Psalms 74

1 Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care?

2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place.

3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place;

4 Sending out their voices like lions among your worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen.

5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up against the thick trees.

6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron blades.

7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth.

8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places of worship in the land.

9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long.

10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for ever?

11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your right hand in your robe?

12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in the earth.

13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.

14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you gave them as food to the fishes of the sea.

15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made the ever-flowing rivers dry.

16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the light and the sun.

17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have made summer and winter.

18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour.

19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the life of the poor go out of your memory for ever.

20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of the earth are full of pride and cruel acts.

21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the low man and the poor give praise to your name.

22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day.

23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of those who come against you goes up every day.

PREVIOUS Psalms 73 NEXT Psalms 75

Psalms 74 Commentary

Chapter 74

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

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

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

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

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Chapter Summary

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

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

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

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible