinct of vandals however that motivated all that chopping. " 1 Kings 6:21f reveals that all that carved work was overlaid with pure gold."[7] 6 They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets.
- 33. BAR ES, “Butnow they break down the carved work thereof ... - literally, “But now the carvings of it together, at once, with sledge and hammers they beat down.” The carved work refers evidently to the ornaments of the temple. The word used here - פתוח pittûach - is rendered engraving, carved work, or carving; Exo_28:11, Exo_28:21, Exo_28:36; Exo_39:6, Exo_39:14, Exo_39:30; Zec_3:9; 2Ch_2:14. It is the very word which in 1Ki_6:29 is applied to the ornaments around the walls of the temple - the “carved figures of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers,” and there can be no doubt that the allusion here is to those ornaments. These were rudely cut down, or knocked off, with axes and hammers, as a man lays low the trees of the wood. The phrase “at once” means that they drove forward the work with all despatch. They spared none of them. They treated them all alike as an axeman does the trees of a forest when his object is to clear the land. GILL, “But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. Formerly it was an honour to be employed in cutting down a tree for the building of the temple; but now so little regard was paid to it, that all its fine carved work, which Solomon made, 1Ki_6:18, was demolished at once in a rude and furious manner with axes and hammers; which was done either by the Chaldeans in Nebuchadnezzar's time, or by the Syrians in the times of Antiochus, or by the Romans in the times of Vespasian; the first seems intended; see Jer_46:22. JAMISO , “carved work — (1Ki_6:29). thereof — that is, of the temple, in the writer’s mind, though not expressed till Psa_ 74:7, in which its utter destruction by fire is mentioned (2Ki_25:9; Isa_64:11). SPURGEO , “Ver. 6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. The invaders were as industrious to destroy as the ancient builders had been to construct. Such fair carving it was barbarous to hew in pieces, but the Vandals had no mercy and broke down all, with any weapon which came to hand. In these days men are using axes and sledgehammers against the gospel and the church. Glorious truths, far more exquisite than the goodliest carving, are cavilled over and smashed by the blows of modern criticism. Truths which have upheld the afflicted and cheered the dying are smitten by pretentious Goths, who would be accounted learned, but know not the first principals of the truth. With sharp ridicule, and heavy blows of sophistry, they break the faith of some: and would, if it were possible, destroy the confidence of the elect themselves. Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans are but types of spiritual foes who labour to crush the truth and the people of God. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 4-7. See Psalms on "Psalms 74:4" for further information. Ver. 6. The carved work thereof. Even barbarian invaders are wont to spare the more splendid buildings for art's sake. Demetrius, when he had taken a picture
- 34. painted by Protogenesin the suburbs of Rhodes, was besought by the Rhodians to be lenient towards art, lest he should destroy the painting. He replied that he would sooner burn the statues of his father than so great a work of art. The ferocity of these enemies, therefore, outdoes the barbarity of others, for they ruthlessly cast down an edifice sculptured and polished with the greatest skill. Mollerus. Ver. 6. The carved work. Mywtb Pittuchim: used in 1 Kings 6:29, of the "carved figures of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers, "which were on the Temple walls. William Kay. Ver. 6. With axes and hammers. It is noted by a learned interpreter, that the words in the original rendered in our translation, with axes and hammers, are not properly Hebrew, but Syriac words, purposely to hint thereby the time when and the persons by whom this was done. Arthur Jackson. 7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your ame. BAR ES, “They have cast fire into thy sanctuary - Into the temple to destroy it. Literally, “They have cast thy sanctuary into the fire.” The meaning is, that they had burned it down. This was actually done by the Chaldeans, 2Ki_25:9; 2Ch_36:19. They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground - The place where thy name dwelt or was recorded Exo_20:24; that is, the place where God’s name was known, or where he was worshipped. The literal meaning is, “To the earth they have defiled the dwelling of thy name?” The idea is, that they had defiled or polluted the temple by throwing it to the ground; by making it a heap of ruins; by making it undistinguishable from common earth. GILL, “They have cast fire into thy sanctuary,.... Or, "thy sanctuary into the fire" (o); which denotes the utter destruction of it by fire, which was done both by the Chaldean and Roman armies; see 2Ki_25:9, they have defiled, by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground, or "to the earth they have defiled the habitation of thy name" (p); that is, to the last and lowest degree; this Antiochus did when he set up an idol in the temple, and Titus when he laid it level with the ground, not leaving one stone upon another, as our Lord predicted, Mat_24:1 the aggravation of which was, that it was the place where the Lord had put his name, where his name was called upon, and where was the symbol of his presence.
- 35. HE RY, “.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, 2Ch_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. JAMISO , “defiled — or, “profaned,” as in Psa_89:39. CALVI , “7.They have set fire to thy sanctuaries. The Psalmist now complains that the temple was burned, and thus completely razed and destroyed, whereas it was only half demolished by the instruments of war. Many have supposed that the order of the words has been here inverted, (224) not being able to perceive how a suitable meaning could be elicited from them, and therefore would resolve them thus, They have put fire into thy sanctuaries. I have, however, no doubt that the sense which I have given, although the accent is against it, is the true and natural one, That the temple was levelled with the ground by being burned. This verse corroborates more fully the statement which I have made, that the temple is called sanctuaries in the plural number, because it consisted of three parts, — the innermost sanctuary, the middle sanctuary, and the outer court; for there immediately follows the expression, The dwelling-place of thy name. The name of God is here employed to teach us that his essence was not confined to or shut up in the temple, but that he dwelt in it by his power and operation, that the people might there call upon him with the greater confidence. SPURGEO , “Ver. 7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary. Axes and hammers were not sufficient for the purpose of the destroyers, they must needs try fire.
- 36. Malice knows nobounds. Those who hate God are never sparing of the most cruel weapons. To this day the enmity of the human heart is quite as great as ever; and, if providence did not restrain, the saints would still be as fuel for the flames. They have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground. They made a heap of the temple, and left not one stone upon another. When the Lord left Mount Zion, and the Roman gained entrance, the military fury led the soldiers to burn out and root up the memorial of the famous House of the Lord. Could the powers of darkness have their way, a like fate would befall the church of Christ. "Rase it, "say they, "rase it even to the foundation thereof." Defilement to the church is destruction; her foes would defile her till nothing of her purity, and consequently of her real self, remained. Yet, even if they could wreak their will upon the cause of Christ, they are not able to destroy it, it would survive their blows and fires; the Lord would hold them still like dogs on a leash, and in the end frustrate all their designs. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 4-7. See Psalms on "Psalms 74:4" for further information. (Under Titus.) And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamation of joy. Josephus. BE SO , “Verse 7-8 Psalms 74:7-8. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, &c. — The Chaldeans first polluted, and then set fire to Solomon’s temple, and burned that stately and costly fabric down to the ground. And Antiochus set fire to the gates of the second temple, (1 Maccabees 4:28,) and afterward the Romans razed it from the foundation, and left not one stone upon another. They said, Let us destroy them together — Root and branch, one as well as another, or all at once. So they desired, and so, it seems, many of them intended, although afterward they changed their counsel, and carried some away captive, and left others to cultivate the ground. They have burned up all the synagogues — All the public places wherein the Jews used to meet together to worship God every sabbath day, as is mentioned Acts 13:27, and upon other occasions. That the Jews had such synagogues is manifest, both from these and other places of Scripture, and from the testimony of the Hebrew doctors, and other ancient and learned writers, who affirm it, and particularly of Jerusalem, in which they say there were above four hundred; and from the necessity of such places: for seeing it is undeniable that they did worship God publicly on every sabbath, and at other holy times, even when they could not go up to Jerusalem, both conscience and prudence must needs have directed them to appoint convenient places for that purpose. ELLICOTT, “(7) They have cast fire into.—Literally, They have cast into fire thy sanctuary. Probably a hyperbolic expression, and purporting to express the vastness of the conflagration. Others compare with the English “set on fire,” and French mettre à feu.
- 37. We learn from1 Maccabees 4:38, and Josephus, Antt. xii., 7:6, that Judas Maccabæus, in coming to restore the Temple, found that the gates had been burnt. COFFMA , “Verse 7 "They have set thy sanctuary on fire; They have profaned the dwelling place of thy ame by casting it to the ground. They said in their hearts, Let us make havoc of them altogether: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." "Thy sanctuary on fire... God's dwelling place cast to the ground" (Psalms 74:7). The total destruction of the temple is indicated in these lines, a disaster that came only once, namely, in 586 B.C. at the end of the reign of Zedekiah. "They ... burned up all the synagogues" (Psalms 74:8). There is hardly any doubt that this is a mistranslation. It is the only place in the Old Testament that synagogues are mentioned, synagogues usually being associated with the times after Antiochus Epiphanes had profaned the temple and forbade the reading of the Torah, cutting off the Temple worship. This verse is "the big reason" why some scholars refer this psalm to the times of that era. "The RSV renders the word here translated `synagogues' as `holy places.'"[8] Jamieson suggested that such places as "the schools of the prophets"[9] may be meant. "The key word may also mean `appointed feasts,' but would require another verb for that meaning."[10] One thing is certain, "Synagogues" is not the correct rendition. As Kidner suggested, "Perhaps the Septuagint (LXX) has the key to the problem."[11] That rendition is, "Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth."[12] One thing that definitely favors the Septuagint (LXX) rendition is the fact that the abolition of the Jewish feast days was indeed accomplished by the Babylonians. They were not observed at all during the captivity! 8 They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!” They burned every place where God was
- 38. worshiped in theland. BAR ES, “They said in their hearts - They purposed; they designed it. Let us destroy them together - Let us destroy all these buildings, temples, towers, and walls at the same time; let us make an entire destruction of them all. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land - The phrase “they have burned up” must refer to the places or edifices where assemblies for public worship were held, since it cannot be supposed that the idea is that they had burned up the assemblies of worshippers themselves. The word rendered “synagogues” is the same in the Hebrew that is used in Psa_74:4, and is there rendered “congregations.” It means “assemblies,” persons collected together for public worship. See the notes at that verse. It is not used in the Bible to denote “places” for the meetings of such assemblies, nor is it elsewhere rendered “synagogues.” It is translated by the word “seasons,” Gen_1:14; Exo_13:10, “et al.; set time,” Gen_17:21; Exo_9:5, “et al.; time appointed,” Exo_23:15; 2Sa_24:15, “et al.; congregation,” Lev_1:1, Lev_1:3,Lev_1:5; Lev_3:2, Lev_3:8,Lev_ 3:13, “and very often; feasts,” Lev_23:2, Lev_23:4,Lev_23:37, “et al.; - solemnity,” Deu_ 31:10; Isa_33:20; - and so also, set feasts, solemn feasts, appointed feasts, etc. But in no instance does it necessarily refer to an edifice, unless it is in the place before us. There is no reason, however, for doubting that, from the necessity of the case, in the course of events, there would be other places for assembling for the worship of God than the temple, and that in different cities, villages, towns, and neighborhoods, persons would be collected together for some form of social religious service. Buildings or tents would be necessary for the accommodation of such assemblages; and this, in time, might be developed into a system, until in this way the whole arrangement for “synagogues” might have grown up in the land. The exact origin of synagogues is not indeed known. Jahn (‘Biblical Archaeology,’ Section 344) supposes that they sprang up during the Babylonian captivity, and that they had their origin in the fact that the people, when deprived of their customary religious privileges, would collect around some prophet, or other pious man, who would teach them and their children the duties of religion, exhort them to good conduct, and read to them out of the sacred books. Compare Eze_14:1; Eze_20:1; Dan_6:11; Neh_8:18. There seems, however, no good reason for doubting that synagogues may have existed before the time of the captivity, and may have sprung up in the manner suggested above from the necessities of the people, probably at first without any fixed rule or law on the subject, but as convenience suggested, and that they may at last, by custom and law, have grown into the regular form which they assumed as a part of the national worship. Compare Kitto’s Encyc. Art. ‘synagogue.’ I see no improbability, therefore, in supposing that the word here may refer to such edifices at the time when this psalm was composed. These, if they existed, would naturally be destroyed by the Chaldeans, as well as the temple itself. CLARKE, “Let us destroy them - Their object was totally to annihilate the political existence of the Jewish people.
- 39. They have burnedup all the synagogues of God in the land - It is supposed that there were no synagogues in the land till after the Babylonish captivity. How then could the Chaldeans burn up any in Judea? The word מועדי moadey, which we translate synagogues, may be taken in a more general sense, and mean any places where religious assemblies were held: and that such places and assemblies did exist long before the Babylonish captivity, is pretty evident from different parts of Scripture. It appears that Elisha kept such at his house on the sabbaths and new moons. See 2Ki_4:23. And perhaps to such St. James may refer, Act_15:23, a species of synagogues, where the law was read of old, in every city of the land. And it appears that such religious meetings were held at the house of the Prophet Ezekiel, Eze_33:31. And perhaps every prophet’s house was such. This is the only place in the Old Testament where we have the word synagogue. Indeed, wherever there was a place in which God met with patriarch or prophet, and any memorial of it was preserved, there was a מועד moed, or place of religious meeting; and all such places the Chaldeans would destroy, pursuant to their design to extinguish the Jewish religion, and blot out all its memorials from the earth. And this was certainly the most likely means to effect their purpose. How soon would Christianity be destroyed in England if all the churches, chapels, and places of worship were destroyed, and only the poor of the people left in the land; who, from their circumstances, could not build a place for the worship of God! After such desolation, what a miracle was the restoration of the Jews! GILL, “They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together,.... The Targum is, "their children, are together;'' or "their kindred", as the Septuagint Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, taking the word to be of ,נין which signifies a "son"; and the sense to be, that seeing they were all together, as the Jews were at the taking of Jerusalem, they might be cut off at once. Jarchi explains it of their rulers; Marinus, as Aben Ezra observes, derives it from a word which signifies to afflict and oppress, to which he agrees; see Psa_83:3, they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land; not only in Jerusalem, where there were, the Jewish (q) writers say, four hundred and sixty, and others four hundred and eighty of them, but also in all the land of Judea; of these synagogues there is much mention made in the New Testament; they were places for public worship, in which, prayer was made, and the Scriptures were read and explained; see Mat_6:5, but it may be doubted whether they are meant here, since it does not appear that there were any until after the return of the Jews from Babylon (r); the temple, and the parts of it, may be meant, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; or the schools of the prophets; though the psalm may refer to times after the Babylonish captivity, and so may design Jewish synagogues, and even take in places of worship among Christians. HE RY, “ 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
- 40. 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. JAMISO , “together — at once, all alike. synagogues — literally, “assemblies,” for places of assembly, whether such as schools of the prophets (2Ki_4:23), or “synagogues” in the usual sense, there is much doubt. CALVI , “8.They have said in their heart, Let us destroy them all together. To express the more forcibly the atrocious cruelty of the enemies of the Church, the prophet introduces them speaking together, and exciting one another to commit devastation without limit or measure. His language implies, that each of them, as if they had not possessed enough of courage to do mischief, stirred up and stimulated his fellow to waste and destroy the whole of God’s people, without leaving so much as one of them. In the close of the verse he asserts that all the synagogues were burned. I readily take the Hebrew word ,מועדים moadim, in the sense of synagogues, (225) because he says ALL the sanctuaries, and speaks expressly of the whole land. It is a frigid explanation which is given by some, that these enemies, upon finding that they could not hurt or do violence to the sanctuary of God in heaven, turned their rage against the material temple or synagogues. The prophet simply complains that they were so intent upon blotting out the name of God, that they left not a single corner on which there was not the mark of the hand of violence. The Hebrew word ,מועדים moadim, is commonly taken for the sanctuary; but when we consider its etymology, it is not inappropriately applied to those places where the holy assemblies were wont to be held, not only for reading and expounding the prophets, but also for calling upon the name of God. The wicked, as if the prophet had said, have done all in their power to extinguish and annihilate the worship of God in Judea. SPURGEO , “Ver. 8. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together. It was no idle wish, their cruelty was sincere, deep seated, a matter of their inmost heart. Extirpation was the desire of Haman, and the aim of many another tyrant; not a remnant of the people of God would have been left if oppressors could have had their way. Pharaoh's policy to stamp out the nation has been a precedent for others, yet the Jews survive, and will: the bush though burning has not been consumed. Even thus the church of Christ has gone through baptism of blood and fire, but it is all the brighter for them. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. Here is no allusion to places called synagogues, but to assemblies; and as no assemblies for worship here held in but one place, the ruin of the temple was the destruction of all the holy gatherings, and so in effect all the meeting places were destroyed. One object of persecutors has always been to put an end to all conventicles, as they have called
- 41. them. Keep themfrom meeting and you will scatter them, so have the enemy said; but, glory be to God, saints are independent of walls, and have met on the hill side, by the moss, or in the catacombs, or in a boat at sea. Yet has the attempt been almost successful, and the hunt so hot, that the faithful have wandered in solitude, and their solemn congregations have been, under such circumstances, few and far between. What sighs and cries have in such times gone up to the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. How happy are we that we can meet for worship in any place we choose, and none dare molest us. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 8. The synagogues of God. It is the opinion of Spencer, Vitringa, and of the learned in general, that the institution of synagogues for worship originated in the reading of the law publicly after the collection of its volumes by Ezra, and that, consequently, there were no such places of solemn assembly previous to the Babylonish captivity. Some of the Jews themselves have expressed a conviction that this is the fact, and the Scriptures give no intimation of their existence antecedently to that time. We are aware, however, that one of the first Hebraists of the present day, the Rev. Dr. Macaul, inclines to the opinion of an earlier origin than that generally adopted. We quote his words: "The existence of such places before the Babylonish captivity has been much disputed"; and most writers, arguing from the silence of the Old Testament, incline to the opinion that they originated in Babylon, and that after the restoration similar oratories were opened in the land of Israel; and hence some infer that the Seventy-fourth Psalm, which says in the eighth verse, They have burned up all the synagogues in the land, was written in the post Babylonian times. The argument from silence is, however, far from conclusive. The translation of yrewm as synagogues, in the verse just cited, might fairly lead to a similar translation in some other passages which were confessedly written before the captivity; and the circumstances, character, and necessities of the Israelites, the great body of whom were far removed from the temple, prove indisputably that in their towns and villages they must have had some locality where they assembled on their sabbaths, new moons, and other solemn days, for the purpose of receiving instruction in the law, and for public prayer. That locality, however different from subsequent arrangements, was the origin of the synagogue. How such assemblies were conducted before the captivity it is now impossible to say. F. A. Cox. Ver. 8. Synagogues. Dr. Prideaux affirms that they had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity; for the main service of the synagogue, says he, being the reading of the law unto the people, where there was no book of the law to be read, there certainly could be no synagogues. But how rare the book of the law was through all Judaea, before the Babylonish captivity, many texts of Scripture tell us. When Jehoshaphat sent teachers through all Judaea, to instruct the people in the law of God, they carried a book of the law with them (2 Chronicles 17:9), which they needed not have done if there had been any copies of the law in those cities to which they went; which certainly there would have been had there been any synagogues in them. And when Hilkiah found the law in the temple (2 Kings 22:8), neither he nor king Josiah needed to have been so surprised at it, had books of the law been common on those times. Their behaviour on that occasion sufficiently proves they had never seen it before, which could not be the case had there then been any other copies of it to be found among the people; and if there were no copies of the law at
- 42. that time amongthem, there could then be most certainly no synagogues for them to resort to for the hearing of it read unto them. From whence he concludes there could be no synagogues among the Jews, till after the Babylonish captivity. Cruden's Concordance. Ver. 8. Synagogues. The assertion of those who are in favour of the Maccabean origin of the Psalm, that these words describe the destruction of the synagogues, is met by the remark, that in all the copious accounts which we have of the transactions of these times, there is nothing said of any such work of destruction. E. W. Hengstenberg. Ver. 8. Synagogues. In the Old Testament we find no traces of meetings for worship in synagogues. Temporary altars, groves, and high places were used alike by the Jewish saints and sinners for the worship of God and idols. The only pre-exile instance which seems to indicate that the devout in Israel were in the habit of resorting to pious leaders for blessings and instruction on stated occasions, is to be found in 2 Kings 4:23, where the Shunammite's husband asks, "Wherefore wilt thou go to him (Elisha) today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." Yet 2 Kings 22:8, etc.; 2 Chronicles 34:14, etc., testify undoubtedly against the existence of places of worship under the monarchy. It is during the exile, whilst the temple worship was in abeyance, that we find indubitable proof of the systematic meetings on fasts for devotion and instruction (Zec 7:3-5 8:19). Religious meetings were also held on Sabbaths and fasts, to instruct the exiles in the divine law, and to admonish them to obey the divine precepts, (Ezra 10:1-9 e 8:1-3 9:1-3 13:1-3). These meetings, held near the temple and in other localities, were the origin of the synagogue, and the place in which the people assembled was denominated the house of assembly. Hence, also, the synagogue in the temple itself... These synagogues soon became very popular, so that the psalmist in depicting worship in the time of the Maccabees declares that the many meeting places of God--or the Synagogues of God as the A.V. rightly renders it--have been laid waste. Christian D. Ginsburg, in Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. Ver. 8. (second clause). The sense seems to be, they (the Chaldaean invaders) have abolished all the solemnities in the land. They have taken away the daily sacrifice; they have put an end to the festivals and feasts of our holy ritual. Compare La 2:6: "He hath violently taken away his tabernacle; he hath destroyed his places of the assembly, "(or rather, his assembly, his moed). "The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion." Christopher Wordsworth. ELLICOTT, “(8) All the synagogues of God in the land.—This expression excludes from moed either of the meanings possible for it in Psalms 74:4, “the Temple” or “the assembly.” Buildings, and these places of worship, must be meant, and it is implied that they are scattered over the land, and can therefore mean nothing but synagogues. The “high places” would’ not be called God’s, nor would Bethel and Dan have been so called, being connected with irregular and unorthodox worship. Thus we have a clear note of time, indicating a period not only later than the rise of the synagogue in Ezra’s time, but much later, since it takes time for a new institution to spread over a country. Aquila and Symmachus actually render “synagogues.” Possibly the LXX. are right in putting the latter clause into the
- 43. mouth of theenemies, “let us burn,” &c WHEDO , “8. They said… Let us destroy them together—We will destroy them at once: or utterly; that is, all the sacred places of Jehovah. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land—The synagogue proper dates during and after the captivity, and the word is not to be taken here in the restricted sense which it afterward received, but in the general sense of sacred places of meeting, or assembly, perhaps like the proseuchae—places of prayer— mostly in the open field, or by the river side. Thus, Acts 16:16 : “As we went to prayer,” προσευχην, to the place of prayer. Such oratories they might have had before the exile. Germs of them appear in the time of Samuel. 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Samuel 10:5. Later, the “schools of the prophets” were gatherings for instruction and devotion, open, it would seem, to all who would come. Such gatherings also seem implied in 2 Kings 4:23, and other places. But “synagogues of God” certainly is not a happy rendering of אל ,מועדי which simply means, meetingplaces of God. In Lamentations 2:6, it is rendered “places of the assembly.” The root of the verb means simply to gather, particularly at set times and for religious purposes; though in Psalms 75:2, it applies to a judicial assembly, or court. The object of the enemy was, as alluded to in the text, to destroy all places of religious worship or resort, and break up and annihilate all vestiges of the Hebrew system of religion. 9 We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. BAR ES, “We see not our signs - The emblems of worship, or the national emblems or banners, which we have been accustomed to see. There are no signals or tokens of our nationality in the land. All have been removed by the invaders, and we see everywhere evidences of the presence of a foreign power. The marks of our own independency are gone. The nation is subdued and conquered. There is no more any prophet - No one is raised up as the special messenger of God to assure us of his favor, or to take the lead in the national troubles. In times of danger God had been accustomed to send to them some special teacher who would declare his will, direct the nation what to do, and give encouraging assurances that the
- 44. national troubles wouldcease, and that deliverance would come. They saw no such messengers of God now. This is not inconsistent with the supposition that this psalm was written before the captivity, and in the time of the Chaldean invasion, or with the supposition that Jeremiah was then alive, for the meaning may be, not that literally there was no prophet in the land, but that there was no one who had come from God as a special messenger of comfort and deliverance. Ruin had come upon them, and there were no indications of divine interposition in their behalf. Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long - How long these calamities are to continue. No one can tell when they are to end. The prophetic office seemed to have ceased among them. It was renewed, however, after the captivity, in the case of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Malachi. CLARKE, “We see not our signs - “They have taken away all our trophies, and have left us no memorial that God has been among us. Even thou thyself hast left us destitute of all those supernatural evidences that have so often convinced us that thou wert among us of a truth.” But we may say that they were not totally destitute even of these. The preservation of Daniel in the lion’s den, and of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace; the metamorphosis of Nebuchadnezzar; the handwriting that appeared to Belshazzar; were all so many prodigies and evidences that God had not left them without proofs of his being and his regard. There is no more any prophet - There was not one among them in that place that could tell them how long that captivity was yet to endure. But there were prophets in the captivity. Daniel was one; but his prophecies were confined to one place. Ezekiel was another, but he was among those captives who were by the river Chebar. They had not, as usual, prophets who went to and fro through the land, preaching repentance and remission of sins. GILL, “We see not our signs,.... Either such miracles as were formerly wrought to support the faith of God's people in distress, and for their deliverance out of it, as when they were in Egypt, and brought forth from thence; see Psa_78:43 or rather their sabbaths and sacrifices, the passover and circumcision, and other ordinances and institutions of divine worship; which were signs of the presence of God with them, and of Christ, and blessings of grace, and good things to come by him; which ceased, or were interrupted in their captivity, and which the godly lament: or the signs of redemption, as Kimchi; and may be interpreted of the blindness and stupidity of the greater part of them, who could not discern the signs of the times, as before the destruction of the city and temple, Mat_16:3 so after it, when these being destroyed, and they in the hands of the Romans, might easily have perceived that the sceptre was departed from Judah, and therefore Shiloh must be come, or the Messiah; who also must have been in his temple, and Daniel's weeks be up; but these signs they saw not, nor do they yet: and so though the signs of the latter day are upon us, we see them not, or at least very few take notice of them, and lament them; such as a very great departure from the faith of the Gospel, a neglect of Gospel worship and ordinances, coldness and lukewarmness in matters of religion, want of love to Christ and his people, a general sleepiness and security, a form of religion without the power of it, a name to live and be dead, and iniquity abounding even among professors of religion; besides the frequent signs in heaven and in earth; see Mat_24:12,
- 45. there is nomore any prophet; there were but few in the Babylonish captivity, and after Malachi there were none; there were none in the times of Antiochus; there were none till John the forerunner of Christ came; and in the latter day the two prophets that prophesy in sackcloth will be slain, and there will be no prophesying for a while, Rev_ 11:7. Kimchi explains it, there is no prophet yet, and interprets it thus, Elijah the prophet is not yet come: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long; the calamity will endure, and ere deliverance will come; how long the Babylonish captivity would continue was known, that it would be seventy years, and no longer; the prophets that searched after the time of salvation and redemption by Christ knew how long it would be to it; Daniel fixed the exact time of it; but how long the present times will last we know not, or how long it is to the end of wonders; or when will end the 1260 days of the reign of antichrist, of the church's being in the wilderness, of the holy city being trodden under foot by the Gentiles, and of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth. HE RY 9-11, “. 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. JAMISO , “signs — of God’s presence, as altar, ark, etc. (compare Psa_74:4; 2Ch_ 36:18, 2Ch_36:19; Dan_5:2). no more any prophet — (Isa_3:2; Jer_40:1; Jer_43:6). how long — this is to last. Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer_25:11), if published, may not have been generally known or understood. To the bulk of the people, during the captivity, the occasional and local prophetical services of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel would not make an exception to the clause, “there is no more any prophet.” CALVI , “9.We see not our signs. Here the pious Jews show that their calamities
- 46. were aggravated fromthe circumstance that they had no consolation by which to alleviate them. It is a powerful means of encouraging the children of God, when he enables them to cherish the hope of his being reconciled to them, by promising, that even in the midst of his wrath he will remember his mercy. Some limit the signs here spoken of to the miracles by which God had in the days of old testified, at the very time when he was afflicting his people, that he would, notwithstanding, still continue to be gracious to them. But the faithful rather complain that he had removed from them the tokens of his favor, and had in a manner hidden his face from them. (227) We are overwhelmed with darkness, as if the prophet had said, because thou, O God! dost not make thy face to shine upon us as thou hast been accustomed to do. Thus it is common for us to speak of persons giving us signs either of their love or of their hatred. In short, God’s people here complain not only that the time was cloudy and dark, but also that they were enveloped in darkness so thick, that there did not appear so much as a single ray of light. As to be assured by the prophets of future deliverance was one of the chief signs of God’s favor, they lament that there is no longer a prophet to foresee the end of their calamities. From this we learn that the office of imparting consolation was committed to the prophets, that they might lift up the hearts which were cast down with sorrow, by inspiring them with the hope of Divine mercy. They were, it is true, heralds and witnesses of the wrath of God to drive the obstinate and rebellious to repentance by threatenings and terrors. But had they merely and without qualification denounced the vengeance of God, their doctrine, which was appointed and intended for the salvation of the people, would have only been the means of their destruction. Accordingly, the foretelling of the issue of calamities while yet hidden in the future, is ascribed to them as a part of their office; for temporary punishments are the fatherly chastisements of God, and the consideration that they are temporary alleviates sorrow; but his continual displeasure causes poor and wretched sinners to sink into utter despair. If, therefore, we also would find matter for patience and consolation, when we are under the chastening hand of God, let us learn to fix our eyes on this moderation on the part of God, by which he encourages us to entertain good hope; and from it let us rest assured, that although he is angry, yet he ceases not to be a father. The correction which brings deliverance does not inflict unmitigated grief: the sadness which it produces is mingled with joy. This end all the prophets endeavored to keep in view in the doctrine which they delivered. They, no doubt, often make use of very hard and severe language in their dealings with the people, in order, by inspiring them with terror, to break and subdue their rebellion; but whenever they see men humbled, they immediately address them in words of consolation, which, however, would be no consolation at all, were they not encouraged to hope for future deliverance. The question may here be asked, whether God, with the view of assuaging the sadness arising from the chastisement, which he inflicted, always determined the number of years and days during which they would last? To this I answer, that although the prophets have not always marked out and defined a fixed time, yet they frequently gave the people assurance that deliverance was near at hand; and, moreover, all of them spoke of the future restoration of the Church. If it is again objected, that the people in their affliction did wrong in not applying to themselves
- 47. the general promises,which it is certain were the common property of all ages, I answer, that as it was God’s usual way to send in every affliction a messenger to announce the tidings of deliverance, the people, when at the present time no prophet appeared to be expressly sent for that purpose, not without cause complain that they were deprived of the signs of the Divine favor which they had been accustomed to enjoy. Until the coming of Christ it was highly necessary that the memory of the promised deliverance should be renewed in every age, to show the people of God that to whatever afflictions they might be subjected, he still continued to care for them, and would afford them succor. SPURGEO , “Ver. 9. We see not our signs. Alas, poor Israel! o Urim and Thummim blazed on the High Priest's bosom, and no Shechaniah shone from between the cherubim. The smoke of sacrifice and cloud of incense no more arose from the holy hill; solemn feasts were suspended, and even circumcision, the covenant sign, was forbidden by the tyrant. We, too, as believers, know what it is to lose our evidences and grope in darkness; and too often do our churches also miss the tokens of the Redeemer's presence, and their lamps remain untrimmed. Sad complaint of a people under a cloud! There is no more any prophet. Prophecy was suspended. o inspiring psalm or consoling promise fell from bard or seer. It is ill with the people of God when the voice of the preacher of the gospel fails, and a famine of the word of life falls on the people. God sent ministers are as needful to the saints as their daily bread, and it is a great sorrow when a congregation is destitute of a faithful pastor. It is to be feared, that with all the ministers now existing, there is yet a dearth of men whose hearts and tongues are touched with the celestial fire. either is there any among us that knoweth how long. If someone could foretell an end, the evil might be borne with a degree of patience, but when none can see a termination, or foretell an escape, the misery has a hopeless appearance, and is overwhelming. Blessed be God, he has not left his church in these days to be so deplorably destitute of cheering words; let us pray that he never may. Contempt of the word is very common, and may well provoke the Lord to withdraw it from us; may his long suffering endure the strain, and his mercy afford us still the word of life. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 9. We see not our signs. As if they had said, heretofore God was wont to give us signs and tokens, he would even work miracles for us, or he would send a prophet to instruct and advise us what to do; we had those who could tell us how long, that is, how long our troubles should last, and when we should have our expected end of them; but now we are in trouble, and no man can tell us how long, now we are left to the wide world, to shift for ourselves as well as we can; the Lord will not advise us what to do, nor give us his mind what's best to be done, or how to proceed; thus deplorable was their condition upon the hiding of God's face from them. Joseph Caryl. Ver. 9. We see not our signs. These signs, which he mourned that he did not see, were certain outward marks of God's special favour, certain testimonies of his presence, certain memorials that he was with them to bless them. And it is said that
- 48. there were fivethings in Solomon's temple destroyed by ebuchadnezzar, which were not in the second temple, which was erected after the Babylonish captivity. Five memorials or tokens of God's special presence were then wanting. One was the ark of the covenant; another, the fire from heaven upon the brazen altar; the third, the Shechaniah, or cloud that rested upon the mercyseat; the fourth, the Urim and Thummim which were in the breastplate of the high priest; and the fifth, the spirit of prophecy. For though there were the prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, at the time of, and shortly after, the restoration; yet the spirit of prophecy ceased with Malachi, and did not reappear until John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus... The lamentation of the church here, then, was, that she saw not her signs. So now, the church of the living God, the regenerate family of Zion, have often reason to pour out the same melancholy complaint. Signs of God's favour, marks and testimonies of his work of grace upon their souls, are often so out of sight, so buried in obscurity, so enveloped in clouds of darkness, that the living family are compelled, from soul feeling, to take up the language of lamentation here expressed, and say, We see not our signs. J. C. Philpot. 1802-1869. Ver. 9. Our signs. The ordinary signs of Israel being God's peculiar people are the passover (Exodus 12:13), the Sabbath (Exodus 21:13), the temple, the altar, the sacrifices; the extraordinary ones are God's miracles wrought in his people's behalf (Psalms 78:43). A. R. Fausset. Ver. 9. There is no more any prophet. By us it ought to be observed what they do not say: It is not, --here is no more any giant or warlike leader who may deliver us from the adversary: but, there is no more any prophet. And yet when the prophets were with them, they were contemptible in the eyes of all, maltreated by the wicked and put to death. Musculus. BE SO , “Psalms 74:9. We see not our signs — Those tokens of God’s gracious presence with us, which we and our ancestors used to enjoy. There is no more any prophet — Either, 1st, Any public teacher. We have few or none left to instruct us in the law of God, and in divine things. Or, 2d, Any extraordinary prophet, who can foretel things to come, as the next words explain it. For as for Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they might be dead when this Psalm was composed; and Daniel was involved in civil affairs, and did not teach the people as a prophet; and the prophetical spirit, which sometimes came upon him, and made those great discoveries to him which we read in his book, might possibly at this time suspend his influences. Besides, it is not unusual, in Scripture, to say there is none of a sort of persons or things, when there is a very great scarcity of them. Bishop Patrick thinks what is here said respecting there being no prophet, to tell the Jews how long the captivity would last, is a proof that this Psalm was written toward the end of that captivity. ELLICOTT, “(9) We see not our signs . . .—It is natural to take this statement in direct contrast to what Psalms 74:4 (see ote) says of the heathen signs. While these abominations—rallying points of savage profanity—were visibly set up, the tokens of the invisible God’s presence, His wonders wrought for Israel, are no more seen. There is no more any prophet.—This was the constant lament of the Maccabæan period (1 Maccabees 4:46; 1 Maccabees 9:27; 1 Maccabees 14:41), and suits no
- 49. earlier time—at leastnone into which the rest of the psalm would fit. During the exile period Jeremiah and Ezekiel were prophesying, and the complaint took quite a different form then and probably for some time afterwards (Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:26). The full desolation of the situation is told in “Song of the Three Children,” Psalms 74:15; “ either is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before Thee or find mercy.” either is there among us any that knoweth how long.—This, too, carries us on past the time of Jeremiah, who had given an exact date for the termination of the exile. Probably (if the arrangement of the words is right) we have here another expression of a widely-spread feeling—a feeling which inspired the apocalyptic literature, which had for its object partly to answer this question, how long? But it has been suggested, as more in the Hebrew style, to end the clause with the word know, and make it directly parallel with the preceding (“there is neither a prophet nor one who knows”), and carry on the interrogative to the next verse, where its repetition would add much to the force of the question there put. (Burgess.) WHEDO , “9. We see not our signs—The word rendered “our signs” implies tokens or answers of prayer, of a general character, connected with the instituted ordinances of worship. These they had not, now that their temple and altars were destroyed, and they in exile. There is no more… prophet—For Jeremiah did not accompany the exiles, but was released at Ramah and returned to Mizpah. Jeremiah 40:1-6. Ezekiel, however, did live and prophesy among the exiles of Mesopotamia, by the river Chebar, or Chaboras, (Ezekiel 1:1-3,) but did not go into Babylonia. The complaint strongly indicates that the psalm was written after Ezekiel’s death, and before Daniel came into public repute as a prophet. either is there among us any that knoweth how long—They did not know how long the captivity was to continue, though Jeremiah had foretold it, (Jeremiah 25:12,) and afterward wrote to the exiles more specifically as to the time. Jeremiah 29:10. For the same cause the disciples understood not the Saviour’s prediction of his own death and sufferings. Luke 18:31-34. It was against their traditional faith, not against their sacred writings, and they had not risen to the height of the new dispensation. COFFMA , “Verse 9 "We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; either is there among us any that knoweth how long.
- 50. How long, OGod, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?" "There is no more any prophet" (Psalms 74:9). This does not appear to be a reference to that long inter-testamental period of Israel's history, during which the voice of prophecy in Israel was providentially silenced. As Ash suggested, we believe this refers to the time when there was no longer any prophet in Jerusalem and Judaea.[13] If this psalm was written after Jeremiah had been taken to Egypt, Psalms 74:9 and Psalms 74:10, below, would be properly understood as reference to the fact that there was no longer any prophet in "the land" of Israel. With Daniel and Ezekiel in Babylon, and with Jeremiah no longer in Jerusalem, there would indeed have been "no prophet" anymore. To us this appears to be the certain meaning of the passage. The rebellious residue of Israel that was still in Jerusalem were very conceited, believing that only they themselves were any longer the object of God's concern, whereas, in truth, God's true people at that time were in no sense whatever identified with Jerusalem, but with Babylon. The psalmist appears to be, in a class with Jeremiah, that is, a member of God's "true people." Thus with Jeremiah having been forcefully taken to Egypt, there would have been indeed "no prophet" available to the psalmist. Certainly Ash's statement is correct that there are enough alternative explanations of what is meant by 'no prophet,' "To warrant the conclusion that this verse could refer to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 to 586 B.C."[14] K&D, 9-11, “The worst thing the poet has to complain of is that God has not acknowledged His people during this time of suffering as at other times. “Our signs” is the direct antithesis to “their sings” (Psa_74:4), hence they are not to be understood, after Psa_86:17, as signs which God works. The suffix demands, besides, something of a perpetual character; they are the instituted ordinances of divine worship by means of which God is pleased to stand in fellowship with His people, and which are now no longer to be seen because the enemies have set them aside. The complaint “there is not prophet any more” would seem strange in the period immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, for Jeremiah's term of active service lasted beyond this. Moreover, a year before (in the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign) he had predicted that the Babylonian domination, and relatively the Exile, would last seventy years; besides, six years before the destruction Ezekiel appeared, who was in communication with those who remained behind in the land. The reference to Lam_2:9 (cf. Eze_7:26) does not satisfy one; for there it is assumed that there were prophets, a fact which is here denied. Only perhaps as a voice coming out of the Exile, the middle of which (cf. Hos_3:4; 2Ch_15:3, and besides Canticum trium puerorum, Psa_74:14 : καᆳ οᆒκ ᅞστιν ᅚν τሬ καιρሬ τούτሩ ᅎρχων καᆳ προφήτης καᆳ ᅧγούµενος) was truly thus devoid of signs or miracles, and devoid of the prophetic word of consolation, can Psa_74:9 be comprehended. The seventy years of Jeremiah were then still a riddle without any generally known solution (Dan. 9). If, however, synagogues are meant in Psa_74:8, Psa_74:9 now too accords with the like- sounding lament in the calamitous times of Antiochus (1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41). In
- 51. Psa_74:10 the poetturns to God Himself with the question “How long?” how long is this (apparently) endless blaspheming of the enemy to last? Why dost Thou draw back (viz., וִּנ ֶ ִ,מ from us, not ינוּ ֵל ָ,ע Psa_81:15) Thy hand and Thy right hand? The conjunction of synonyms “Thy hand and Thy right hand” is, as in Psa_44:4, Sirach 33:7, a fuller expression for God's omnipotent energy. This is now at rest; Psa_74:11 calls upon it to give help by an act of judgment. “Out of the midst of Thy bosom, destroy,” is a pregnant expression for, “drawing forth out of Thy bosom the hand that rests inactive there, do Thou destroy.” The Chethîb חוקך has perhaps the same meaning; for ּוקח, Arab. ᐓawq, signifies, like יק ֵ,ח Arab. ᐓayq, the act of encompassing, then that which encompasses. Instead of ָך ְֽיק ֵח ֵמ (Exo_4:7) the expression is חיקך ב ֶר ֶ ִ,מ because there, within the realm of the bosom, the punitive justice of God for a time as it were slumbers. On the ה ֵ ַ,כ which outwardly is without any object, cf. Psa_59:14. 10 How long will the enemy mock you, God? Will the foe revile your name forever? BAR ES, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?... - How long shall this state of things be allowed to continue? Is there to be no end to it? Are these desolations never to be repaired - these ruins never to be rebuilt? It “seemed” so; and hence, this earnest appeal. So to us it often appears as if our trials were never to come to an end. One calamity succeeds another; and there comes no relief. Yet there is relief. Deliverance may come, and soon come, in the present life; or if not in the present life, yet to all those who are the children of God it will soon come by their removal to a world where trial will be forever unknown. GILL, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?.... The name of God, as in the next clause, the divine Persons and perfections, the purposes and providence of God, his people, ways, worship, truths, and ordinances: shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? The "adversary" and "enemy" being in the singular number, may intend some particular one, as antichrist; who is emphatically and eminently "the enemy" of God, he opposing himself to, and exalting himself above, all that is called God; and the adversary of Christ, as his name shows; not
- 52. only setting himselfin his room and stead, but undermining him in all his offices; changing his laws as a King, dishonouring his sacrifice and intercession as a priest, and doing injury to his word and ordinances as a Prophet; and who has a mouth speaking blasphemies against God, his name, and tabernacle, heaven, and they that dwell therein, angels and saints, Rev_13:5. He reproaches and blasphemes God himself, by showing himself to be God, by suffering himself to be so called, and to be worshipped as if he was God; by taking infallibility to himself, and setting up image worship, and obliging persons to it: he reproaches and blasphemes the Son of God, in whom the name of God is, by pretending to be his vicar on earth, and head of the church; to transubstantiate the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; and to offer him up again in the blasphemous service of the mass: he reproaches and blasphemes his Gospel, which is his name, Act_9:15, by introducing doctrines contrary to it, as the doctrines of merit, of works of supererogation, and justification by works; and the Scriptures, which bear the name and authority of God, by making them a nose of wax, taking upon himself to be the infallible interpreter of Scripture, and sole judge of controversies; by setting up his own unwritten traditions upon an equality with them, and forbidding the use of them to the people in their mother tongue: and he reproaches and blasphemes his name and authority by assuming it to himself in civil things, deposing and setting up kings at his pleasure; in religious affairs, dispensing with the laws of God, and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men; yea, in matters of salvation, giving out pardons and indulgences, pretending to open and shut heaven at pleasure. Moreover, these terms may be understood of many enemies and adversaries, even of all the enemies of the grace of God, and person of Christ; such reproach and blaspheme the name of God the Father; by denying some of his perfections, as his sovereignty, omniscience, and punitive justice, and by charging his decrees with injustice, insincerity, and cruelty; they reproach and blaspheme the name of Christ, by denying his deity, eternal sonship, and distinct personality, and by speaking contemptuously of his righteousness, blood, and sacrifice; and they do despight unto the Spirit of grace, and speak evil of his person, and the operations of his grace on the souls of men; and such a day of rebuke and blasphemy is the present one: and these things give good men that observe them a great concern for the name of God, who are ready to fear there will be no end to these reproaches and blasphemies; but there will, the time is coming when the name of the Lord will be excellent in all the earth, and the Lord alone shall be exalted; but it is not known how long it will be to it. JAMISO , “(Compare Psa_31:1). how long ... reproach? — us, as deserted of God. blaspheme thy name — or, “perfections,” as power, goodness, etc. (Psa_29:2). CALVI , “10.How long, O God! shall the adversary reproach? Here it is intimated that nothing inflicted upon them greater anguish than when they saw the name of God blasphemed by the ungodly. By this manner of praying, the object of the inspired writer was to kindle in our hearts a zeal for maintaining the Divine glory. We are naturally too delicate and tender for bearing calamities; but it is a decided proof of genuine godliness, when the contumely which is cast upon God grieves and disquiets our minds more than all our own personal sufferings. The poor Jews, there can be no doubt, were assailed with more kinds of reproach than one under a most cruel tyrant, and amongst a barbarous nation. But the prophet, speaking in the
- 53. person of thewhole Church, makes almost no account of the reproaches cast upon the people in comparison of the execrable blasphemies directed against God; according to the statement contained in Psalms 69:9, “The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” The phrase for ever is again added; for when the ungodly continue long unpunished, this has a hardening effect, and renders them more audacious, especially when the revilings which they pour forth against God seem to pass unnoticed by him. It is, therefore, added immediately after in the 11th verse, SPURGEO , “Ver. 10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Though we know not how long yet thou dost. The times and seasons are with thee. When God is reproached, there is hope for us, for it may be he will hearken and avenge his dishonoured name. Wickedness has great license allowed it, and justice lingers on the road; God has his reasons for delay, and his seasons for action, and in the end it shall be seen that he is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness. Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? He will do so for ever, unless thou dost give him his quietus. Wilt thou never defend thyself, and stop slanderous tongues? Wilt thou always endure the jeers of the profane? Is there to be no end to all this sacrilege and cursing? Yes, it shall all be ended, but not by and by. There is a time for the sinner to rage, and a time in which patience bears with him; yet it is but a time, and then, ah, then! EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 10. Shall the enemy blaspheme the name for ever? The sinner never leaves his sin till sin first leaves him: did not death put a stop to his sin, he would never cease from sin. This may be illustrated by a similitude thus: A company of gamesters resolve to play all night, and accordingly they sit down to chess tables, or some other game; their candle, accidentally or unexpectedly, goes out, or is put out, or burnt out; their candle being out, they are forced to give over their game, and go to bed in the dark; but had the candle lasted all night, they would have played all night. This is every sinner's case in regard of sin: did not death put out the candle of life, the sinner would sin still. Should the sinner live for ever, he would sin for ever; and, therefore, it is a righteous thing with God to punish him for ever in hellish torments. Every impenitent sinner would sin to the days of eternity, if he might live to the days of eternity. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? For ever, and evermore; or for ever and yet--for so the Hebrew loves to exaggerate: as if the sinner, the blasphemer, would set a term of duration longer than eternity to sin in. The psalmist implicitly saith, Lord, if thou dost but let them alone for ever, they will certainly blaspheme thy name for ever and ever. I have read of the crocodile, that he knows no maximum quod sic, he is always growing bigger and bigger, and never comes to a certain pitch of monstrosity so long as he lives. Quamdiu vivit crescit. Every habituated sinner would, if he were let alone, be such a monster, perpetually growing worse and worse. Thomas Brooks. BE SO , “Psalms 74:10-12. How long shall the adversary reproach — amely, thy name, (which is expressed in the next clause,) by saying that thou art either unkind to thy people, or unfaithful in thy covenant, or unable to deliver us out of our
- 54. miseries. Why withdrawestthou thy hand? — Why dost thou suspend or forbear the exercise of that power which thou hast so often exerted in behalf of thy people? Pluck it out of thy bosom — In which thou now seemest to hide it, as idle persons used to do. This is spoken after the manner of men. It means, Why art thou an inactive spectator of our miseries? Why dost thou not put forth thy power and deliver us? For God is my king of old — In a singular manner. It belongs to thine office to protect and save us; working salvation in the midst of the earth — In the view of the world: saving thy people so eminently and gloriously, that all the nations around observed and admired it. ELLICOTT, “(10-15) ln the true prophetic spirit, as Moses brought the cries of distress “by reason of their bondage” from the oppressed Israelites to God (Exodus 5:22), so this poet carries to the same God the pathos of this later cry, How long? how long? In answer, the deliverances of old rush into his mind. He recalls the right hand once stretched out to save (now thrust in inaction into the bosom), the wonders at the Red Sea, and all the long-continued providential guiding. Surely the same God will do the same wonders now! CO STABLE, “?Verses 10-17 3. An appeal for divine help74:10-17 The psalmist pleaded for God to help His people and to subdue their enemy. The Lord"s reputation fell with the sanctuary in the eyes of Israel"s neighbors. Ancient ear Easterners regarded a god"s temple as the reflection of his glory. ow that the temple on Mt. Zion had suffered damage, the nations would have concluded that Yahweh was unable to defend His people. Asaph recalled God"s mighty acts in the past in order to motivate Him to act for His people by defeating their enemy in the present ( Psalm 74:12-17). Psalm 74:13-14 describe the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus. ". . . the language of Psalm 74:12-14, while tailored to reflect the redemptive character of the Exodus event, also alludes to God"s victory over chaos at creation." [ ote: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p260.] The sea monsters refer to Pharaoh"s soldiers, and Leviathan was a mythical monster that the writer used to describe Egypt here. The creatures of the wilderness are the Israelites. Psalm 74:15 recalls events in the wilderness wanderings and the crossing of the Jordan. Psalm 74:16-17 go back to God"s creation of the cosmos. "The point here is that what Baal had claimed in the realm of myth, God had done in the realm of history-and done for His people, working salvation." [ ote: Kidner, Psalm 73-150 , p268.] EBC, “Psalms 74:10 and Psalms 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
- 55. the name ofGod, 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. Psalms 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 Psalms 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 psalmist’s petition is next grounded on the revelation of God’s name in Israel’s 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 Proverbs 30:25-26}
- 56. 11 Why doyou hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! BAR ES, “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? - Why dost thou not stretch forth thy hand for our deliverance? The hand, especially the right hand, is the instrument by which we wield a sword, or strike a blow; and the expression here is equivalent to asking why God did not interfere and save them. Pluck it out of thy bosom - As if God had hidden his hand beneath the folds of his garment, or had wrapped his robe tightly around him. It “seemed” as if he had done this, as if he looked calmly on, and saw the temple fired, the synagogues burned up, the land laid waste, and the people slaughtered, without an attempt to interpose. How often are we constrained to use similar language - to ask a similar question - when iniquity abounds, when crime prevails, when sinners are perishing, when the church mourns - for God seems to have withdrawn his hand, and to be looking on with unconcern! No one can tell why this is so; and, without irreverence, or a spirit of complaining, but deeply affected with the mystery of the fact, we may ask “Why” this is so. CLARKE, “Why withdrawest thou thy hand - It has been remarked, that as the outward habit of the easterns had no sleeves, the hands and arms were frequently covered with the folds of the robe; and in order to do any thing, the hand must be disentangled and drawn out. The literal version of the Hebrew is: “To what time wilt thou draw back thy hand; yea, thy right hand, from within thy bosom?” Consomme; that is, manifest thy power, and destroy thy adversaries. I have, in the introduction to the book of Psalms, spoken of the old metrical version by Sternhold and Hopkins, and have stated that it was formed from the original text. A proof of this may be seen by the learned reader in this and the preceding verse; where, though their version is harsh, and some of their expressions quaint almost to ridicule, yet they have hit the true mean ing which our prose translators have missed: - Psa_74:10 When wilt thou once, Lord, end this shame,
- 57. And cease thineen’mies strong? Shall they always blaspheme thy name, And rail on thee so long? Psa_74:11 Why dost thou draw thy hand aback, And hide it in thy lap? O pluck it out, and be not slack To give thy foes a rap! GILL, “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even that right hand?.... By which is meant the power of God; by which he made the heavens and the earth, and all things therein, and supports them in their beings; by which the work of his grace is wrought in the hearts of his people, and they are upheld; and by which he conquers their enemies, and saves them: this may be said to be withdrawn when he denies his people the help and succour they have had from him; when he seems to have forsaken the work of his hands; when there is not that success in the ministry of the word there formerly was, his arm being not revealed and made bare; and when the enemies of religion prosper and get ground; and when the Lord seems to be altogether inactive and unconcerned, like a man that folds up his arms under his arm holes, or hides his hands in his bosom, see Psa_44:23 wherefore it follows: pluck it out of thy bosom; as he will one day, and strike with a home blow, antichrist and his followers, and destroy them with his rod of iron, with which he will break them in shivers as a potter's vessel; and all his enemies shall feel the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger; and then this request will be fulfilled: the word used signifies to "consume" (a); and Kimchi interprets it, consume the enemy out of thy bosom, which is the house of the sanctuary; his secret place, as the bosom is to man; but both senses of the word maybe retained, and the meaning be, pluck it out of thy bosom to consume them (b): also it signifies to restrain (c); and the sense may be, as the above writer observes, restrain it, that it may not return to thy bosom, till thou hast executed judgment on the wicked. HE RY, “ 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. JAMISO , “Why cease to help us? (Compare Psa_3:7; Psa_7:6; Psa_60:5). CALVI , “11.How long wilt thou withdraw thy hand? It is easy to see what the prophet here intends, and yet interpreters are not agreed as to the words. Some by the word hand, in the first part of the verse, understand the left hand, to distinguish it from the right hand, mentioned in the last clause of the verse. But this is mere trifling; for when he uses the term right hand, he simply repeats the same thing
- 58. according to hisusual manner. Some translate the verb ,כלה kalah, the last word of the verse, by hinder or restrain, as if the prophet had said, Do thou at length stretch forth thy hand, which has been kept too long in thy bosom. But this is a forced sense, to which they have recourse without any color of reason. Those who translate it consume understand the midst of God’s bosom, as denoting allegorically his temple, (228) an interpretation of which I cannot approve. It will be better to continue the interrogation to the last word in this way: “How long wilt thou withdraw thy hand? Yea, wilt thou withdraw it from the midst of thy bosom? Consume, therefore, these ungodly men who so proudly despise thee.” We may also not improperly view the words as a prayer that as God’s enemies persuaded themselves that he was slothful and idle, because he did not bestir himself, nor openly lift up his hand; he would cause them to feel that he was perfectly able to destroy them with his nod alone, although he should not move so much as a finger. SPURGEO , “Ver. 11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Wherefore this inaction, this indifference for thine own honour and thy people's safety? How bold is the suppliant! Does he err? ay, verily, we who are so chill, and distant, and listless in prayer are the erring ones. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and he who learns the art shall surely prevail with God by its means. It is fit that we should enquire why the work of grace goes on so slowly, and the enemy has so much power over men: the inquiry may suggest practical reflections of unbounded value. "Why dost thou from the conflict stay? Why do thy chariot wheels delay? Lift up thyself, hell's kingdom shake, Arm of the Lord, awake, awake." Pluck it out of thy bosom. A bold simile, but dying men must venture for their lives. When God seems to fold his arms we must not fold ours, but rather renew our entreaties that he would again put his hand to the work. O for more agony in prayer among professing Christians, then should we see miracles of grace. We have here before us a model of pleading, a very rapture of prayer. It is humble, but very bold, eager, fervent, and effectual. The heart of God is always moved by such entreaties. When we bring forth out strong reasons, then will he bring forth his choice mercies. COKE, “Psalms 74:11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand— Their upper garments having no sleeves, the arms were wrapped up and covered under them; and consequently, when the hand was made use of, it must have been disengaged from the garment, and made bare. The phrase, why withdrawest thou thy hand? must therefore imply inactivity, and that God suspended the exercise of his power, and was an inactive spectator of the miseries of his people. In the next verses the Psalmist proceeds to encourage himself in the hopes of deliverance from God, by a review of the mighty works which he had heretofore wrought for his people. See Taylor's Hebrew Concordance. COFFMA , “Verse 11 "Why drawest back thy hand, even thy right hand?
- 59. Pluck it outof thy bosom and consume them." The anthropomorphic metaphor here depicts God as having withdrawn his right hand from its usual task of defending Israel, concealing it in his bosom instead. The psalmist appeals to God to use that right hand, and use it at once, in the defense of Israel. Alas, the Israel still remaining in Judaea was not destined to enjoy any such benefit. The whole nation had become so corrupt that pagan gods were being worshipped in the temple itself, as revealed by Ezekiel. evertheless, we may be sure that for faithful believers such as the psalmist, God no doubt kept them in the Book of Life. It was a sorrowful time for such as he. ISBET, “GOD AS SILE T A D I ACTIVE ‘Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand?’ Psalms 74:11 I. This is a great complaint, but it is a complaint of faith.—Hardly a gleam of light is to be found throughout. The Psalmist sits in the midst of national desolation and pours out his soul to God, in passionate appeal for His help, and protest against His silence and inactivity. This is not the song of an atheist, but the wail of a believer. He has a past experience of God’s power and a present conviction thereof. The signs of that power are in day and night, in summer and winter. The one place from which He seems to be absent is the place of His people’s distress. The ground of the Psalmist’s plea is not the distress of these people finally. It is rather that the enemy reproaches the name of Jehovah and blasphemes it. In that central complaint the name Jehovah, which is ever suggestive of the essential Helper, emerges, and there only in the psalm. The master consciousness of the moment is that of God the Mighty One, but there is that deeper knowledge of Him as the Helper of the needy. II. Again we are thankful that such a psalm has a place here, for it is so true to much human experience.—When the heart is hot and restless and it seems as though God had forsaken His own, he is a wise man who turns to Him in a song, even though the song be only a complaint. Illustrations (1) ‘“Have respect unto the covenant.” Here is the master-key—heaven’s gate must open to this. His covenant He will not break, nor alter the thing that hath gone forth out of His lips. The Lord had promised to bless the seed of Abraham, and make them a blessing; here they plead that ancient word, even as we also may plead the covenant made with the Lord Jesus for all believers. What a grand word it is!’ (2) ‘Let us go back on the past. Has God purchased us to cast us aside? Was He our king of old, and will He not work for our salvation still? Did He divide the sea, and break Rabab in pieces, to stultify all His work by deserting us? Aye, and there is no plea so potent as to remind God of His covenant, sealed with the blood of the Cross. “Even if we are utterly undeserving and evil, have respect unto the ‘I Wills’ of Thy covenant.”’
- 60. 12 But Godis my King from long ago; he brings salvation on the earth. BAR ES, “For God is my King of old - That is, the king, or ruler of his people. The people had acknowledged him as their king and ruler, and he had showed himself to be such. This is given as a reason why he should now interpose in their behalf. It is an argument, proper always to be urged, drawn from the faithfulness and unchangeableness of God. Working salvation in the midst of the earth - Salvation for his people. The reference here particularly is to what he had done for his people in delivering them from bondage in Egypt, and conducting them to the promised land, as is stated in the following verses. CLARKE, “For God is my King of old - We have always acknowledged thee as our sovereign; and thou hast reigned as a king in the midst of our land, dispensing salvation and deliverance from the center to every part of the circumference. GILL, “For God is my King of old,.... Or "but God", or "verily God", &c. (d); for these words contain the church's consolation under all the above melancholy circumstances, taken from what God was, and had been to her, even Christ, who is God over all; he was her King by the constitution and designation of his Father, and so he had been of old, even from everlasting; for so early was he set up as King; and he had in all ages been exercising his kingly office for the good of his church, and continued to do so; and this was her comfort, and is the comfort of saints in the worst of times, that Zion's King reigneth, see Psa_46:1. working salvation in the midst of the earth; it is "salvations" (e) in the plural number, and means both spiritual and eternal salvation, which the Lord has wrought out; and is continually applying to his people; and temporal salvation, which the Lord has been and is daily working out; he continually protecting his people, and saving them from their enemies, and delivering them out of their afflictions and temptations; and which the church considers and improves into an argument to encourage her faith, and expect the time when her walls would be salvation, and her gates praise; and she should have reason to say, now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ; and give him all the glory of it; see Isa_60:18, which salvation,
- 61. as it hasbeen, so will be wrought in the midst of the earth; meaning not in the midst of the land of Judea, or in Judea, the middle of the world, but openly and publicly in all the earth; though Cyril of Jerusalem says (f) Golgotha is the midst of the earth, where Christ suffered and wrought out salvation; and that it is here referred to. HE RY, “The lamenting church fastens upon something here which she calls to mind, and therefore hath she hope (as Lam_3:21), with which she encourages herself and silences her own complaints. Two things quiet the minds of those that are here sorrowing for the solemn assembly: - I. That God is the God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people (Psa_74:12): God is my King of old. This comes in both as a plea in prayer to God (Psa_44:4, thou art my King, O God!) and as a prop to their own faith and hope, to encourage themselves to expect deliverance, considering the days of old, Psa_77:5. The church speaks as a complex body, the same in every age, and therefore calls God, “My King, my King of old,” or, “from antiquity;” he of old put himself into that relation to them and appeared and acted for them in that relation. As Israel's King, he wrought salvation in the midst of the nations of the earth; for what he did, in the government of the world, tended towards the salvation of his church. Several things are here mentioned which God had done for his people as their King of old, which encouraged them to commit themselves to him and depend upon him. 1. He had divided the sea before them when they came out of Egypt, not by the strength of Moses or his rod, but by his own strength; and he that could do that could do any thing. 2. He had destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Pharaoh was the leviathan; the Egyptians were the dragons, fierce and cruel. Observe, (1.) The victory obtained over these enemies. God broke their heads, baffled their politics, as when Israel, the more they were afflicted by them, multiplied the more. God crushed their powers, though complicated, ruined their country by ten plagues, and at last drowned them all in the Red Sea. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, Eze_31:18. It was the Lord's doing; none besides could do it, and he did it with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. This was typical of Christ's victory over Satan and his kingdom, pursuant to the first promise, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head. (2.) The improvement of this victory for the encouragement of the church: Thou gavest him to be meat to the people of Israel, now going to inhabit the wilderness. The spoil of the Egyptians enriched them; they stripped their slain, and so got the Egyptians' arms and weapons, as before they had got their jewels. Or, rather, this providence was meat to their faith and hope, to support and encourage them in reference to the other difficulties they were likely to meet with in the wilderness. It was part of the spiritual meat which they were all made to eat of. Note, The breaking of the heads of the church's enemies is the joy and strength of the hearts of the church's friends. Thus the companions make a banquet even of leviathan, Job_41:6. JAMISO , “For — literally, “And,” in an adversative sense. CALVI , “12.But God is my King from the beginning. In this verse, as we have often seen to be the case in other places, the people of God intermingle meditations with their prayers, thereby to acquire renewed vigor to their faith, and to stir up
- 62. themselves to greaterearnestness in the duty of prayer. We know how difficult it is to rise above all doubts, and boldly to persevere in a free and unrestrained course of prayer. Here, then, the faithful call to remembrance the proofs of God’s mercy and working, by which he certified, through a continued series of ages, that he was the King and Protector of the people whom he had chosen. By this example we are taught, that as it is not enough to pray with the lips unless we also pray in faith, we ought always to remember the benefits by which God has given a confirmation of his fatherly love towards us, and should regard them as so many testimonies of his electing love. It is quite clear that the title King, which is here applied to God, ought not to be restricted merely to his sovereignty. He is addressed by this appellation because he had taken upon him the government of the Jewish people, in order to preserve and maintain them in safety. We have already stated what is implied in the words, from the beginning. Bythe midst of the earth some think that Judea is intended, because it was situated as it were in the midst of the habitable globe. There is no doubt that it is to be understood of a place which stands prominently in view. We find the expression used in this sense in these words which God commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh, “And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth,” (Exodus 8:22.) The simple and natural meaning, therefore, is, that God had wrought in behalf of the chosen people many deliverances, which were as open and manifest as if they had been exhibited on a conspicuous theater. SPURGEO , “Ver. 12-23. Having spread the sad case before the Lord, the pleader now urges another series of arguments for divine help. He reasons from the Lord's former wonders of grace, and his deeds of power, imploring a repetition of the same divine works. Ver. 12. For God is my King of old. How consoling is this avowal! Israel in holy loyalty acknowledges her King, and claims to have been his possession from of old, and thence she derives a plea for defence and deliverance. If the Lord be indeed the sole monarch of our bosoms, he will in his love put forth his strength on our behalf; if from eternity he has claimed us as his own, he will preserve us from the insulting foe. Working salvation in the midst of the earth. From the most remote period of Israel's history the Lord had worked out for her many salvations; especially at the Red Sea, the very heart of the world was astonished by his wonders of deliverance. ow, every believer may plead at this day the ancient deeds of the Lord, the work of Calvary, the overthrow of sin, death, and hell. He who wrought out our salvation of old will not, cannot desert us now. Each past miracle of grace assures us that he who has begun to deliver will continue to redeem us from all evil. His deeds of old were public and wrought in the teeth of his foes, they were no delusions or make believes; and, therefore, in all our perils we look for true and manifest assistance, and we shall surely receive it.
- 63. EXPLA ATORY OTESA D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 12. God is my King of old, etc. Let us learn from this verse how to think of our God. First, that he is our King, and therefore we ought to be encouraged to pray for his help against the ungodly, and to place ourselves in entire submission to his will and government. Secondly, that he is not a new God, but the Ancient of Days, and that whatever salvation has been wrought not only in the midst of his own people, but in the midst of the whole earth, even among those by whom he is not acknowledged, has been wrought by him. Let this meaning strike at the root of all trust in other gods, or in any creature. Musculus. COFFMA , “Verse 12 "Yet God is my King of old, Working Salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters." "Yet God is my king of old" (Psalms 74:12). With the secular kingdom and the racial nation doomed, there was little the psalmist could do except to remember God's prior mercies and marvelous blessings wrought upon behalf of Israel; therefore, he turned to them. "Working salvation in the midst of the earth" (Psalms 74:12). This refers to God's deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery before the eyes of all the nations on earth. "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength" (Psalms 74:13). This is undeniably a reference to God's deliverance of Israel from the armies of Pharaoh by dividing the sea and marching them across an extensive arm of the Indian Ocean on dry land. "Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters" (Psalms 74:13). The "sea monsters" here are figurative terms applicable to Pharaoh and to Egypt. They were indeed broken in the waters, when Pharaoh ordered his armies to follow Israel into the ocean. K&D 12-17, “With this prayer for the destruction of the enemies by God's interposition closes the first half of the Psalm, which has for its subject-matter the crying contradiction between the present state of things and God's relationship to Israel. The poet now draws comfort by looking back into the time when God as Israel's King unfolded the rich fulness of His salvation everywhere upon the earth, where Israel's existence was imperilled. ץ ֶרፎ ָה ב ֶר ֶק ֶ , not only within the circumference of the Holy Land, but, e.g., also within that of Egypt (Exo_8:18-22). The poet has Egypt directly in his mind, for there now follows first of all a glance at the historical (Psa_74:13-15), and then at the natural displays of God's power (Psa_74:16, Psa_74:17). Hengstenberg is of opinion that Psa_74:13-15 also are to be understood in the latter sense, and appeals to
- 64. Job_26:11-13. But justas Isaiah (Isa_51:9, cf. Psa_27:1) transfers these emblems of the omnipotence of God in the natural world to His proofs of power in connection with the history of redemption which were exhibited in the case of a worldly power, so does the poet here also in Psa_74:13-15. The ן ִ ַ (the extended saurian) is in Isaiah, as in Ezekiel (יםִ ַ ַ,ה Psa_29:3; Psa_32:2), an emblem of Pharaoh and of his kingdom; in like manner here the leviathan is the proper natural wonder of Egypt. As a water-snake or a crocodile, when it comes up with its head above the water, is killed by a powerful stroke, did God break the heads of the Egyptians, so that the sea cast up their dead bodies (Exo_ 14:30). The יםִ ִ,צ the dwellers in the steppe, to whom these became food, are not the Aethiopians (lxx, Jerome), or rather the Ichthyophagi (Bocahrt, Hengstenberg), who according to Agatharcides fed ᅚκ τራν ᅚκριπτοµένων εᅶς τᆱν χέρσον κητራν, but were no cannibals, but the wild beasts of the desert, which are called ,עם as in Pro_30:25. the ants and the rock-badgers. לציים is a permutative of the notion ,לעם which was not completed: to a (singular) people, viz., to the wild animals of the steppe. Psa_74:15 also still refers not to miracles of creation, but to miracles wrought in the course of the history of redemption; Psa_74:15 refers to the giving of water out of the rock (Psa_ 78:15), and Psa_74:15 to the passage through the Jordan, which was miraculously dried up ( ָ ְשׁ ַּובה, as in Jos_2:10; Jos_4:23; Jos_5:1). The object ל ַחַנָו ןָי ְע ַמ is intended as referring to the result: so that the water flowed out of the cleft after the manner of a fountain and a brook. ּותר ֲֽהַנ are the several streams of the one Jordan; the attributive genitive יתן ֵא describe them as streams having an abundance that does not dry up, streams of perennial fulness. The God of Israel who has thus marvellously made Himself known in history is, however, the Creator and Lord of all created things. Day and night and the stars alike are His creatures. In close connection with the night, which is mentioned second, the moon, the ּורא ָמ of the night, precedes the sun; cf. Psa_8:4, where ןֵּונⅴ is the same as ין ִכ ֵה in this passage. It is an error to render thus: bodies of light, and more particularly the sun; which would have made one expect ּותרּוא ְמ before the specializing Waw. ּותלבוְּ are not merely the bounds of the land towards the sea, Jer_5:22, but, according to Deu_32:8; Act_17:26, even the boundaries of the land in themselves, that is to say, the natural boundaries of the inland country. ף ֶּרחָו ץִי ַק are the two halves of the year: summer including spring (יב ִבፎ), which begins in Nisan, the spring-month, about the time of the vernal equinox, and autumn including winter (ו ָת ְ,)צ after the termination of which the strictly spring vegetation begins (Son_2:11). The seasons are personified, and are called God's formations or works, as it were the angels of summer and of winter. 13 It was you who split open the sea by your power;
- 65. you broke theheads of the monster in the waters. BAR ES, “Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength - Margin, as in Hebrew, “break.” That is, he had by his power “broken up” the strength of the sea so that it offered no resistance to their passing through it. The allusion is evidently to the passage through the Red Sea, Exo_14:21. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons - Margin, “whales.” On the meaning of the word used here - תנין tannıyn - see the notes at Isa_13:22; notes at Job_30:29. It refers here, undoubtedly, to crocodiles or sea monsters. The language here is used to denote the absolute power of God as manifested over the sea when the people of Israel passed through it. It was as if by slaying all the mighty monsters of the deep that would have resisted their passage, he had made their transit entirely safe. In the waters - That reside in the waters of the sea. CLARKE, “Thou didst divide the sea - When our fathers came from Egypt. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters - Pharaoh, his captains, and all his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, when attempting to pursue them. GILL, “Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength,.... This and the following instances from hence to Psa_74:18 are proofs of God's working salvation in the midst of the earth; some of them seem peculiar to the people of Israel, and others are benefits common to mankind in general; which the church makes use of to encourage her faith and hope, in expectation of salvation, and deliverance out of her present distressed and melancholy circumstances. This seems to refer to the Lord's dividing of the Red sea into parts by a strong east wind, while Moses lifted up his rod and stretched out his hand as he was ordered, as a token of the divine power, and so the children of Israel passed through it as on dry land, Exo_14:21, and he that did this can make way for his redeemed ones to return to Zion with everlasting joy, Isa_51:10. Some render the words, "thou hast broken the sea by thy strength" (g); subdued and conquered it, and so hast the dominion over it, rulest the raging of it, settest bounds to it, and hast ordered its proud waves to go so far and no farther; and thus the Arabic version, "thou hast made it to stand"; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "thou hast confirmed it": but our version is best, which refers it to the work of God at the Red sea, and with which the Targum agrees; and Aben Ezra observes, that some refer it to the dividing of the Red sea: thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters: or great whales, as the word is rendered in Gen_1:21, by which are meant Pharaoh and his generals, his captains and chief men, who were destroyed in the waters of the Red sea; comparable to
- 66. dragons for theirstrength, for their cruelty to the children of Israel, and for their wrath and malice against them; and so, for the same reason, another Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in later times, is called the great dragon, that lies in the midst of his rivers, Eze_29:3 and the king of Babylon or of Egypt, Isa_27:1. So the Targum paraphrases it: "thou hast broken the heads of dragons, and hast suffocated the Egyptians in the sea.'' Rome Pagan is compared to a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, which have been broken and destroyed, Rev_12:3, and Rome Papal has the power, seat, and great authority of the dragon; and though the Romish antichrist has two horns like a lamb, he speaks as a dragon, who also has seven heads and ten horns, and which ere long will be broke in pieces, see Rev_13:1, in the faith of which the church might be strengthened, by considering what God had done to the heads of the dragon in the Red sea; to which may be added that Satan is called a dragon, Psa_91:13, whose head was bruised, and his principalities and powers spoiled, by Christ at his death, and will be utterly destroyed at his second coming. JAMISO 13-15, “Examples of the “salvation wrought” are cited. divide the sea — that is, Red Sea. brakest ... waters — Pharaoh and his host (compare Isa_51:9, Isa_51:10; Eze_29:3, Eze_29:4). CALVI , “13.Thou hast divided the sea by thy power. The prophet now collects together certain kinds of deliverances highly worthy of remembrance; all of them, however, belonging to the first deliverance by which God emancipated his people from the tyranny of Egypt. We will find him afterwards descending to the general commendation of the goodness of God which is diffused through the whole world. Thus from the special grace which God vouchsafes to his Church, he passes on to speak of the good-will which he displays towards all mankind. In the first place, he says, Thou hast divided, or cleaved, the sea. Some think that the following clause is subjoined as an effect of what is stated in the first clause, — God, by drying up the sea, having caused the whales and other great fishes to die. I am, however, of opinion, that it is to be taken metaphorically for Pharaoh and his army; this mode of expression being very common among the prophets, especially when they speak of the Egyptians, whose country was washed by a sea abounding with fish, and divided by the ile. Pharaoh is, therefore, not improperly termed Leviathan, (235) on account of the advantages of the sea possessed by his country, and because, in reigning over that land with great splendor, he might be compared to a whale moving up and down at its ease in the midst of the waters of the mighty ocean. (236) As God put forth his power at that time for the deliverance of the people, to assure the Church that he would always be her protector and the guardian of her welfare, the encouragement afforded by this example ought not to be limited exclusively to one age. It is, therefore, with good reason applied to the descendants of that ancient race, that they might improve it as a means of confirming and establishing their faith. The prophet does not here recount all the miracles which God had wrought at the departure of the people from the land of Egypt; but in adverting to some of
- 67. them, he comprehendsby the figure synecdoche, all that Moses has narrated concerning them at greater length. When he says that leviathan was given for food to the Israelites, and that even in the wilderness, (237) there is a beautiful allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. It is as if he had said, that then a bountiful provision of victuals was laid up for the nourishment of the people; for when their enemies were destroyed, the quiet and security which the people in consequence enjoyed served, so to speak, as food to prolong their life. By the wilderness, is not meant the countries lying on the sea coast, though they are dry and barren, but the deserts at a great distance from the sea. The same subject is prosecuted in the following verse, where it is declared, that the fountain was cleaved or divided, that is, it was so when God caused a stream of water to gush from the rock to supply the wants of the people. (238) Finally, it is added, that mighty rivers (239) were dried up, an event which happened when God caused the waters of the Jordan to turn back to make a way for his people to pass over. Some would have the Hebrew word ,איתן ethan, which signifies mighty, to be a proper name, as if the correct translation were rivers of Ethan; but this interpretation is altogether without foundation. SPURGEO , “Ver. 13. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Infinite power split the Red Sea in twain. Israel delighted to rehearse this famous act of the Lord. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Monsters long accustomed to the deep found themselves left high and dry. Huge things of the sea cave and the coral grot were deprived of their vital element, and left with crushed heads upon the dry channel bed. There, too, that old dragon Pharaoh was utterly broken, and Egypt herself had the head of her power and pomp broken with an almighty blow. Even thus is that old dragon broken by him who came to bruise the serpent's head, and the sea of wrath no longer rolls before us; we pass through it dry shod. Our faith as to the present is revived by glad memories of the past. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 13. Thou didst divide the sea. Thou, O Lord, didst make firm the flowing sea, that there might be a way for our fathers to pass over, and in those very waters through which thou didst lead thy ransomed, thou didst utterly overthrow the hosts of Egypt, who were like dragons for ferocity, as they sought to devour thy people. Jansenius. BE SO , “Verse 13-14 Psalms 74:13-14. Thou didst divide the sea, &c. — “The first part of this verse alludes to that marvellous act of omnipotence which divided the Red sea for Israel to pass over; the second part to the return of its waves upon the heads of the Egyptians, who, like so many sea-monsters, opening their mouths to devour the people of God, were overwhelmed, and perished in the mighty waters.” — Horne. Thou brakest the heads of the dragons — The crocodiles, meaning Pharaoh’s mighty men, who were like these beasts in strength and cruelty. Thou brakest the heads — That is, the head of Pharaoh himself. He says heads, because of the several princes who were and acted under his influence. Dr. Waterland renders the first word, which we translate dragons, crocodiles, and the latter, the crocodile, meaning Pharaoh. And gavest him, &c., to the people inhabiting the wilderness — Hebrew,
- 68. לציים ,לעם legnamletziim, populo desertorum, locorum, (Buxtorf,) to the people of desert places. The Seventy render it, λαοις τοις αιθιοψι, to the Ethiopian people. Poole, Horne, and some other commentators, suppose that ravenous birds and beasts of the desert, and not men, are here intended; and that the sense of the clause is, that the bodies of Pharaoh and his captains were thrown on shore by the sea, and so became food for the wild beasts of the neighbouring deserts. We find the same word ,ציים used for wild beasts haunting the deserts, Isaiah 13:21 ; Isaiah 34:14. ELLICOTT, “(13) Thou.—Verse after verse this emphatic pronoun recurs, as if challenging the Divine Being to contradict. Divide.—Literally, break up. Dragons.—Hebrew, tannînîm, not to be confounded with tannîm (Psalms 44:19, where see ote). It is the plural of tannín, which always indicates some aquatic monster. In Genesis 1:21 it is translated whale, so here by Symmachus. The LXX. (comp. Vulgate) have rendered this word and leviathan (in the next verse) by δράκων, and, indeed, the parallelism indicates monsters of a similar, if not the same, kind. About leviathan the minute and faithful description of the crocodile in Job 41 does not leave a doubt, and therefore we conclude that the tannin, here as in Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2 (margin), Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9 (where it is also, as here, joined with leviathan), an emblem of Egypt, was some great saurian, perhaps the alligator. The derivation from a root implying extend, favours this explanation. (Tristram, at. Hist. of the Bible, pp. 260, 261.) Besides its abundance, another fact leading to the crocodile becoming an emblem of Egypt, was the adoration paid to it. (See Herod., ii. 69.) In the waters.—Literally, on the waters. COKE, “Verse 13-14 Psalms 74:13-14. Dragons—leviathan— The Hebrew words may mean much the same; only the latter seems to express a more distinguished kind of crocodile. It is under this character that the Egyptians and their king are designed, who were destroyed in the Red Sea, and their bodies thrown out for a prey to the desart nations, who lived on fish, and what the sea yielded. See Mudge and Ezekiel 1:4. The Targum has it; Thou crushedst the heads of the dragons, and drownedst the Egyptians in the sea; thou brakest the heads of the strong ones of Pharaoh. Some commentators suppose, that the people inhabiting the wilderness must mean figuratively the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the land; so that the meaning of this is just as if it had been said that Goliath's curse had been fulfilled upon them; I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. 1 Samuel 17:44. And it appears from Homer's and other poets' use of the phrase, that it was proverbial.
- 69. 14 It wasyou who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. BAR ES, “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces - On the meaning of the word “leviathan,” see the notes at Job_41:1. The word is used here as descriptive of sea monsters. And gavest him to be meat - Gavest him for “food.” To the people inhabiting the wilderness - That is, the sea monsters were killed, and, being thrown on shore, were gathered for food. The “inhabitants of the wilderness” or the desert, may refer either to the wild and savage tribes of men that lived on the shores of the sea, and that subsisted mainly on fish, or it may refer to the wild animals of the desert that consumed such sea monsters as they were cast up on the shore. There is no allusion to the Israelites considered as passing through the desert, as if they had fed on these sea monsters. The essential idea is, that these monsters were put to death, or were so removed but of the way as to offer no obstruction to the passage of the Israelites through the sea. It was as if they had been killed. The image is entirely poetic, and there is no necessity for supposing that such a thing literally occurred. CLARKE, “The heads of leviathan - Leviathan might be intended here as a personification of the Egypttan government; and its heads, Pharaoh and his chief captains. To the people inhabiting the wilderness - Probably meaning the birds and beasts of prey. These were the people of the wilderness, which fed on the dead bodies of the Egyptians, which the tides had cast ashore. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic read, “Thou hast given him for meat to the Ethiopians,” or Abyssinians. GILL, “Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces,.... A large fish, generally thought to be the whale, by some the crocodile, described in Job_41:1 to which the king of Egypt or Babylon is compared, Isa_27:1 and so the Romish antichrist in one of his characters is represented as a sea beast with many heads, which will all be broken in pieces in due time, Rev_13:1, as here is one "leviathan" with heads in the plural number. Aben Ezra thinks the word כל is wanting, and may be supplied thus, "thou hast broken the heads of every leviathan"; it may be interpreted as before of Pharaoh and his chief
- 70. men; so theTargum, "thou hast broken the heads of the mighty men of Pharaoh:'' and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness; either to the wild beasts, called "tziim", the word here used, Isa_13:21 and may be called a people, as the ants and coneys are, Pro_30:25, to whom the dead bodies of Pharaoh and his host, drowned in the Red sea, were given for food, when they were cast upon the shore, where the Israelites saw them dead, Exo_14:28, or to the "Ichthyophagy", a sort of people that dwelt by the Red sea, and lived on fishes; and so the Egyptians became their food, they living upon the fish which devoured their bodies, at least some of them: the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, render it, "to the people", the Ethiopians; who, it seems, living upon the borders of Egypt, took this opportunity, when Pharaoh and his host were drowned, and seized upon their country; but others refer it to the people of Israel themselves, as the Targum, "thou hast given them for destruction to the people of the house of Israel, and their bodies to the dragons;'' and so Jarchi, "thou hast given his mammon or riches to the people of Israel, to feed their companies and armies;'' and Kimchi interprets it of the spoil of the sea which the Israelites took from them; and they may be truly called the people inhabiting the wilderness, since they were in one forty years; so the Romish "leviathan", or antichristian whore, will be given to the Christian kings, who will hate her, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; and to the Christian church, which now is in the wilderness, where it is nourished for a time and times, and half a time. JAMISO , “heads of leviathan — The word is a collective, and so used for many. the people ... wilderness — that is, wild beasts, as conies (Pro_30:25, Pro_30:26), are called a people. Others take the passages literally, that the sea monsters thrown out on dry land were food for the wandering Arabs. SPURGEO , “Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces. It is the Lord who has done it all. The mighty dragon of Egypt was utterly slain, and his proud heads broken in pieces. Our Lord Jesus is the true Hercules, dragons with a hundred heads are crushed beneath his foot: the infernal hydra he utterly vanquishes. And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. ot only did the wild beasts feed upon the carcasses of the Egyptians, but the dwellers along the shores stripped the bodies and enriched themselves with the spoil. Israel, too, grew rich with the relics of her drowned adversaries. How often do great afflictions work our lasting good. Leviathan, who would have devoured us, is himself devoured, and out of the monster we gather sweetness. Let us not give way to fear; hydra headed evils shall be slain, and monstrous difficulties shall be overcome, and all things shall
- 71. work our lastinggood. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan, etc. It is spoken of Pharaoh's army which God destroyed in the Red Sea; that is, the destruction of the Egyptians was a pledge of the accomplishment of God's promise to cast the Canaanite out of the promised land, and to give them possession of it. Many hardships they were to pass through in the wilderness, but God gave them this mercy as food, not to their bodies, but food to their faith, while they were in the wilderness: therefore, those former great and glorious promises were accomplished. So that former mercies are food that God gives unto the faith of his people to feed upon, till he hath perfectly accomplished whatever he hath promised unto his church. William Strong. Ver. 14. Leviathan. The Arabic Lexicographers (quoted by Bochart) affirm that Pharao, in the Egyptian language, signified a crocodile. Parkhurst remarks that in Schenchzer's Physica Sacra may be seen a medal with Julius Caesar's head on one side, and on the reverse a crocodile with this inscription: AGYPTO CAPTA, Egypt taken. M. Mariette has discovered at Karnak a monumental stele of Thothmes on which the king says of himself, "Fierce as the huge crocodile, I made them see the glory of my God; Terrible Lord of the waters, none dare even approach him." Ver. 14. Leviathan is a name given not only to the crocodile, but to the whale and other large fishes. The Zum, or people inhabiting the wilderness, are supposed, by many sensible writers, to be the Ichthyophagy, or fish eaters, who occupied, according to ancient authors, a part of the coast of the Red Sea. The psalmist is here speaking of Israel's passage through its waters; and it is a singular fact that Diodorus, who lived about two thousand years ago, mentions a tradition, prevalent amongst these very persons, to the effect that in the time of their remote forefathers an extraordinary reflux took place, the channel of the gulf becoming dry, and the green bottom appearing, whilst the whole body of waters rolled away in an opposite direction. There can be little doubt that this strange people would have used for food, and various purposes, such great fish as might have been cast ashore on the termination of the miracle. Most writers give this text a figurative meaning, but that is no reason why it may not be also literally understood; for such a mode of speaking is common in the Bible. But whether we understand it one way or the other, we have the testimony of heathens to its propriety and force. If, by the term Leviathan, we believe Egypt to be intended, and by its heads those petty states into which that country was divided, the traditions of India, and the East, inform us that such designations were well understood, and therefore beautifully applicable. Anon., in "Biblical and Theological Gleanings"; by William O' eill. 1854. Ver. 14. Meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. May not the exact meaning be that even as the sea monsters washed upon the shore furnished food for the inhabitants of the Red Sea, even so the symbolic dragon power of Egypt when destroyed at the Red Sea, became food for Israel's faith, and even furnished provision for their wilderness journey by the spoil which was cast up by the tide. C. H. S.
- 72. ELLICOTT, “(14) Leviathan.—Seelast note. And gavest him . . .—The crocodile was eaten by the people of Elephantine (Herod. ii. 69), but there is no allusion here to that custom, nor to the Ichthyophagi mentioned by Agatharchides, nor to the Æthiopians (as in the LXX.). It is the Egyptian corpses thrown up by the Red Sea that are to be devoured (comp. Ezekiel 29:3-5) by the “wild beasts,” called here “people,” as the ants and conies are (Proverbs 30:25-26). WHEDO , “14. Leviathan—A different word in the original from “dragons” in preceding verse, but of similar import. In Isaiah 27:1, it is described as a serpent, crooked and tortuous, but crocodiles often present that form. So Job 26:13. These names are not given according to scientific classification, but generally signify saurian monsters of any kind, and are here used interchangeably. In Psalms 104:26, it evidently means a mammal of the Mediterranean, the whale, which formerly inhabited that sea. Gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness— The Egyptians proper held the crocodile sacred, and worshipped it as a god, hence they never ate its flesh. But others, like the inhabitants of the city of Elephantine, in Upper Egypt, of whom Herodotus speaks, (book ii, sec. 69,) freely ate it. But we may take “people” in the figurative sense of Proverbs 30:25, “The ants are a people not strong,” and apply the term to the wild beasts of the desert. The crushing the head of the crocodile and throwing out the carcass as common food for desert men or beasts, was the contempt which Jehovah inflicted upon its worshippers. COFFMA , “Verse 14 "Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces; Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave fountain and flood: Thou driedst up mighty rivers." We reject as irresponsible the claims of certain radicals that we have in this passage references to, "Primitive creation mythology, the Akkadian creation myth, and to the mythical conflict between Marduk and Tiamat."[15] It may be freely admitted, of course, that some of the terminology here was also used in some of the ancient myths referred to; but as Kidner expressed it, "What Baal had done in the realm of myth, God had actually done in the realm of history, and had done it for his people, 'working salvation' (Psalms 74:12). What these verses survey is the Exodus and the crossing of the Jordan."[16] Rhodes reminds us that, "The Babylonians and Canaanites believed their myths to be true, but our psalmist did not. He used some of their language in referring to the Lord in order to state symbolically his power as the one true God and Creator."[17]
- 73. As Dummelow pointedout, "The terms 'sea-monsters' and 'Leviathan' (or crocodile) are simply figures of speech for Egypt."[18] "Food to the people inhabiting the wilderness" (Psalms 74:14). This does not mean that Israel fed, literally, upon the bodies of Pharaoh's army washed ashore, but that Israel was armed with the weapons of the destroyed enemy. The dead bodies no doubt became the food of wild birds and beasts. Dummelow stated that "the people" here refers to the wild animals.[19] "Thou driedst up mighty rivers" (Psalms 74:15). The plural is evidently used here for emphasis. Certainly, the primary reference is to Israel's crossing the Jordan at flood stage, and doing so upon dry land! 15 It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever-flowing rivers. BAR ES, “Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood - That is, the source of the streams and the streams themselves. The main allusion is probably to the Jordan, and the idea is, that God had, as it were, divided all the waters, or prevented any obstruction to his people from the river in any respect; as if the waters in the very springs and fountains, and the waters in the channel of the river flowing from those springs and fountains, had been so restrained and divided that there was a safe passage through them. Jos_3:14-17. Thou driedst up mighty rivers - Margin, “rivers of strength.” The Hebrew - איתן 'êythân - (compare Deu_21:4; Amo_5:24; 1Ki_8:2) - means rather perennial, constant, ever-flowing. The allusion is to rivers or streams that flow constantly, or that do not dry up. It was this which made the miracle so apparent. It could not be pretended that they had gone over the bed of a stream which was accustomed to be dry at certain seasons of the year. They passed over rivers that never dried up; and, therefore, it could have been only by miracle. The main allusion is undoubtedly to the passage of the Jordan. CLARKE, “Thou didst cleave the fountain - Thou didst cleave the rock in the wilderness, of which all the congregation drank. Thou driedst up mighty rivers - Does not this refer to the cutting off the waters of the Jordan, so that the people passed over dryshod?
- 74. GILL, “Thou didstcleave the fountain and the flood,.... That is, the rocks at Horeb and at Kadesh, from whence water flowed as out of a fountain, and became a flood, whereby the people of Israel were supplied with water in the wilderness, and also their beasts; and from this instance it may be concluded that God will not leave his people, nor suffer them to want, but will supply all their need while they are in the wilderness, and will open fountains and rivers for them, Isa_41:17 he himself is a fountain of living water; Christ is the fountain of gardens, and the Spirit and his grace a well of living water springing up unto everlasting life: thou driedst up mighty rivers; the river of Jordan, called "mighty", as Kimchi says, because by its strength it overflowed all its banks and "rivers", and because other rivers flowed into it; this was dried up, or way was made through it, as on dry land, for the people of Israel to pass into Canaan, Jos_3:14, the Targum is, "thou hast dried up the fords and brooks of Hermon, and the fords of Jabbok and Jordan;'' see Num_21:14, and the Lord, that did this, is able to dry up, and will dry up, the river Euphrates, as is foretold, Rev_16:12, that is, destroy the Turkish empire, and make way for the spread of the Gospel in the eastern parts of the world; to which reference is had in Isa_11:15. HE RY, “. God had both ways altered the course of nature, both in fetching streams out of the rock and turning streams into rock, Psa_74:15. (1.) He had dissolved the rock into waters: Thou didst bring out the fountain and the flood (so some read it); and every one knows whence it was brought, out of the rock, out of the flinty rock. Let this never be forgotten, but let it especially be remembered that the rock was Christ, and the waters out of it were spiritual drink. (2.) He had congealed the waters into rock: Thou driedst up mighty rapid rivers, Jordan particularly at the time when it overflowed all its banks. He that did these things could now deliver his oppressed people, and break the yoke of the oppressors, as he had done formerly; nay, he would do it, for his justice and goodness, his wisdom and truth, are still the same, as well as his power. JAMISO , “cleave the fountain — that is, the rocks of Horeb and Kadesh; for fountains. driedst up — Jordan, and, perhaps, Arnon and Jabbok (Num_21:14). SPURGEO , “Ver. 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood. Jordan was divided by Jehovah's power; the Lord is able to repeat his miracles, what he did with a sea, he can do with a river; lesser difficulties shall be removed as well as greater ones. Perhaps the fountain refers to the smitten rock, which from its cleft poured forth a perpetual stream; so the Lord opens to us springs of water in the wilderness. Thou driedst up mighty rivers, rivers which were permanent, and not like the transient torrents of the land, were dried up for awhile; the Jordan itself, being such, was laid dry for a season. Observe the repetition of the pronoun "thou; "the
- 75. song is allfor God, and the prayer is all directed to him. The argument is that he who wrought such wonders would be pleased to do the like now that an emergency had arisen. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 15. Flood. God in dividing Jordan did not only divide the water that ordinarily belonged to the river, or the water which came from its fountains, but also the extraordinary additional waters by the great rains a little before harvest. So God cleaved both the fountain, i.e., the fountain water, and the flood. Jonathan Edwards. BE SO , “Psalms 74:15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood — That is, thou didst, by cleaving the rock, make a fountain in it, and a flood or stream to flow from it, for the refreshment of thy people in those dry deserts. Thou driedst up mighty rivers — Hebrew, איתן נהרות rivers of strength. The Seventy, however, render it, ποταµους ηθαµ, taking the latter word, eethan, for a proper name. Undoubtedly Jordan is meant: so that “two other remarkable exertions of the divine power, in favour of the Israelites, are here referred to. Water was brought out of the rock to satisfy their thirst in the time of drought; and the river Jordan was dried up to open the passage for them into Canaan.” COKE, “Psalms 74:15. Mighty rivers— Perpetual springs. Schultens. Psalms 74:16. The light] The luminary, or receptacle of light, according to the original, The word מאור maour is collective, and means all the luminaries, with their chief the sun. The Psalmist here proceeds to shew, that God's power is manifested not only by the foregoing instances of it in particular, but also by the works of creation in general. EBC, “In Psalms 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 God’s continual operation. Is there to be no dawning for Israel’s 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" (Psalms 74:2 and Psalms 74:18).
- 76. The gist ofthis 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 (Psalms 74:18 and Psalms 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 Psalms 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 heart’s 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. 16 The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. BAR ES, “The day is thine, the night also is thine - Thou hast universal dominion. All things are under thy control. Thou hast power, therefore, to grant what we desire of thee. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun - He who has made the sun - that greatest and noblest object of creation to the view of man - must have almighty power, and must be able to give what we need. CLARKE, “The day is thine, the night also is thine - Thou art the Author of light, and of the sun, which is the means of dispensing it. GILL, “The day is thine, and the night also is thine,.... He made the one and the other, and divided the one from the other; and can make them longer or shorter, clear or cloudy, as he pleases: and the day of prosperity and night of adversity are at his disposal; all the times of his people and of his church are in his hands; sometimes it is a night of darkness, deadness, sleepiness, and security, as it now is; ere long there will be no more
- 77. night, but brightday; the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven fold as the light of seven days; and this is to be expected from him whose is the day and the night also, Rev_21:25. Jarchi interprets the day, of the redemption of Israel; and the night, of distresses and afflictions: thou hast prepared the light and the sun; first the light, and then the sun; for the light was before the sun; or the luminary, even the sun. Aben Ezra interprets the "light" of the moon, and so the Targum; and Kimchi, both of the moon and of the stars; Jarchi takes the light figuratively to be meant of the light of the law; but it is much better to understand it of the light of the Gospel, which God has prepared, and will send forth more largely in the latter day, whereby the whole earth shall be lightened; and when Christ the "sun" of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings, and who gives both the light of grace and glory to his people. HE RY, “. That the God of Israel is the God of nature, Psa_74:16, Psa_74:17. It is he that orders the regular successions and revolutions, 1. Of day and night. He is the Lord of all time. The evening and the morning are of his ordaining. It is he that opens the eyelids of the morning light, and draws the curtains of the evening shadow. He has prepared the moon and the sun (so some read it), the two great lights, to rule by day and by night alternately. The preparing of them denotes their constant readiness and exact observance of their time, which they never miss a moment. 2. Of summer and winter: “Thou hast appointed all the bounds of the earth, and the different climates of its several regions, for thou hast made summer and winter, the frigid and the torrid zones; or, rather, the constant revolutions of the year and its several seasons.” Herein we are to acknowledge God, from whom all the laws and powers of nature are derived; but how does this come in here? (1.) He that had power at first to settle, and still to preserve, this course of nature by the diurnal and annual motions of the heavenly bodies, has certainly all power both to save and to destroy, and with him nothing is impossible, nor are any difficulties or oppositions insuperable. (2.) He that is faithful to his covenant with the day and with the night, and preserves the ordinances of heaven inviolable will certainly make good his promise to his people and never cast off those whom he has chosen, Jer_ 31:35, Jer_31:36; Jer_33:20, Jer_33:21. His covenant with Abraham and his seed is as firm as that with Noah and his sons, Gen_8:21. (3.) Day and night, summer and winter, being counterchanged in the course of nature, throughout all the borders of the earth, we can expect no other than that trouble and peace, prosperity and adversity, should be, in like manner, counterchanged in all the borders of the church. We have as much reason to expect affliction as to expect night and winter. But we have then no more reason to despair of the return of comfort than we have to despair of day and summer. JAMISO , “The fixed orders of nature and bounds of earth are of God. CALVI , “16.The day is thine, the night also is thine. The prophet now descends to the consideration of the divine benefits which are extended in common to all mankind. Having commenced with the special blessings by which God manifested himself to be the Father of his chosen people, he now aptly declares that God exercises his beneficence towards the whole human family. He teaches us, that it is not by chance that the days and nights succeed each other in regular succession, but
- 78. that this orderwas established by the appointment of God. The secondary cause of these phenomena is added, being that arrangement by which God has invested the sun with the power and office of illuminating the earth; for after having spoken of the light he adds the sun, as the principal means of communicating it, and, so to speak, the chariot in which it is brought when it comes to show itself to men. (240) As then the incomparable goodness of God towards the human race clearly shines forth in this beautiful arrangement, the prophet justly derives from it an argument for strengthening and establishing his trust in God. SPURGEO , “Ver. 16. The day is thine, the night also is thine. Thou art not restricted by times and seasons. Our prosperity comes from thee, and our adversity is ordained by thee. Thou rulest in the darkness, and one glance of thine eye kindles it into day. Lord, be not slack to keep thy word, but rise for the help of thy people. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Both light and the light bearer are of thee. Our help, and the instrument of it, are both in thy hand. There is no limit to thy power; be pleased to display it and make thy people glad. Let thy sacred preparations of mercy ripen; say, "Let there be light, "and light shall at once dispel our gloom. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 16. The day is thine, the night also is thine. Ah! do not be sorrowful, darling, And do not be sorrowful, pray-- Taking the year together, my dear, There is not more night than day. And God is God, my darling, Of night as well as day; And we feel and know that we can go, Wherever he leads the way. A God of the night, my darling, Of the night of death so grim, The gate that leads out of life, good wife, Is the gate that leads to Him. From "In the Sere and Yellow Leaf, "in "The Circling Year." Ver. 16. Day. ight. These changes are according to a fixed law. Day and night are the ordinances of heaven upon earth for the growth of earth's life, and, if we could trace the sunshine and the dark in every follower of God, we should see them arranged with equal wisdom. It is a more complex work, but, be sure of this, there is order in it all, and the hand that rules the world in its orbit, and that makes it fulfil its course through light and shade, is governing our lives for a higher than earthly end. One feature of the law is presented so far for our guidance. It is a law of alternation. It is day and night, and, let us thank God, it is also in due time night and day. Each has its time and use. John Ker. 1869. Ver. 16. Thou hast prepared the light. It is but recently that we have been able to form any conception of the power of light as an agent in the economy of the globe; the discoveries of Actinism are among the most interesting and marvellous of natural science. The discovery that "no substance can be exposed to the sun's rays without undergoing a chemical change, "has been described as scarcely less
- 79. important in itseffects than the discovery of the law of gravitation. A sunbeam is one of the most powerful of all the agencies of nature; magical as it is, it breaks up the strongest chemical affinities; it is the author of colour, and it is the creator of a myriad combinations, which all tend to the harmony of the world. or ought we to forget the moral influence of light. We are all aware of the sensible difference produced in our moral natures by a fine day or a dark day. Light gives zest and tone to the spirits; light gives buoyancy and joy to the soul; light crowds the chambers of the mind with ideas; Light is Life: the merest insect could not live without light; and even blind natures receive, in those organs which are not the property of vision, the assurance of its benignant operations. Light is Order: and at its wand and command the separation takes place, and dark and light pair off into their separate ranks. Light is Beauty: whether in the refulgence of the moon; the chill sparkle of the stars; the unrivalled play of colours in the attenuated film of the soap bubble, at once the toy of childhood and the tool of the sage; the rich play of tints in the mother of pearl, or the rich gorgeous rays in the plumes of birds. Light is Purity: forms that rankle out of the glance of its clear, steady beam, contract around themselves loathness and disgust, and become the seats of foulness and shame. Light is Growth: where it is, we know that nature pursues her work in life and in vigour; light gives vitality to the sap; light removes obstructions from the pathway of the growing agencies, while, in its absence, forms become stunted, gnarled, and impaired. Light is Health: as it darts its clear and brilliant points to and fro, it brings in its train those blessings of elasticity and energy, which give the fulness of being--which is perfect health to the expanding forms. There is a fine consistency, when Scripture makes light to contain, as it were, the seeds of all things, and when the prelude of all creation is made to be those words, "God said, Let there be light." This, then, is the part light is made to play in the history of the world; it is used by moral power to become the creator of moral influence. What a long series of creations elapsed before moral causes seemed to operate in the affairs of the globe! But he, whose nature and whose names are Light, had given to light its distinct being and work; and that creative word, "Let there be light, "spoke right forwards to the moral energies which were to be superinduced by its creation. Thus light, it is true, went before all things, and became the cause of moral consequences; but then, this arose from the divine hand, whence darted its benevolent beams. It was God who gave it its divine commission, to divine between light and darkness; it was God who made it the fountain of knowledge and of day; it was God who gave to it the faculty to become, in turn, a creator, and to warm into life and beauty a myriad seeds and shape of loveliness. E. Paxton Hood. Ver. 16. The light and the sun. I was considerably affected in my younger days by the long standing objection, that Moses made light to exist before the creation of the sun; as books then usually taught, what some still fancy, that there could not have been light without this luminary. But not choosing, on such important point, to attach my faith to any general assertion, I sought to find out if any investigator of the nature of light had perceived any distinction in its qualities or operation, which made it a fluid or matter independent of the sun. It was not easy, before the year 1791, to meet with the works of any student of nature on such a subject, as it had been little attended to; but I at length saw the fact asserted by Henckel, a German of the old school, of some value in his day, and soon afterwards some experiments were
- 80. announced in Englandwhich confirmed the supposition. It has been a favourite point of attention with me ever since; and no truth in philosophy seems to be now more clearly ascertained than that light has a distinct existence, separate and independent of the sun. This is a striking confirmation of the Mosaic record; for that expressly distinguishes the existence and operation of light from the solar action upon it, and from that radiation of it which is connected with his beams and presence. By Moses, an interval of three days is placed between the luminous creation, and the appearance and position of the sun and moon. Light was, therefore, operating by its own laws and agencies, without the sun, and independently of his peculiar agency, from the first day to the fourth of our terrestrial fabrication. But from the time that the sun was placed in his central position, and his rays were appointed to act on our earth, they have been always performing most beneficial operations, essential to the general course of things. Sharon Turner (1768-1847), in "The Sacred History of the World." BE SO , “Psalms 74:16. The day is thine, the night also is thine — It is not strange that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and appointed the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work. Thou hast prepared — Hebrew, ,הכינות hachinota, thou hast established, that is, not only created, but settled in a constant and orderly course, the light and the sun — That primitive light mentioned Genesis 1:3, and the sun, in which it was afterward condensed and gathered: or the luminaries in general, with their chief the sun. Thus, “from the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf of his people, the psalmist passes to those ordinary and standing evidences of his goodness toward us, the sweet vicissitudes of light and darkness, and the grateful succession of times and seasons; by which man is taught, in the most sorrowful night, to look for a joyful morning; and, during the severest winter, to expect a reviving spring. Thus is the revolving year our constant instructer and monitor; incessantly inculcating the duties of faith and hope, as well as those of adoration, gratitude, and praise.” — Horne. WHEDO , “16. The day is thine—From a glance at God in history the psalmist ascends to God in nature. Faith rises upon these steps of ascent, and pleads, Cannot the God of history interpose now as of old? Cannot the God of day and night, of sun and earth, of summer and winter, restore his own people? Thou hast prepared the light and the sun—The light, even the sun. So the Hebrew particle is often used. COFFMA , “Verse 16 "The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
- 81. Thou has madesummer and winter." This psalm is called didactic, that is, a teaching psalm; and here the teaching relates to the basic truth that the God of Israel is the true Creator of everything, the day, the night, the sun, the winter, the summer, the land and the sea, everything! Significantly, this comes right after the use of that terminology from some of the ancient mythology believed by the pagan world of antiquity. We like what Baigent had to say about this: "The vocabulary of ancient ear Eastern lore is here applied as metaphor to the Exodus. Pagan religious poets traditionally described their god's victory over the sea and monsters like Leviathan. Israel triumphantly claimed such language for what God did on their behalf when they crossed the Red Sea and when they crossed Jordan on dry land. The lord of sacred history is also the powerful God of creation and providence."[20] ISBET, “ALTER ATIO S A D CO SOLATIO S ‘The day … the night.’ Psalms 74:16 I. The alternation of day and night is part of a universal law.—(1) Everywhere in nature. (2) In our daily life. (3) In our spiritual experiences. (4) In all history. II. All these alternations are Divinely regulated and controlled.—God rules the darkness as well as the light. Our misfortunes as well as blessings are under His control. ‘I, the Lord, create light, and I create darkness.’ III. Side by side with this law of alternation there is another—viz. the law of compensation.—Darkness and light are not opposing forces. ight has its beauties, its pleasures, and its purposes as well as day. (1) ight reveals more of the heavens than we see by day. ‘Sorrow brings out truths as night brings out the stars.’ (2) If day afford opportunity for work, night brings rest. (3) If day yields heat, night brings the cool refreshing dews. (4) ight is quite as essential as day. ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted.’ IV. These laws of alternation and compensation have many valuable lessons for us.—(1) We must expect changes and vicissitudes. (2) We should learn lessons of contentment. (3) We should learn to trust in the Lord at all times. (4) We should remember that the night of death as well as the short day of life is in God’s hands. He will wake us in the morning where there are no more alternations. 17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
- 82. you made bothsummer and winter. BAR ES, “Thou hast set all the borders of the earth - Thou hast established all the boundaries of the world; that is, the boundaries of the earth itself; or the natural bonndaries of nations and people, made by seas, mountains, rivers, and deserts. The language in regard to the first of these - the earth itself - would be derived from the prevalent mode of speaking, as if the earth were a plane, and had limits - a common mode of expression in the Scriptures, as it is in all ancient writings, and in the common language of men, even of philosophers. In regard to the latter idea, the language would imply that God had fixed, by his own power and will, all the natural boundaries of nations, or that his dominion is over all the earth. There are natural boundaries, or arrangements in nature, which tend to break up the one great family of man into separate nations, and which seem to have been designed for that. Compare Act_17:26. Over all these God presides, and he has his own great plans to accomplish by the arrangement. Thou hast made summer and winter - literally, as in the margin, “Summer and winter, thou hast made them.” That is, he has so made the earth that these various seasons will occur. The fact that there are different seasons of the year, or that the year is divided into seasons, is to be traced to the agency of God. He has so made the world that these changes will take place. Nothing is the result of chance; all things in the arrangements of nature are by his design. CLARKE, “Thou hast set all the borders of the earth - Thou alone art the Author of all its grand geographical divisions. Thou hast made summer and winter - Thou hast appointed that peculiarity in the poise and rotation of the earth, by which the seasons are produced. GILL, “Thou hast set all the borders of the earth,.... Of the whole world, and each of the nations, as of the land of Canaan, so of others, Deu_32:8, and even has fixed and settled the bounds of every man's habitation, Act_17:26, thou hast made summer and winter; see Gen_8:22, which, taken literally, are great benefits to the world; and, figuratively understood, may represent the two dispensations of the law and Gospel; see Son_2:11, and the different frames of God's people when under temptations, and clouds, and darkness, and when they enjoy peace and comfort; and the different state of the church, when affected with affliction, persecution, false doctrine, deadness, and formality, which is now greatly the case; but there is a summer coming, when it will be otherwise; see Luk_21:30. CALVI , “17.Thou hast fixed (241) all the boundaries of the earth. What is here stated concerning the boundaries or limits assigned to the earth, and concerning the
- 83. regular and successiverecurrence of summer and winter every year, is to the same effect as the preceding verse. It is doubtful whether the prophet means the uttermost ends of the world, or whether he speaks of the particular boundaries by which countries are separate from each other. Although the latter are often disturbed by the violence of men, whose insatiable cupidity and ambition cannot be restrained by any of the lines of demarcation which exist in the world, but are always endeavoring to break through them; (242) yet God manifests his singular goodness in assigning to each nation its own territory upon which to dwell. I am, however, rather of opinion, that the clause is to be understood of those bounds which cannot be confounded at the will of men, and consider the meaning to be, that God has allotted to men as much space of earth as he has seen to be sufficient for them to dwell upon. Farther, the well regulated successions of summer and winter clearly indicate with what care and benignity God has provided for the necessities of the human family. From this, the prophet justly concludes, that nothing is more improbable than that God should neglect to act the part of a father towards his own flock and household. SPURGEO , “Ver. 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Land and sea receive their boundaries from thee. Continents and islands are mapped by thy hand. Observe, again, how everything is ascribed to the divine agency by the use of the pronoun "thou; "not a word about natural laws, and original forces, but the Lord is seen as working all. It will be well when all our "ologies" are tinctured with "theology, "and the Creator is seen at work amid his universe. The argument of our text is, that he who bounds the sea can restrain his foes; and he who guards the borders of the dry land can also protect his chosen. Thou hast made summer and winter. Return, then, good lord, to us the bright summer days of joy. We know that all our changes come of thee, we have already felt the rigours of thy winter, grant us now the genial glow of thy summer smile. The God of nature is the God of grace; and we may argue from the revolving seasons that sorrow is not meant to rule the year, the flowers of hope will blossom, and ruddy fruits of joy will ripen yet. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. The actual distribution of sea and land over the surface of the globe is likewise of the highest importance to the present condition of organic life. If the ocean were considerably smaller, or if Asia and America were concentrated within the tropics, the tides, the oceanic currents, and the meteorological phenomenon on which the existence of the vegetable and animal kingdoms depend, would be so profoundly modified, that it is extremely doubtful whether man could have existed, and absolutely certain that he could never have risen to a high degree of civilisation. The dependence of human progress upon the existing configuration of the globe necessarily leads us to the conclusion that both must be the harmonious work of the same Almighty Power, and that a divine and immutable plan has from all eternity presided over the destinies of our planet. It is almost superfluous to point out how largely the irregular windings and undulations of the coasts, the numerous islands scattered over the face of the waters, the promontories stretching far away into the domains of the sea, and the gulfs plunging deeply into the bosom of the land, have contributed to the civilisation of the human race by multiplying its points of contact with the ocean, the great highway of
- 84. nations. G. Hartwig,in "The Harmonies of ature." 1866. Ver. 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Consider the form of the earth. It is known to be globular, and in shape nearly like an orange. And why has God chosen that form? With a view that it might be inhabited by living creatures on its whole surface. In order to this, every part of the globe must have sufficient light and heat, the wind must have a free circulation, and the water must be diffused over all its parts. The rotundity of the earth is best calculated to promote these conveniences: for this round form admits light and heat, without which there could be no life all over the globe. The revolutions of day and night, the changes in the temperature of the air, heat, cold, dryness or moisture, could not have taken place without this form. Had the earth been square, had it been conic, had it been an hexagon, or any other angular form, what must the consequence have been? The greatest part of our earth would have been drowned, whilst the rest, would have languished with drought. Some countries must have been torn in pieces by storms, while others would have been deprived of the wholesome circulation of wind. I have new reason to admire the supreme wisdom, when I reflect on the enormous mass which composes our world. Were the earth softer, or more spongy than it is, men and animals would sink into it; were it harder and less penetrable, it would resist the toil of the labourer, and lose its capacity for producing and nourishing the multitude of plants, herbs, roots, and flowers, which now spring out of its bosom. There are regular and distinct strata found in the earth; some of stone, others of metal and minerals. There are numerous and evident advantages which result from these in favour of mankind. Do not the strata of gravel, sunk deep in the earth, purify and in a manner filter the water and render it sweet and fit for use? On the surface of the earth there is a varied prospect; there is an admirable mixture of plains and valleys, of small hills and mountains. The man must be blind indeed that does not see the wise purpose of the Great Author of nature, in thus diversifying the surface of the earth. Were the earth an even plain, how much beauty would it lose? Besides, this variety of valley and mountain is very favourable to the health of living creatures, and were there no hills, the earth would be less peopled with men and animals. There would be fewer plants, fewer simples and trees. We should be deprived of metals and minerals: the vapours would not be condensed, nor should we have either springs or rivers. Must we not then acknowledge that the whole plan of the earth, its form, its inward and outward construction, are all regulated according to the wise laws, which all combine towards the pleasure and happiness of mankind? O thou supreme Author of nature, thou hast done all things well! Whichever way I turn my eyes, whether I penetrate into the interior structure of the globe thou hast appointed me to inhabit, or whether I examine its surface, I everywhere discover marks of profound wisdom and infinite goodness. Christopher Christian Sturm. Ver. 17. Thou hast made summer and winter. Plasmasti ea. ow thou hast done all this and more for mankind in general, wilt thou be wanting to thy church? John Trapp. Ver. 17. Winter. As if fatigued with so many cares, nature now rests; this, however, is only to collect new force, again to be employed for the good of the world. But even this rest, which nature enjoys in winter, is a secret activity. A new creation is preparing in silence. The necessary dispositions are already making, that the
- 85. desolate earth mayagain recover the children she has lost. The corn which is to serve us for food, already shoots. The fibres of plants, which are to adorn our fields and gardens, begin insensibly to open. O my beneficent Creator! Here I find fresh cause to adore thy wisdom and power. The repose which nature takes it as worthy to enter into the plan of thy wise providence, as the activity she shows in spring and summer. Thou hast wisely combined the several revolutions of the earth, thou hast equally divided its rest and labour. It is thy will that each day should vary the scenes of nature, in that way which is most proper for the perfection of the whole. Pardon, O God, my temerity, If I have been so stupid as to blame anything in the government of the world. I am more than ever convinced that all the plans of thy providence, though they may appear extraordinary to my weak reason, are replete with wisdom and goodness. Christopher Christian Sturm. 1750-1786. BE SO , “Psalms 74:17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth — Thou hast fixed the bounds, both of the habitable world in general, so that the seas, though they do encompass and assault them, yet are not, and never shall be, able to remove them, and of all the countries and people upon earth, whom thou hast confined within such bounds as thou hast seen fit. Thou hast made summer and winter — As the former clause of the verse shows God’s power and government over all places, so this displays his dominion over all times and seasons. And both together are fitly alleged as a motive to God, that he would, at this time, take care of his poor people, and restore them to their ancient land and borders, in which he had been pleased to set them. 18 Remember how the enemy has mocked you, Lord, how foolish people have reviled your name. BAR ES, “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached - Has used opprobrious and abusive words in regard to thee, and to thy people. The idea is, that religion - the true religion - had been reproached by the foe. They had treated that religion as if it were false; they had reproached God as if he were a false God, and as if he were unable to defend his people. Compare Isa_36:4-10, Isa_36:13-20; Isa_37:10-13, Isa_37:23. The prayer here is, that God would remember that these words of reproach were against himself, and that he would regard them as such. And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name - Have blasphemed thee - the name often being put for the person himself. The word “foolish” here may
- 86. refer to themas “wicked” as well as foolish. Wickedness and folly are so connected - they are so commonly combined, that the word may be used to describe the enemies of God in either sense - characterising their conduct as either the one or the other. Compare the notes at Psa_14:1. CLARKE, “Remember this - The heathen not only deny these things, but give the honor of them to their false gods, and thus blaspheme thy name. GILL, “Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord,.... Or "hath reproached the Lord", as the Septuagint version and others render it, and very rightly; though not so well the former part of the clause, which it renders, or rather paraphrases, thus: "remember this thy creation", or "creature"; as if it referred to what goes before, as day and night, light and sun, the borders of the earth, summer and winter; whereas it is to be connected with what follows, the reproach of the Lord by the enemy; and it is a prayer of the church, that God would remember the enemy and his reproaches, which seemed to be forgotten, and inflict deserved punishments on him, which will be done in due time, Rev_16:19, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name; the "foolish people" are not such as want common sense, or are idiots; the blasphemers of God and Christ, and the blessed Spirit, are generally the wise and prudent of this world, from whom the things of the Gospel are hidden; but wicked and profane men: scoffers at religion, and blasphemers of Christ, his truths and ordinances, are commonly such who walk after their own ungodly lusts, who, though wise to do evil, are foolish in matters of religion: perhaps the Gentiles, which know not God, are here meant, and are so called, Deu_ 32:21, and it is observable, that the Papists bear the name of Gentiles in Rev_11:2, and may be the foolish people here chiefly designed, who worship images of gold, silver, brass, and wood, and are notorious for their blasphemies; See Gill on Psa_74:10. HE RY, “The psalmist here, in the name of the church, most earnestly begs that God would appear fro them against their enemies, and put an end to their present troubles. To encourage his own faith, he interests God in this matter (Psa_74:22): Arise, O God! plead thy own cause. This we may be sure he will do, for he is jealous for his own honour; whatever is his own cause he will plead it with a strong hand, will appear against those that oppose it and with and for those that cordially espouse it. He will arise and plead it, though for a time he seems to neglect it; he will stir up himself, will manifest himself, will do his own work in his own time. Note, The cause of religion is God's own cause and he will certainly plead it. Now, to make it out that the cause is God's, he pleads, I. That the persecutors are God's sworn enemies: “Lord, they have not only abused us, but they have been, and are, abusive to thee; what is done against us, for thy sake, does, by consequence, reflect upon thee. But that is not all; they have directly and immediately reproached thee, and blasphemed thy name,” Psa_74:18. This was that which they roared in the sanctuary; they triumphed as if they had now got the mastery of the God is Israel, of whom they had heard such great things. As nothing grieves the saints more than to hear God's name blasphemed, so nothing encourages them more to hope that God will appear against their enemies than when they have arrived at such a pitch of
- 87. wickedness as toreproach God himself; this fills the measure of their sins apace and hastens their ruin. The psalmist insists much upon this: “We dare not answer their reproaches; Lord, do thou answer them. Remember that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name (Psa_74:18) and that still the foolish man reproaches thee daily.” Observe the character of those that reproach God; they are foolish. As atheism is folly (Psa_14:1), profaneness and blasphemy are no less so. Perhaps those are cried up as the wits of the age that ridicule religion and sacred things; but really they are the greatest fools, and will shortly be made to appear so before all the world. And yet see their malice - They reproach God daily, as constantly as his faithful worshippers pray to him and praise him; see their impudence - They do not hide their blasphemous thoughts in their own bosoms, but proclaim them with a loud voice (forget not the voice of thy enemies, Psa_74:23), and this with a daring defiance of divine justice; they rise up against thee, and by their blasphemies even wage war with heaven and take up arms against the Almighty. Their noise and tumult ascend continually (so some), as the cry of Sodom came up before God, calling for vengeance, Gen_18:21. It increases continually (so we read it); they grow worse and worse, and are hardened in their impieties by their successes. Now, Lord, remember this; do not forget it. God needs not to be put in remembrance by us of what he has to do, but thus we must show our concern for his honour and believe that he will vindicate us. JAMISO , “(Compare Psa_74:10; Deu_32:6). The contrast is striking - that such a God should be thus insulted! CALVI , “18.Remember this. The prophet having encouraged the hearts of the godly by magnifying the divine power and goodness, now returns to the prosecution of his prayer. He first complains that the enemies of his people revile God, and yet continue unpunished. When he says, Remember this, the manner of expression is emphatic; and the occasion demanded it, for it is not a crime of small magnitude to treat with contumely the sacred name of God. For the sake of contrast, he states that it was a worthless or foolish people who thus presumed insolently to pour forth their reproaches against God. The Hebrew word ,נבל nabal, denotes not only a foolish man, but also a wicked and infamous person. The prophet, therefore, justly describes the despisers of God as people who are vile and worthless. SPURGEO , “Ver. 18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord. Against thee, the ever glorious Maker of all things, have they spoken, thine honour have they assailed, and defied even thee. This is forcible pleading indeed, and reminds us of Moses and Hezekiah in their intercessions: "What wilt thou do unto thy great name?" "It may be that the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, who hath reproached the living God." Jehovah is a jealous God, and will surely glorify his own name; here our hope finds foothold. And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. The meanness of the enemy is here pleaded. Sinners are fools, and shall fools be allowed to insult the Lord and oppress his people; shall the abjects curse the Lord and defy him to his face. When error grows too bold its day is near, and its fall certain. Arrogance foreshadows ripeness of evil, and the next step is rottenness. Instead of being alarmed when bad
- 88. men grow worseand more audacious, we may reasonably take heart, for the hour of their judgment is evidently near. BE SO , “Psalms 74:18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached thee — Though we deserve to be forgotten and destroyed, yet remember thyself, and do not suffer thine and our enemies to reproach and blaspheme the name of that great and glorious Being, the Creator and sovereign Lord of the whole world, whom they ought always to reverence and adore; and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name — Who, though they think themselves, and are thought by others, to be wise, yet in truth are fools, and herein show their stupendous folly, that they vilify and provoke that God whose powerful anger they can neither resist, nor escape, nor endure. COFFMA , “Verse 18 "Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah, And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name. Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast: Forget not the life of thy poor forever." "Remember" (Psalms 74:18). Did God indeed remember to avenge himself upon Babylon? Indeed yes; but in the meanwhile, which included the days of the psalmist, God was using Babylon to discipline and correct his rebellious children of Israel. "A foolish people" (Psalms 74:18). "The word `foolish,' both here and in Psalms 74:22 is the very same word that is rendered `fool' in Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1."[21] "Deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove to the wild beast" (Psalms 74:19). "This is the only place in the Bible where this metaphor is used of Israel."[22] Did God indeed deliver Israel? Yes, indeed. o, God did not deliver the rebellious Israel, but the true Israel, at that time, the captive remnant of the apostate nation who were captives in Babylon. CO STABLE, “Verses 18-23 4. An appeal to the covenant74:18-23 The writer also appealed for action because of God"s reputation ("Thy name," Psalm 74:18). He compared Israel to a harmless dove and the enemy to a raging wild beast ( Psalm 74:19). God had promised to hear His people"s cries for help and had done so in the past (cf. Judges), but now He was silent. Consequently Asaph asked God to remember His covenant promises to Israel ( Psalm 74:20). This may be a reference to the promises to Abraham ( Genesis 12:1-3) or to the blessings and curses of the Mosaic Covenant ( Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). Deliverance would
- 89. lead God"s peopleto praise Him ( Psalm 74:21). The foolish man ( Psalm 74:22) is the enemy who does not regard God"s revelation of the fate of those who oppose His people. Israel"s adversaries evidently mocked Yahweh as they devastated His sanctuary ( Psalm 74:23). "The acts of God are primarily a vindication of his name and secondarily of his people." [ ote: VanGemeren, p490.] This psalm is a good example of prayer based on the person and promises of God. When God"s people suffer for their sins, they can call out to Him for help, but He may continue the discipline even when they base their petitions on His character and covenant. K&D 18-23, “The poet, after he has thus consoled himself by the contemplation of the power of God which He has displayed for His people's good as their Redeemer, and for the good of the whole of mankind as the Creator, rises anew to prayer, but all the more cheerfully and boldly. Since ever present facts of creation have been referred to just now, and the historical mighty deeds of God only further back, ּאתז refers rather forwards to the blaspheming of the enemies which He suffers now to go on unpunished, as though He took no cognizance of it. ף ֵר ֵח has Pasek after it in order to separate the word, which signifies reviling, from the most holy Name. The epithet ל ָבָם־נ ַע reminds one of Deu_ 32:21. In Psa_74:19 according to the accents תַ ַח is the absolute state (the primary form of הָ ַ,ח vid., on Psa_61:1): give not over, abandon not to the wild beast (beasts), the soul of Thy turtle-dove. This is probably correct, since שׁ ֶפֶנ תַ ַח ְ,ל “to the eager wild beast,” this inversion of the well-known expression הָ ַח שׁ ֶפֶ,נ which on the contrary yields the sense of vita animae, is an improbable and exampleless expression. If נפשׁ were intended to be thus understood, the poet might have written תורך הָ ַח לנפשׁ ,אל־תתן “give not Thy turtle- dove over to the desire of the wild beast.” Hupfeld thinks that the “old, stupid reading” may be set right at one stroke, inasmuch as he reads תורך חית לנפש תתן ,אל and renders it “give not to rage the life Thy turtle-dove;” but where is any support to be found for this ,לנפשׁ “to rage,” or rather (Psychology, S. 202; tr. p. 239) “to eager desire?” The word cannot signify this in such an isolated position. Israel, which is also compared to a dove in Psa_68:14, is called a turtle-dove (ּור ). In Psa_74:19 תַ ַח has the same signification as in Psa_74:19, and the same sense as Psa_68:11 (cf. Ps 69:37): the creatures of Thy miserable ones, i.e., Thy poor, miserable creatures - a figurative designation of the ecclesia pressa. The church, which it is the custom of the Asaphic Psalms to designate with emblematical names taken from the animal world, finds itself now like sheep among wolves, and seems to itself as if it were forgotten by God. The cry of prayer ט ֵ ַה ית ִר ְ ַל comes forth out of circumstances such as were those of the Maccabaean age. ית ִר ְ is the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17); the persecution of the age of the Seleucidae put faith to the severe test, that circumcision, this sign which was the pledge to Israel of God's gracious protection, became just the sign by which the Syrians knew their victims.
- 90. In the Bookof Daniel, Dan_11:28, Dan_11:30, cf. Ps. 22:32, ברית is used directly of the religion of Israel and its band of confessors. The confirmatory clause Psa_74:20 also corresponds to the Maccabaean age, when the persecuted confessors hid themselves far away in the mountains (1 Macc. 2:26ff., 2 Macc. 6:11), but were tracked by the enemy and slain, - at that time the hiding-places (κρύφοι, 1 Macc. 1:53) of the land were in reality full of the habitations of violence. The combination ס ָמ ָח ּותאְנ is like ּוםל ָשׁ ַה ּותאְ,נ Jer_ 25:37, cf. Gen_6:11. From this point the Psalm draws to a close in more familiar Psalm - strains. ּבשָׁל־יፍ, Psa_74:21, viz., from drawing near to Thee with their supplications. “The reproach of the foolish all the day” is that which incessantly goes forth from them. ה ֶּלע יד ִמ ָ , “going up (1Sa_5:12, not: increasing, 1Ki_22:35) perpetually,” although without the article, is not a predicate, but attributive (vid., on Psa_57:3). The tone of the prayer is throughout temperate; this the ground upon which it bases itself is therefore all the more forcible. 19 Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever. BAR ES, “O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove - The “life” of thy turtle- dove; or, thy turtle-dove itself. The turtle-dove is a name of endearment for one beloved, in Son_2:12, and is thus applied here to the people of Israel. The leading idea in such an application of the word is that of innocence, harmlessness, timidity, gentleness. The thought here is that of a people dear to God, now timid and alarmed. It is the prayer of a people beloved by God that he would not deliver them to their enemies. The prayer may be regarded as one which was used on the occasion referred to in the psalm; or, as a general prayer for the people of God, considered as exposed to ravening enemies. Unto the multitude of the wicked - The words “of the wicked” are not in the original. The word rendered “multitude” - חיה chayâh - (compare the notes at Psa_68:10) - is the same which in the other member of the sentence is rendered “congregation.” It may be applied to a herd of cattle, tame or wild; and then to a “people” - a band, a troop, a host - whether of orderly and civilized, or of wild and savage people. It seems to be used in this double sense in the verse before us; in the first member of the verse, “deliver not thy turtle-dove “to the multitude” - to the wild beast, or to the savage hosts; in the latter, “forget not the congregation of thy poor” - thy flock - thy people - considered as
- 91. timid or alarmed.Save the timid and trembling flock from beasts of prey. CLARKE, “Deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove - Thy people Israel are helpless, defenceless, miserable, and afflicted: O deliver them no longer into the power of their brutal adversaries. GILL, “O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove,.... By which is meant the church, see Son_2:14, which is comparable to this creature for its cleanness and purity, for its amiableness and beauty, for its harmlessness and innocence, for its modesty and meekness, for its affection and chastity to its mate, for its mournful and bemoaning voice for the loss of it, for its being a timorous and fearful creature, a weak one, and exposed to the prey of others; all which is true of the church, and may be applied to it: the Targum is, "do not deliver the souls of them that teach thy law;'' the word having some affinity with "torah", the law; but Jarchi says, that Jonathan, in his Targum (which is not now extant) interprets it a turtle; the Syriac version, by the change of a letter, renders it, "the soul that confesseth thee": and the Arabic version, by a like change, and the addition of a letter, "the soul that knows thee"; all which, indeed, is applicable to the church of God; but our version expresses the true sense of the word, with which agree Jarchi, Kimchi, Ben Melech, and others: and it is a prayer of the church for herself; that the life of her members, their corporeal life (for not the soul, the better part, and its eternal concerns, are meant, which are safe in Christ's hands), might not be delivered unto the multitude of the wicked, or "to the beast" (g); to persecutors comparable to lions and bears, and particularly the Romish antichrist, often called the beast in Rev_ 11:8, do not deliver "to the people, who are like to the beasts of the field, the souls of, &c.:'' forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever; the church of God is a congregation of men gathered out of the world by effectual grace, and consists chiefly of such who are literally poor, and all of them are spiritually so, and are sensible of it; for the most part they are a poor and "afflicted" (h) people, as the word may be also rendered, which the church is made up of; and may seem by themselves and others to be forgotten of God, when under divine desertions, or under afflictions, and immediate help is not given; but they are not forgotten, and still less for ever; see Isa_49:14. HE RY 19-21, “. That the persecuted are his covenant-people. 1. See what distress they are in. They have fallen into the hands of the multitude of the wicked, Psa_74:19. How are those increased that trouble them! There is no standing before an enraged multitude, especially like these, armed with power; and, as they are numerous, so they are barbarous: The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. The land of the Chaldeans, where there was none of the light of the knowledge of the true God (though otherwise it was famed for learning and arts), was indeed a dark place; the
- 92. inhabitants of itwere alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them, and therefore they were cruel: where there was no true divinity there was scarcely to be found common humanity. They were especially cruel to the people of God; certainly those have no knowledge who eat them up, Psa_14:4. They are oppressed (Psa_74:21) because they are poor and unable to help themselves; they are oppressed, and so impoverished and made poor. 2. See what reason they had to hope that God would appear for their relief and not suffer them to be always thus trampled upon. Observe how the psalmist pleads with God for them. (1.) “It is thy turtle-dove that is ready to be swallowed up by the multitude of the wicked,” Psa_74:19. The church is a dove for harmlessness and mildness, innocency and inoffensiveness, purity and fruitfulness, a dove for mournfulness in a day of distress, a turtle-dove for fidelity and the constancy of love: turtle-doves and pigeons were the only fowls that were offered in sacrifice to God. “Shall thy turtle-dove, that is true to thee and devoted to thy honour, be delivered, its life and soul and all, into the hand of the multitude of the wicked, to whom it will soon become an easy and acceptable prey? Lord, it will be thy honour to help the weak, especially to help thy own.” (2.) “It is the congregation of thy poor, and they are not the less thine for their being poor (for God has chosen the poor of this world, Jam_ 2:5), but they have the more reason to expect thou wilt appear for them because they are many: it is the congregation of thy poor; let them not be abandoned and forgotten for ever.” (3.) “They are in covenant with thee; and wilt thou not have respect unto the covenant? Psa_74:20. Wilt thou not perform the promises thou hast, in thy covenant, made to them? Wilt thou not own those whom thou hast brought into the bond of the covenant?” When God delivers his people it is in remembrance of his covenant, Lev_ 26:42. “Lord, though we are unworthy to be respected, yet have respect to the covenant.” (4.) “They trust in thee, and boast of their relation to thee and expectations from thee. O let not them return ashamed of their hope (Psa_74:21), as they will be if they be disappointed.” (5.) “If thou deliver them, they will praise thy name and give thee the glory of their deliverance. Appear, Lord, for those that will praise thy name, against those that blaspheme it.” JAMISO , “multitude — literally, “beast,” their flock or company of men (Psa_ 68:10). turtledove — that is, the meek and lonely Church. congregation — literally, “the company,” as above - thus the Church is represented as the spoiled and defeated remnant of an army, exposed to violence. CALVI , “19.Give not to the beast the soul of thy turtle dove. The Hebrew word חית , chayath, which we translate beast, signifies sometimes the soul or life, and so some explain it in the second clause of this verse, where it again occurs. But it is here unquestionably to be taken either for a wild beast or for a multitude. Understood in either of these ways, this form of expression will contain a very apposite comparison between the life of a weak and timorous bird, and a powerful army of men, or a cruel beast. The Church is compared to a turtle dove (243) for, although the faithful consisted of a considerable number, yet so far were they from matching their enemies, that, on the contrary, they were exposed to them as a prey. It is next added, Forget not the soul or congregation of thy poor ones The Hebrew word ,חית chayath, is again employed, and there is an elegance when, on account of its ambiguity, it is
- 93. used twice inthe same verse, but in different senses. I have preferred translating it congregation, rather than soul, because the passage seems to be a prayer that it would please God to watch over and defend his own small flock from the mighty hosts of their enemies. “The Psalmist’s expression, thy turtle dove, may perhaps be farther illustrated from the custom, ancient and modern, of keeping doves as favourite birds, (see Theocritus, 5. 96; and Virgil, Eclog. 3, 5, 68, 69,) and from the care taken to secure them from such animals as are dangerous to them.” — Merrick ’s Annotations. SPURGEO , “Ver. 19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked. Thy poor church is weak and defenceless as a dove, but yet her adversaries cannot touch her without thy permission; do not give them leave to devour her, consign her not to the merciless fangs of her foes. She is thy dove, thy turtle, thy favoured one, do not cast her to her enemies. Be merciful, and preserve the weak. Thus may we each plead, and with good hope of prevailing, for the Lord is very pitiful and full of compassion. Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. They look to thee for everything, for they are very poor, and they are thy poor, and there is a company of them, collected by thyself; do not turn thy back on them for long, do not appear strange unto them, but let their poverty plead with thee; turn thou unto them, and visit thine afflicted. In such pleas we also can personally join when at any time we are sorely tried, and the Lord's presence is hidden from us. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 19. O deliver not, etc. How weak soever the church be, and how many and strong soever the enemy be, yet cannot they all devour the church, except the Lord should deliver his church over into their hands, against which evil the church hath ground of confidence to pray, O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked; for he hath given his church wings, and a hiding place too, as the comparison imports, if he please to give her the use thereof also. David Dickson. Ver. 19. The people of God are taught in this form of supplication how to edge and keen their prayers, and make them vigorous; to wit, by disclaiming any ability or sufficiency in themselves; by styling themselves a congregation of poor, silly, weak doves, no way able to encounter an army of bestial, cunning, crafty, bloody, boisterous enemies. This plea the people of God make use of: "With thee the fatherless findeth mercy, "Hosea 14:3. John Langley. Ver. 19. The soul of thy turtledove. They compare themselves to a turtledove, whose nature leads it, in whatever way it may be afflicted, not to indulge in noisy impatience, but to mourn in secret; so the afflicted people of Israel were unable to do anything but breathe their sighs and groans to God. Musculus. Ver. 19. Thy turtledove. God's people are an harmless, innocent people, altogether unable and insufficient to help themselves against their enemies, who are numerous, cruel, and barbarous. Hence they are resembled to sheep, doves; called in the Word, fatherless, orphans, little ones, babes, poor, simple, needy. They are men bound to their good behaviour, may not harbour so much as a bad thought against any; are
- 94. called to suffer,not to do wrong. Julian did jeer at them for this; he would strike them on the one cheek, and tell them that their Master taught them to turn the other; his soldiers would take away their cloaks, and mind them that they must part with their coats also. Out of their own dispositions they judge of others, therefore may easily be deceived and entrapped. Thus Gedaliah, that sweet man, would not believe the relation of Johanan touching the conspiracy of the crocodile Ishmael against him; nay, was even angry with him for his faithful dealing that way, and it cost him his life. Jer 40:16,41. That famous admiral of France, Jasper Coligny, though he had information and intelligence from sundry parts beyond the seas, that the court did intend to mischief him, and that there was no security in their promises and agreements, though backed with oaths, thrust himself, notwithstanding, upon the lion, and was smoothed with one paw and torn with the other: being such, they lie open to the rage of many adversaries... One would think these turtles should rather win the love of all that come near them than incur the hatred of any, for they are quiet and peaceable persons. In the mount of the Lord there is no hurt done (Isaiah 11:9), yet, notwithstanding, they are maligned by a world of people. Because they are not like them (1 Peter 4:4); because they are not of their number (John 15:19); because their persons and their sacrifices are more acceptable with God than the others' (Genesis 4:4); because they reprove them for their evil ways (John 3:20); because they are for the most part poor and mean, have no great forecast in worldly affairs, are no deep politicians, they are such as those pauperes Lugdunensis, those poor men of Lyons in France, therefore are exposed to beasts and lions (Matthew 1:25); because they mourn for sin in themselves and others: they quarrel with the dove even because of her mournful note. They will jeer at sighing sisters, and men that hang the head like a bulrush; yet, seeing this bulrush cannot grow without mire and mud, why should it not hang the head? John Langley. Ver. 19. Thy turtledove. This expression may, perhaps, be further illustrated from the custom, ancient and modern, of keeping doves as favourite birds (see Theocritus v. 96, and Virgil Eclog. 3. v 68, 69), and from the care taken to secure them from such animals as are dangerous to them. James Merrick. Ver. 19. Turtle Doves, of whatever species they be, whether travellers or domesticated, are equally preserved by the inhabitants of Egypt: they do not kill, and never eat them. Wishing to know the motive of this abstinence among people who possess so little in the greater part of their action, I learnt that it was for the honour of humanity. It is a consequence of the respect due to hospitality, which the Arabs hold in such high estimation, and of which they have communicated some shades to the people who dwell among them. They would regard it as a violation of this hospitality not to spare those birds, which come with a perfect confidence to live amongst them, and there to become skilful but useless receptors of love and tenderness. The very farmer, who sees his harvest a prey for the flights of turtle doves which alight on his fields, neither destroys nor harasses them, but suffers them to multiply in tranquillity. C. .S. de M. Sonnini. 1775-1811. Ver. 19. Forget not the congregation of thy poor. Thy poor, by way of discrimination. There may be a greater distance between poor and poor, than there is between poor and rich. There are many "ragged regiments, ""congregations of poor, "whom the Lord will forget for ever; but his poor shall be saved. And these
- 95. poor are oftwo sorts; either poor in regard of wealth and outward substance, or poor in regard of friends or outward assistance. A rich man, especially a godly rich man, may be in a poor case, destitute and forsaken, wanting patronage and protection. God saveth the poor in both notions, both those that have no friends, and those that have no estates. Joseph Caryl. BE SO , “Psalms 74:19. O deliver not the soul — That is, the life; of thy turtle- dove — That is, thy church; unto the multitude of the wicked — Or, to the wild beast, as ,חית chajath, often signifies: or, to the troop, namely, of her enemies. As if he had said, Thou hast delivered thy people into captivity; do not deliver them to death, nor suffer their enemies utterly to destroy them. The church is fitly compared to a turtle-dove, as resembling it in disposition, being simple, harmless, meek, faithful, solitary, timid, mournful, exposed to manifold injuries, and unable to defend itself. COKE, “Psalms 74:19. O deliver not the soul, &c.— Do not give up thy turtle to the ravenous beast; Mudge. The Hebrew is literally, the beast of appetite, or the ravenous beast. We see in the next verse, that all the caves and coverts of the country were filled with parties, who skulked there to cut off straggling Jews: so that the covenant of God, whereby he obliged himself to perpetuate the seed of Abraham, was seemingly in danger of being defeated. It was natural therefore to express the condition of that people and their enemies, by the poor solitary helpless turtle, and the beast of prey. EBC, “The precise rendering of Psalms 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.
- 96. 20 Have regardfor your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. BAR ES, “Have respect unto the covenant - The covenant which thou hast made with thy people, promising, on thy part, to protect them, and to be their God. Compare Deu_4:13; Deu_5:2; Deu_26:18-19. The prayer here is, that God would remember, in the day of national calamity, the solemn promise implied in that covenant, and that he would interpose to save his people. Compare Gen_9:15; Lev_26:42; Eze_ 16:60; Luk_1:72. This may be regarded as the language which the people did use when these calamities were about to come upon them. For the dark places of the earth - The allusion here is to the lands from whence came the armies that had invaded Judea, and that threatened desolation. They were dark regions of paganism and idolatry. Are full of the habitations of cruelty - The abodes of violence, or of violent and cruel men. They had sent forth their armies from such places for purposes of conquest and rapine, and no compassion could be expected from them. Their numbers were so great, and their character was so fierce and warlike, that the people of Israel could find defense and security only in God; and they, therefore, plead with him that he would interpose in their behalf. The prayer in this passage may with propriety be used by the people of God now. It is still true that “the dark parts of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty;” and in view of this fact, and of the utter hopelessness of the renovation of the world by any human means, or by any progress which society can make of itself, it is proper to seek God’s interposition. And it is proper in such prayers to him now, as in ancient times, to make the ground of our appeal to him his own gracious covenant; his promises made to his church; his solemn assurances that this state of things shall not always continue, but that the time will arrive when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. CLARKE, “Have respect unto the covenant - לברית הבט habbet labberith. Pay attention to the covenant sacrifice; to that offered by Abraham, Gen_15:9, etc., when the contracting parties, God and Abram, passed through between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. An indisputable type of Jesus Christ; and of God and man meeting in his sacrificed humanity. The dark places of the earth - The caves, dens, woods, etc., of the land are full of robbers, cut-throats, and murderers, who are continually destroying thy people, so that the holy seed seems as if it would be entirely cut off and the covenant promise thus be rendered void. The words may either apply to Chaldea or Judea. Judea was at this time little else than
- 97. a den ofrobbers, its own natural inhabitants being removed. Chaldea was infested with hordes of banditti also. GILL, “Have respect unto the covenant,.... The Targum adds, "which thou hast made with our fathers;'' meaning not the covenant of works, which being broken, no good thing was to be expected from it, not liberty, life, nor eternal salvation, but all the reverse; but the covenant of grace, made with Christ before the world was, and made manifest to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to David, and others: this God has a respect unto, and does look unto it; he looks to the surety and Mediator of it, which is Christ, for the fulfilment of all conditions in it; to the promises of it, that they may be made good; to the blessings of it, that they be bestowed upon the persons to whom they belong; to the blood of it, for the delivering of the church's prisoners, and the salvation of them from wrath to come; and to the persons interested in it, that they be all called and brought safe to glory; and particularly to the things in it, respecting the glory of the church in the latter day, and increase of its members, and of its light, which seem chiefly designed here; and therefore it follows: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty; many places of the earth are in gross darkness as to the knowledge of spiritual and divine things; even all those places which are inhabited by Pagans, Mahometans, and Papists, which make a great part of the globe; and in these dark places cruelty reigns, and especially in the antichristian states; wherefore the church pleads the covenant of God and his promises, that he would send forth his light and his truth, and cover the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, which is now covered with gross darkness, and under the tyranny and oppression of the man of sin. JAMISO , “And the prevalence of injustice in heathen lands is a reason for invoking God’s regard to His promise (compare Num_14:21; Psa_7:16; Psa_18:48). CALVI , “20.Have regard to thy covenant. That God may be the more inclined to show mercy, the prophet brings to his remembrance the Divine covenant; even as the refuge of the saints, when they have found themselves involved in extreme dangers, has always been to hope for deliverance, because God had promised, in the covenant which he made with them, to be a father to then, From this we learn, that the only firm support on which our prayers can rest is, that God has adopted us to be his people by his free choice. Whence, also, it appears how devilish was the phrensy of that filthy dog Servetus, who was not ashamed to affirm that it is foolish, and gross mockery, to lay before God his own promises when we are engaged in prayer. Farther, the godly Jews again show us how severely they were afflicted, when they declare that violence and oppression were everywhere prevalent; as if all places were the haunts of cut-throats and the dens of robbers. (244) It is said the dark places of the earth; for, whenever God seems to hide his face, the wicked imagine that whatever wickedness they may commit, they will find, wherever they
- 98. may be, hiding-placesby which to cover it all. SPURGEO , “Ver. 20. Have respect unto the covenant. Here is the master key, -- heaven's gate must open to this. God is not a man that he should lie; his covenant he will not break, nor alter the thing that hath gone forth out of his lips. The Lord had promised to bless the seed of Abraham, and make them a blessing; here they plead that ancient word, even as we also may plead the covenant made with the Lord Jesus for all believers. What a grand word it is! Reader, do you know how to cry "Have respect unto thy covenant"? For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. Darkness is the fit hour for beasts of prey, and ignorance the natural dwelling place of cruelty. All the world is in a measure dark, and hence everywhere there are cruel enemies of the Lord's people; but in some places a sevenfold night of superstition and unbelief has settled down, and there rage against the saints reaches to madness. Has not the Lord declared that the whole earth shall be filled with his glory? How can this be if he always permits cruelty to riot in dark places? Surely, he must arise, and end the days of wrong, the era of oppression. This verse is a most telling missionary prayer. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 20. Have respect. The word, in the original signification of it, imports a fastening of the eyes upon some object, that a man desires to look into. Hence, by a metaphor, it is transferred to the eyes of the mind, and signifies a serious weighing and consideration of a thing. God is said to "wink at the times of ignorance, "or not to regard it, Acts 17:30. God's people here look at God, as if he did wink at his covenant, and neither look at it, nor them in their miseries. The psalmist desires him that he would be mindful of it for his people's deliverance. Francis Taylor, in "A Sermon preached before the House of Commons, " entitled "God's Covenant the Churches Plea." 1645. Ver. 20. Have respect unto the covenant. This presseth the Lord more than the former; this is the close grappling, as it were, with him in the words of Jacob: "I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me." This is the throwing out of the greatest sheet anchor in the tempest, for it lays hold on God's faithfulness, and truth, and fatherly goodness. If they be not in covenant with God, it may be charged upon them. --"You have violated my holy law, you have incensed my wrath against you by your perverse ways, therefore I will not help you, but give you up; "but now the souls that be in covenant with God will not be put off so (be it spoken with holy reverence), but will cry out, O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, yet have respect unto thy covenant. Yet be sure you walk uprightly before the Lord...With what face can any one say, Lord, have respect unto thy covenant, when he casts his own covenant behind his back, and cannot say with the prophet David, "I have a respect to all thy commandments"? How canst thou say, "Deliver me not up to the many beasts without, "when thou art not afraid to be delivered up to thy vile, bestial lusts and affections that are within? Thou hypocrite, first labour the subduing of the monsters that are within thee, then a fair way will be open to have thine enemies subdued round about thee. John Langley. Ver. 20. Have respect unto the covenant. Those persons and preachers who decline to think and speak of gospel mercies and free salvation as secured by covenant,
- 99. deprive themselves andothers of much of the blessed comforts of God's word. Such was not the manner of the inspired psalmist. William S. Plumer. Ver. 20. God seems to his people to neglect his covenant, when they are oppressed by ungodly men. So Asaph complains. After an acknowledgment that God was the Shepherd of Israel, and so in covenant with his people, and accordingly had wonderfully brought them out of Egypt, and made them flourish marvellously in the land of Canaan, he attributes their misery to God's neglect. Many reasons may be given of this unkind carriage of God's people to him. As, first, because their misery blinds them; and blind men when they are smitten suspect every man that comes near them. Secondly, self love makes us suspect any rather than ourselves, yea, even God himself. The people should have reflected upon themselves that were innocent, but in their sorrows they reflect upon God that was innocent. We are all Adam and Eve's children. When Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, she tacitly lays the fault upon God: "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Genesis 3:13. Hadst thou not made a subtil serpent I had not broken thy commandment. Adam lays it openly upon God: "The woman who thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Genesis 3:12. Hadst thou not given me such a companion to betray me, I had been innocent. So we their posterity, when trouble is upon us, suspect God's breaking covenant, rather than our own. Thus our nurses beat the stone when children stumble through their own neglect. Thirdly, in time of need we most commonly suspect such as are best able to help us. The sick man, if he be in danger of death, suspects not his ignorant neighbours, but his skilful physician. He that is oppressed in his estate, when the sentence goes against him, suspects none more than the advocate, or the judge. We know God is best able to help us; our corruption, therefore, makes us to suspect him most, if our troubles continue. Fourthly, we most suspect those who, as we think, have most reason to help us in our miseries, and do it not. If the servant wants meal or apparel, he complains not of his fellow servants but of his master, who is tied by covenant to provide for him; if the child be wronged by the servants, he lays not the fault upon his brethren but upon his father, who by bands of nature is obliged to take care of him. So we, being in covenant with God, wonder not much if others fail us, but complain heavily if God seems to neglect us. Francis Taylor. Ver. 20. The psalmist moves God in prayer to look to his covenant by this argument: For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty; that is, of cruel men, or of men so full of cruelty, that they deserve rather to be called cruelty than cruel: this sort of men inhabit and fill up all those places where the light of holy truth doth not shine. ow, if they who want the light, or have no true knowledge of God among them, are hereby prepared for the acting of all manner of wickedness, how much more are they prepared for the acting of wickedness who have thrust the light from them, and are in dark places of their own making? The prophet Hosea shows (Hosea 4:1), that where there is no knowledge of God in a land, for want of means, there is no truth nor mercy (that is, there is none exercised) in that land, but oppression, deceit, and falsehood bear down all: how much more must it be so when there is no knowledge of God in a land, because of the contempt of means, and rebellion against the light? What wickedness will not they do in the dark, who put out the candle that they may not see what they do? Joseph Caryl. Ver. 20. (second clause). This might have some literal meaning. The dark places of
- 100. the earth, somehave thought, may here describe in the first instance, the caves, the dens, and the woods of the land; for there are many such (as travellers testify) in the land of Judaea, and in unsettled times they have often been the abode of robbers and murderers, who have thence sallied forth to molest and cut off the travellers, to ravish peaceful villages, to waylay and plunder the merchant, to commit all sorts of crimes, and then to return in impunity to these dark retreats, where they laugh at all law, human or divine; they quaff, with horrid pleasure, the recollection of the widow's tears, and listen with inhuman joy to the echoing remembrances of the orphan's moan and the dying father's shriek. But what a land thus infested would be, is but a faint image of the heathen world. Wherever heathenism spreads itself, there are the dark places of the earth. The Scripture often tells us that. John Hambleton. 1839. Ver. 20. The dark places. An allusion, as sometimes interpreters conceive, to the dens of wild beasts, wherein they hide themselves to seize upon their prey, Psalms 104:21-22. To these cruel men are compared. Psalms 10:8-9. "He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor." Such places oppressors and robbers choose. Others take it for an allusion to prisons and dark dungeons void of light. As the prophet, Isaiah 42:7, describes a prison: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." So trouble in Scripture is compared to darkness, and prosperity to light; because darkness is irksome, and light comfortable: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; "and then the sorry hiding places whither God's people went to hide themselves are here meant. Yet, could they not there be quiet, but were pursued, found out, and spoiled by their adversaries. Others take dark places for obscure and mean places, as dark men, in the original, are called mean men in our translation, Proverbs 22:29. And then it may either signify that the meanest men did oppress God's people, or that the poorest and meanest of God's people were not spared. Such usage have we found in our time, when the poor cottages of our foes have sent out pillagers, and no cottagers of ours have escaped spoiling in diverse places. Francis Taylor. Ver. 20. Cruelty. Heathenism is cruel. It is not changed in character since the days when parents made their children to pass through fire to Moloch. At this very day, for instance, infanticide prevails in China; and the "law, "says a book of authority--"the law, otherwise so rigorous, does not take the slightest cognisance of that crime, nor ever subject those guilty of it to punishment. Every morning before it is light, waggons traverse the different quarters of the city of Pekin to receive the dead infants." Well may they go "before it is light; ""the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." "The missionaries of that city obtained details, which justify belief that the number of infants (chiefly females) destroyed there is upwards of three thousand annually." Think of this same proportion, extended throughout that densely peopled empire. Among the same people suicide is also of frequent occurrence. What a contrast with the religion which stays the rash hand, and calls out, "Do thyself no harm!" We might pass to India; and there the flames of the funeral piles, on which so many widows were annually burnt, had hardly expired, when we were shocked, only a few years since, with other proofs of the cruelty of heathenism. What painful details were those, which our government
- 101. brought to lightrespecting the secret murderers of India! What think you of a vast fraternity of murderers, consisting of many thousands of persons, which has existed from generation to generation, which has been ramified over the whole country from Cape Comorin to the Himalayan mountains, which has flourished alike under Hindu, Mahometan, and British rulers, and which has every year destroyed multitudes of victims--and all this under the sanction of religion? The murderous system, they say, has been enjoined them by the goddess Kalee, who is represented as having made a grant of half the human race to her votaries, (to be murdered, that is) according to certain prescribed forms. John Hambleton. BE SO , “Psalms 74:20. Have respect unto the covenant — Made with Abraham, whereby thou didst give the land of Canaan to him, and to his seed for ever; and thou didst further promise, that if thy people were carried away captive into a strange land, and did there humble themselves and pray, and turn unto thee, thou wouldst mercifully restore them, 1 Kings 8:46-50. Do thou, therefore, now restore us to that pleasant land which thou hast given us. For the dark places of the earth — That is, this dark and dismal land in which we live, wherein there is nothing but ignorance and confusion, and all the works of darkness; are full of the habitations of cruelty — Here are nothing but injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, under which we groan, in all the parts of this great empire, where we have our abode. COKE, “Psalms 74:20. For the dark places, &c.— For the dark places of the land are full of lodgments of treachery; Mudge. i.e. "This land is now so far from being inhabited by thy people, that every dark corner of it is a den of thieves and murderers." REFLECTIO S.—1st, A day of trouble should be a day of prayer. Whence can we hope for relief, but by pouring our complaints into the bosom of our compassionate God? The Psalmist here, 1. Humbly expostulates with God on the calamities of the people of Israel. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever; for so long their sufferings were continued, that they began to fear they would never end. Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? so fierce his wrath appeared against them, though the sheep of his pasture, whom once he had fed with a shepherd's care; and though foolishly they had strayed from him, yet cannot the Psalmist quit his hope, that Jehovah would still regard them in this endeared relation, and stay the furiousness of his displeasure. 2. He pleads for a gracious remembrance from God. Remember thy congregation, chosen by him to be a peculiar people, which thou hast purchased of old, by the blood of the Lamb, then slain in effect by virtue of the promise; the rod of thine inheritance, not only by the redemption of his Son, but by many temporal deliverances wrought for them, especially from Egypt; this mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt, and from whence he intreats God would not remove his residence. And this is applicable to the faithful in every age, redeemed by Jesus from sin, death, and hell, in the midst of whom, as his living temple, God is pleased to dwell,
- 102. and who mayin every time of trouble expect a gracious remembrance from him. 2nd, We have two considerations suggested for quieting the people of God under their troubles. 1. God is Israel's king, working wonders for their salvation. God is my king of old, protecting and preserving his people from their foes, working salvation in the midst of the earth; that spiritual and eternal salvation which all the faithful should partake of through Jesus Christ; or as interposing in a miraculous manner, in delivering the Jewish people, dividing the Red Sea for their passage, and destroying Pharaoh and his captains in the waters, ote; (1.) The head of the old dragon is bruised by our divine Lord, and we may triumph over him as a vanquished foe. (2.) The same rock which followed Israel follows us, for that rock was Christ; and from the waters of his grace and consolations, believers are daily comforted and strengthened in their journey through this wilderness. (3.) If we see not these outward miracles, as great spiritual wonders are still wrought for the faithful, who, through difficulties to human apprehension insurmountable, are led safely to their heavenly Canaan. 2. He is the God of nature. The day is thine, the night also is thine; he opens the eye- lids of the morning, and draws the curtains of the evening; and in regular succession the luminaries of heaven move in their orbits. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: fixing the bounds of nations and empires: thou hast made summer and winter; and surely he who made all these, hath power to save his faithful people: While they see these changes in the world, they must not despair; their night of adversity he can dispel with the sunshine of prosperity, and change their dreary winter, of sorrows and desolation, into the summer of abundance and joy. 3rdly, Conscious that their help cometh only from the Lord, the Psalmist calls upon Jehovah to arise and plead, not merely on their behalf, but thine own cause, his glory being intimately connected with the salvation of the faithful. 1. God was reproached and blasphemed daily by their enemies, as if he was unable to deliver them, or unfaithful to his promises, and had disappointed their hopes: the success of Israel's enemies intoxicated them, and daily they increased their proud boastings. This their foolishness and wickedness, the Psalmist hopes God will remember, and not forget, for the sake of his own glory, so dishonoured thereby. ote; (1.) Success often makes sinners more daring, and ripens them for ruin. (2.) The enemies of God's people triumph often, as if the day was their own; but the prosperity of fools destroys them. (3.) Ungodly sinners think they are very wise, when they turn things sacred into ridicule; but, to their confusion, they will be proved in the end as foolish as they are wicked. (4.) God needs no memorial, he sees and notes the ways of men; but it is right that we should plead thus, as a testimony of our regard for the glory of God, and of our confidence that he will appear to vindicate it. 2. His people were oppressed and persecuted: they are called God's turtle-dove, so
- 103. mournful, harmless, pure,affectionate, constant; his poor, humble and lowly in spirit, such as God promises to regard; therefore the Psalmist prays, O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked, who waited but for permission to destroy them; forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever; though for a time they had seemed forsaken, he hopes God will at last remember them in mercy. Have respect unto the covenant, made in Christ to all the faithful: for the dark places of the earth, and such were the mansions of their captivity, are full of the habitations of cruelty, which rendered their state more wretched and pitiable, being so cruelly treated by their enemies. O let not the oppressed return ashamed; as disappointed of their requests at a throne of grace: let the poor and needy praise thy name, give them occasion to do so, for the disappointment of their enemies, and their own salvation; and give them a heart to do so, that while the wicked blaspheme, they may adore thee. WHEDO , “20. Have respect unto the covenant—Hebrew, Look to the covenant. Comp. Genesis 9:16, “And I will look upon it”—the bow— “that I may remember the everlasting covenant.” But the reference is to the covenant, (Genesis 17:7,) “To be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.” Their present condition seemed wholly in violation of the covenant engagements. But God never forgets his promise. Psalms 111:5; Daniel 11:4. Faith now goes back to this ground of all their Church relations and national hopes. For the dark places of the earth—Hebrew, The darknesses, the plural for emphasis. Those regions where God is not known nor his law obeyed. All religions and all infidelity which reject the one true God, and man’s accountability to him, have ever been against humanity, cruel and selfish, as all history attests. COFFMA , “Verse 20 "Have respect unto the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence. Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed: Let the poor and needy praise thy name." "Have respect unto the covenant" (Psalms 74:20). It was not God who needed to be reminded of the covenant, it was the apostate Israel; but the psalmist was correct in calling God to remember it. That remembrance resulted in blessing the Babylonian captives, not the conceited and arrogant residue of apostasy in Judaea. "The dark places of the earth" (Psalms 74:20). Most of the scholars seem to think this refers to the hiding places such as caves, etc., where people tried to hide from the Babylonian enemies, who, as this verse states, were systematically hunting them down wherever they could find them and killing them. "The oppressed ... the poor" (Psalms 74:21). God never forgot those who loved him
- 104. and called uponhis name; but at a time when an entire kingdom was being cut off and destroyed completely, it was inevitable that many innocent and deserving people of God suffered. 21 Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; may the poor and needy praise your name. BAR ES, “O let not the oppressed return ashamed - Ashamed by being disappointed, as if they had trusted in that which had no claims to confidence. Compare the notes at Job_6:20. The word rendered “oppressed,” means “trodden down, crushed, broken, afflicted.” It refers to the people as attacked by foreign armies, or as crushed by those who had gained power over them. The word “return” refers to their coining back from God - from the throne of mercy. Let them not come back from thee with no assurance of thy favor; with no evidence that their prayers have been heard; let them not come back, subject to the reproach that they had made their appeal to thee in vain. Let the poor and needy praise thy name - The people who are oppressed and helpless. Let them have occasion to praise thee because their prayer has been heard, and because thou dost save them. CLARKE, “Let not the oppressed return ashamed - Do not permit thy people to be so diminished, that when, according to thy promise, they are restored to their own land, they may appear to be but a handful of men. GILL, “O let not the oppressed return ashamed,.... From the throne of grace, not having an answer of their prayer, but still continuing under the oppressions of their enemies: let the poor and needy praise thy name; let them have occasion for it, by the destruction of their enemies, and their deliverance from them, as they will have ere long; see Rev_19:1. JAMISO , “O let not the oppressed return ashamed,.... From the throne of grace, not having an answer of their prayer, but still continuing under the oppressions of their enemies: let the poor and needy praise thy name; let them have occasion for it, by the
- 105. destruction of theirenemies, and their deliverance from them, as they will have ere long; see Rev_19:1. CALVI , “21.Let not him who is oppressed return with shame. The word return, as it has a reference to God, is equivalent to the expression, to go away empty. The faithful, then, beseech Him that they may not be put to shame by suffering a repulse at his hands. They call themselves afflicted, poor, and needy, as an argument to obtain the Divine favor and mercy. It is, however, to be observed, that they do not speak insincerely, nor give an exaggerated representation of their distresses, but intimate, that by so many calamities they were brought to such a low condition, that there no longer remained for them any quarter in the world from which they could expect any help. By this example, we are taught that when we are reduced to the greatest extremity, there is a remedy always ready for our misery, in calling upon God. SPURGEO , “Ver. 21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed. Though broken and crushed they come to thee with confidence; suffer them not to be disappointed, for then they will be ashamed of their hope. Let the poor and needy praise thy name. By thy speedy answer to their cries make their hearts glad, and they will render to thee their gladdest songs. It is not the way of the Lord to allow any of those who trust in him to be put to shame; for his word is, "He shall call upon me, and I will deliver him, and he shall glorify me." BE SO , “Verses 21-23 Psalms 74:21-23. O let not the oppressed return ashamed — From thee, and from the throne of thy grace, to which they have recourse in this their distressed condition. “It is for the honour of God that they who apply to him for help should not, by returning without it, suffer shame and confusion in the presence of their insulting adversaries.” Let the poor and needy praise thy name — Which they will have a fresh motive to do, if thou deliver us. O God, plead thine own cause — Maintain thy honour, worship, and service, against those that reproach thee, as it here follows, and was observed before, Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:18. As we are reviled and persecuted for thy sake, so thou art injured in all our wrongs. Forget not the voice of thine enemies — Their insulting and reproachful expressions against thee, as well as against us. The tumult — The tumultuous noise and loud clamours; of those that rise up against thee increaseth — They grow worse and worse, encouraging and hardening themselves in their wicked courses by their continual success and prosperity, and by thy patience extended to them.
- 106. 22 Rise up,O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long. BAR ES, “Arise, O God - As if God were now insensible to the wrongs and sufferings of his people; as if he were inattentive and indisposed to come to their help. See the notes at Psa_3:7. Plead thine own cause - literally, “Contend thine own contention.” That is, Maintain a cause which is really thine own. Thine own honor is concerned; thine own law and authority are assailed; the war is really made on “thee.” This is always the true idea in the prayers which are offered for the conversion of sinners, for the establishment of truth, and for the spread of the Gospel in the world. It is not originally the cause of the church; it is the cause of God. Everything in regard to truth, to justice, to humanity, to temperance, to liberty, to religion, is the cause of God. All the assaults made on these, are assaults made on God. Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily - Constantly. He does not cease. The word “foolish” refers to the wicked. The idea is, that the wicked constantly reproach God - either by their language or their conduct; and this is a reason for calling on him to interpose. No better reason for asking his interposition can be given, than that such conduct is a real reproach to God, and reflects on his honor in the world. CLARKE, “Plead thine own cause - Thy honor is concerned, as well as our safety and salvation. The fool - the idolater, reproacheth thee daily - he boasts of the superiority of his idols, by whose power, he asserts, we are brought under their domination. GILL, “Arise, O God, plead thine own cause,.... The church's cause being the cause of God; and therefore she desires that he would arise and exert himself, and take vengeance on his and her enemies: this is an interesting argument, and a forcible one: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily; this being so frequently repeated, as in Psa_74:10, shows how much the name and glory of God lay near her heart; the Targum is, "remember the reproach of thy people by a foolish king all the day;'' perhaps the man of sin is meant, the king of the locusts, and angel of the bottomless pit. JAMISO , “(Compare Psa_3:7; Psa_7:6). God hears the wicked to their own ruin (Gen_4:10; Gen_18:20).
- 107. CALVI , “22.Arise,O God! plead thy cause. The pious Jews again supplicate God to ascend into his judgment-seat. He is then said to arise, when, after having long exercised forbearance, he shows, in very deed, that he has not forgotten his office as judge. To induce him to undertake this cause the more readily, they call upon him to maintain his own right. Lord, as if they had said, since the matter in hand is what peculiarly concerns thyself; it is not time for thee to remain inactive. They declare, at the same time, how this was, in a special sense, the cause of God. It was so, because the foolish people daily cast reproaches upon him. We may here again translate the word ,נבל nabal, the worthless people, instead of the foolish people. The wickedness charged against the persons spoken of is aggravated from the circumstance, that, not content with reproaching God on one occasion, they continued their derision and mockery without intermission. For this reason, the faithful conclude by invoking God that he would not forget such heaven-daring conduct in men who not only had the audacity to reproach his majesty, but who fiercely and outrageously poured forth their blasphemies against him. They seemed, it is true, to do this indirectly; but, as they despised God, it is asserted that they rose up against him with reckless and infatuated presumption, after the manner of the Giants of old, and that their haughtiness was carried to the greatest excess. SPURGEO , “Ver. 22. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause. Answer thou the taunts of the profane by arguments which shall annihilate both the blasphemy and the blasphemer. God's judgments are awful replies to the defiance of his foes. When he makes empires crumble, and smites persecutors to the heart, his cause is pleaded by himself as none other could have advocated it. O that the Lord himself would come into the battle field. Long has the fight been trembling in the balance; one glance of his eyes, one word from his lip, and the banners of victory shall be borne on the breeze. Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. The Lord is begged to remember that he is himself reproached, and that by a mere man--that man a fool, and he is also reminded that these foul reproaches are incessant and repeated with every revolving day. It is bravely done when faith can pluck pleas out of the dragon's mouth and out of the blasphemies of fools find arguments with God. COFFMA , “Verse 22 "Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day. Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: The tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually." The wonder of this psalm is that the psalmist had resort to God in prayer. othing was going right; it was one of the most pitiful periods of human history; but he kept right on appealing to God, down to the very last word. o one can doubt that such
- 108. devotion received itsjust recompense. SIMEO , “GOD’S I TEREST I HIS PEOPLE Psalms 74:22. Arise, O God! plead thine own cause. O one can have ever heard or read the account given us of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom, without being struck with the condescension of God in suffering a poor sinful worm so to urge his requests as to make every fresh concession an occasion of still larger demands. Yet, methinks, the petition offered in my text is incomparably more bold than perhaps any other that was ever offered by fallen man. In unfolding this petition, I will shew you, I. That there is an identity of interests between God and his people— This the psalm before us clearly proves— [Great was the distress of God’s people at the time it was written: they appear to have been forsaken of their God, and delivered over into the hands of their enemies. But the writer speaks, throughout the psalm, as if their cause was God’s; and calls upon God to take it up altogether as his own: “O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 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 [ ote: ver. 1, 2.]!” “Have respect unto the Covenant [ ote: ver. 20.].” “Arise, O God! plead thine own cause.” Who would imagine that this is the address of a sinner imploring mercy for himself and for his people? Yet such it is: and this clearly proves that God considers his people’s cause as his own, and their interests as identified with his.] The whole Scriptures also speak to the same effect— [When the people murmured against Moses, he warned them that their murmuring was not against him, but against God himself [ ote: Exodus 16:8.]. When the people of Israel desired to have no longer a judge, like Samuel, but a king, like other nations around them, Samuel told them, that it was not him that they had rejected, but God [ ote: 1 Samuel 8:7.]. The Prophet Zechariah confirms this, in terms peculiarly strong and energetic, when he represents God as saying to his oppressed people, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye [ ote: Zechariah 2:8.].” Our blessed Lord and Saviour speaks to the same effect; and so identifies himself with his people, that, whether they be benefited or injured, he considers it as done to himself. Is any poor servant of his clothed or fed or visited, Christ says, “In doing it to him, ye did it to me [ ote: Matthew 25:40.].” On the other hand, is any one of them oppressed, Christ feels the stroke as inflicted on himself: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me [ ote: Acts 9:4.]?”]
- 109. This being clear,I proceed to shew, II. Whence this identity arises— It arises, 1. From the relation in which they stand to God— [In the psalm before us this is strongly marked. The Jewish nation being “his sheep,” “his congregation,” “his inheritance,” was a reason why he should consider “their cause as his own.” The whole people of Israel were accounted by God as “his portion and inheritance,” and the more religious part of them as “his peculiar treasure” and “his jewels.” Yea, he accounted himself as their Father, and them as his children. ow, is there a parent in the universe who, if his child were injured, would not account the injury as done to himself? We wonder not, then, that God should regard his children’s cause as identified with his own.] 2. From the union which subsists between them and the Lord Jesus Christ— [They have been “bought with the precious blood of Christ,” who therefore considers them as “his own [ ote: 1 Corinthians 6:20.].” And how near their union with him is, may be seen by the images under which it is described. He is “the foundation” on which they stand [ ote: 1 Peter 2:4-5.], and consequently one with the superstructure built upon him. He is “the Husband” of his Church, and therefore one with his spouse [ ote: Ephesians 5:32.]. But the union is far closer than this: for “He is the vine, and they are the branches,” vitally united to him, and deriving all their sap and nourishment from him [ ote: John 15:4-5.]. But neither does that come up to the full idea of our union with him: for “we are members of his body, even of his flesh and of his bones [ ote: Ephesians 5:30.],” yea, and are also “one Spirit with him [ ote: 1 Corinthians 6:17.],” he being “the very life that liveth in us [ ote: Colossians 3:4 and Galatians 2:20.].” In fact, there is no union with which it can be compared, but that which exists between the Father and Christ [ ote: John 17:21.]: and hence St. Paul calls the collective members of his body by the very name of Christ: “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ [ ote: 1 Corinthians 12:12.];” that is, so also is the Church of Christ, which is so identified with him, that it may well bear his very name. How can it be, then, but that he should make our cause his own?] 3. From the connexion which there is between their prosperity and his glory— [When God threatened to extirpate Israel for their heinous provocations, Moses urged on God the consideration of his own glory, which would suffer, if that threat were carried into execution [ ote: Exodus 32:11-13. umbers 14:13-16.]. On the other hand, God’s honour is represented as greatly advanced by their welfare. If they flourish as “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord [ ote: Isaiah 61:3.],” and “bring forth much fruit, God is glorified [ ote: John 15:8.].” Hence, in
- 110. the book ofPsalms, this consideration is urged with earnest importunity as a plea for speedy and effectual relief: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy name’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God [ ote: Psalms 79:9-10.]?” In a word, as children by their conduct may reflect either honour or disgrace upon their parents according as that conduct may deserve, so God himself participates in the honour or disgrace of his people; “being blasphemed,” when they violate their duty [ ote: Romans 2:4.]; and lauded, when they approve themselves faithful in the discharge of it [ ote: 1 Peter 4:14.].] This point being clear, let us consider, III. The use which we should make of it in our addresses at the throne of grace— We should plead with God precisely as the Psalmist does in the words of our text. Whatever be the pressure under which we labour, whether it be from men or devils, we shall do well in offering up this prayer, “Arise, O God, and plead thine own cause.” [Let us suppose a person bowed down with a sense of sin, and an apprehension of God’s heavy displeasure: Is that a case wherein this plea may be urged? Yes, assuredly; for so it was urged by the Church of old, in language peculiarly strong, and, I had almost said, presumptuous: “We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us [ ote: Jeremiah 14:20-21.].” Precisely thus, however, may we also address the Father of mercies: for he has covenanted to receive all who come to him humbly in his Son’s name; and if he should cast out one, he would violate his covenant, and “disgrace the throne of his glory” — — — In like manner, if we are suffering under persecution, we may come to God in this very manner, and entreat him to plead his own cause: “Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight thou against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help: draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation ….. This thou hast seen, O Lord; keep not silence: O Lord, be not thou far from me! Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God, and my Lord [ ote: Psalms 35:1-3; Psalms 35:22-23.].” There can be no situation whatever, where this plea is not proper; nor any in winch it shall not prevail, if it be offered in humility and faith — — —] 1. A word of caution, however, may not be unseasonable— [It may be supposed, that, whilst we thus consider God as engaged to help us, we are at liberty to sit down in sloth and inactivity. But God will help those only who endeavour, as far as they are able, to help themselves. Hence, when the Church of old cried to him, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord! awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old!” he replied, “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem!” and
- 111. again, “Awake, awake,put on thy strength, O Zion [ ote: Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 52:1.]!” The paralytic, notwithstanding his impotence, endeavoured to put forth his arm; and in that effort he was healed [ ote: Matthew 12:13.]. And so also shall it be with us: let us labour to the uttermost to maintain our own cause, and God will then both make it his own, and plead it for us — — —] 2. A word of encouragement, at all events, must not be omitted— [If God make our cause his own, what have we to fear? for “who can be against us, if He be for us?” Let our Saviour’s consolations in the depth of all his troubles be applied by you for the comfort of your own souls: “The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old us a garment; the moth shall eat them up [ ote: Isaiah 50:7-9.].” Rely on God thus, and all will be well: for of “those who thus trust in God, not one shall ever be confounded.”] 23 Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually. BAR ES, “Forget not the voice of thine enemies - The voice of thine enemies clamoring for the destruction of thy people. Compare Psa_137:7. The prayer is, that God would bring deserved chastisement upon them for their purposes and their aims against his people. It is not necessarily a prayer for vengeance; it is a prayer for just retribution. The tumult of those that rise up against thee - Of those that make war on thee, and on thy people. The word ““tumult” here means clamor or shout - as the shout of battle. The reference is to the movement of a host pressing on to conquest, encouraging and exciting each other, and endeavoring to intimidate their enemies by the loud clamor of the war-cry. It is a description of what had occurred among the main events referred to in the psalm, when the enemy came in to lay waste the capital, and to spread desolation throughout the land. Increaseth continually - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Ascendeth.” That is, it seems to go up; it is the swelling clamor of a great multitude of warriors intent on conquest. A cry or clamor thus seems to swell or rise on the air, and (as it were) to ascend to God. The prayer here is, that God would regard that cry, not in the sense that he would grant them
- 112. the fulfillment oftheir wishes, but in the sense that he would recompense them as they deserved. It is in this sense that the clamors of the wicked ascend to heaven - in this sense that God will regard them, as if they were a prayer for just retribution. CLARKE, “Forget not the voice - While we pray to thee for our own salvation, we call upon thee to vindicate thy injured honor: and let all the nations see that thou lovest thy followers, and hatest those who are thy enemies. Let not man prevail against thee or thine. GILL, “Forget not the voice of thine enemies,.... Their roaring in the midst of the sanctuary and the congregation, Psa_74:4, their reproaching and blaspheming voice, Psa_74:10, the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually, or "ascendeth" (i); goes up to God, and is taken notice of by him; the cry of their sins, like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the city of Nineveh, Gen_18:20, was continually going up to God; wherefore it might be hoped and expected that vengeance in a little time would come down; see Rev_18:5, the Septuagint, and the versions that follow that, render it, "the pride of those", &c. all these petitions are prayers of faith, and are, or will be, heard and answered; upon which will follow thanksgivings, with which the next psalm begins. HE RY, “The psalmist here, in the name of the church, most earnestly begs that God would appear fro them against their enemies, and put an end to their present troubles. To encourage his own faith, he interests God in this matter (Psa_74:22): Arise, O God! plead thy own cause. This we may be sure he will do, for he is jealous for his own honour; whatever is his own cause he will plead it with a strong hand, will appear against those that oppose it and with and for those that cordially espouse it. He will arise and plead it, though for a time he seems to neglect it; he will stir up himself, will manifest himself, will do his own work in his own time. Note, The cause of religion is God's own cause and he will certainly plead it. Now, to make it out that the cause is God's, he pleads, I. That the persecutors are God's sworn enemies: “Lord, they have not only abused us, but they have been, and are, abusive to thee; what is done against us, for thy sake, does, by consequence, reflect upon thee. But that is not all; they have directly and immediately reproached thee, and blasphemed thy name,” Psa_74:18. This was that which they roared in the sanctuary; they triumphed as if they had now got the mastery of the God is Israel, of whom they had heard such great things. As nothing grieves the saints more than to hear God's name blasphemed, so nothing encourages them more to hope that God will appear against their enemies than when they have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness as to reproach God himself; this fills the measure of their sins apace and hastens their ruin. The psalmist insists much upon this: “We dare not answer their reproaches; Lord, do thou answer them. Remember that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name (Psa_74:18) and that still the foolish man reproaches thee daily.” Observe the character of those that reproach God; they are foolish. As atheism is folly (Psa_14:1), profaneness and blasphemy are no less so. Perhaps those are cried up as the wits of the age that ridicule religion and sacred things; but really they are the greatest
- 113. fools, and willshortly be made to appear so before all the world. And yet see their malice - They reproach God daily, as constantly as his faithful worshippers pray to him and praise him; see their impudence - They do not hide their blasphemous thoughts in their own bosoms, but proclaim them with a loud voice (forget not the voice of thy enemies, Psa_74:23), and this with a daring defiance of divine justice; they rise up against thee, and by their blasphemies even wage war with heaven and take up arms against the Almighty. Their noise and tumult ascend continually (so some), as the cry of Sodom came up before God, calling for vengeance, Gen_18:21. It increases continually (so we read it); they grow worse and worse, and are hardened in their impieties by their successes. Now, Lord, remember this; do not forget it. God needs not to be put in remembrance by us of what he has to do, but thus we must show our concern for his honour and believe that he will vindicate us. JAMISO , “(Compare Psa_3:7; Psa_7:6). God hears the wicked to their own ruin (Gen_4:10; Gen_18:20). SPURGEO , “Ver. 23. Forget not the voice of thine enemies. Great warrior let the enemy's taunt provoke thee to the fray. They challenge thee; accept thou the gage of battle, and smite them with thy terrible hand. If the cries of thy children are too feeble to be heard, be pleased to note the loud voices of thy foes and silence their profanities for ever. The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually. The ungodly clamour against thee and thy people, their blasphemies are loud and incessant, they defy thee, even thee, and because thou repliest not they laugh thee to scorn. They go from bad to worse, from worse to worst; their fury swells like the thunders of an advancing tempest. What will it come too? What infamy will next be hurled at thee and thine? O God, wilt thou for ever bear this? Hast thou no regard for thine honour, no respect for thy glory? Much of this Psalm has passed over our mind while beholding the idolatries of Rome, (the author visited Rome in ovember and December, 1871, while this portion of the Treasury of David was in progress) and remembering her bloody persecution of the saints. O Lord, how long shall it be ere thou wilt ease thyself of those profane wretches, the priests, and cast the harlot of Babylon into the ditch of corruption? May the church never cease to plead with thee till judgment shall be executed, and the Lord avenged upon Antichrist. EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS Ver. 23. If we are compelled to close our most solemn and urgent devotions, and our most earnest supplications, without seeing one ray of light beaming upon our path, it may comfort us to remember that so the pious psalmist closed this complaint. To hope against hope is the most blessed kind of hope. William S. Plumer.