Psalm 74

Psalm 74–A Contemplation of Asaph. 1 O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? 2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed— this Mount Zion where You have dwelt. 3  Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations. The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary. 4 Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place; they set up their banners for signs. 5 They seem like men who lift up axes among the thick trees.6 And now they break down its carved work, all at once, with axes and hammers. 7 They have set fire to Your sanctuary; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground. 8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them altogether.” They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land. 9 We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet; or is there any among us who knows how long. “‘O God, why have You cast us off forever;’ Both the ten tribes and the kingdom of Judah had given abundant cause for the anger of God to smoke against them; and had even deserved to be ‘cast off for ever’“ (Thomas Scott)— not the patriarchs but some of their children.‪ The ten tribes were cast off first and then Judah, but Christ came from thence... and there is still a remnant, according to the election of grace. Compare to “Yahweh shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.” (‬Deuteronomy 29:2‪0)‬ “‘Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?’ — Thy people, represented as a flock.” (Albert Barnes) “‘Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance,’ i.e. the tribe of Judah, which thou hast in a special manner chosen for thine inheritance, and for the seat of the kingdom, and for 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.” (Matthew Poole)— “which is often put for the temple, or the hill of Moriah, on which it was built.” (Jos. Benson), that is Calvary “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure what was commanded: ‘And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.’ And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.’ But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” (Heb 12:18-24) “‘Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns signs.’ They have destroyed your true religion, and spread their banners in sign of defiance.” (Geneva Study Bible) “They seem like”— meaning not physical but spiritual destruction— “men who lift up axes among the thick trees. And now they break down its carved work, all at once, with axes and hammers.” “‘They have set fire to Your sanctuary.’ They have brought in their strange fire. “Nadab and his brother Abihu, Aaron's second son, died because they offered ‘strange fire’ to the Lord (Lv 10:1-2; Nm 3:4; 1 Chr 24:2). Incense offered in the morning (representing prayers of the people) usually preceded the cutting up of the sacrifice. In this case ‘fire from the Lord devoured them.’” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) This represents false worship. “They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.” Notice they have not burned— but rather defiled— it to the ground. “He commends the temple for the costly matter [the blood of the victim], the excellent workmanship and beauty of it, which nonetheless the enemies destroyed.” (Geneva Study Bible) “They said in their hearts, ‘Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.’ They encouraged one another to cruelty, that not only God's people might be destroyed, but also his religion utterly in all places suppressed.” (Geneva Study Bible) “‘We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet; or is there any among us who knows how long.’ The want of the Word, the stopping of the true ministers’ mouths, etc., should touch us to the quick.” (Trapp) They know not the signs of the time. 10 O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever? 11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them. Eternal destruction is here called for. Notice “the very frequent use of the xeg, forever:, Psalms 74:1; Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:10-11.” (E. W. Hengstenberg) ‘1 O God, why have You cast us off forever? ... 3 Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations...’” — “‘Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand?’ Why dost thou keep back the right hand of thy power, hiding it in thy besom? Why not show forth thy power, and consume them, as it were, in a moment? — ‘Out with it from thy bosom, and consume them.’” (Pulpit Commentaries) 12 For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.13  You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. 14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up mighty rivers. 16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. 17 You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter. 18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord, and that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name. 19 Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast! Do not forget the life of Your poor forever. 20 Have respect to the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty. 21 Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed! Let the poor and needy praise Your name. 22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. 23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies; the tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually. “The best thing I can say to my God in Christ, is, what my God hath first said to me. In past experience, the truest and best confidence is found for future exercises. Hence the church reminds God what great things had been done by Him in times past for His people: he alludes to the triumph of Israel over Pharaoh at the Red Sea; and how, in a time of drought in the wilderness, afterward, the Lord caused the rock to give out water to refresh the thirst of the people. Now, saith the prophet, shall not God give the like deliverance to His people at all times, and upon all occasions? Are not all past deliverances so many tokens and pledges of future ones, when needed? But what is meant by the Lord's breaking this leviathan, this monster, Pharaoh's head, and giving him for meat to the people in the wilderness? No doubt, the sense is, that the glorious interposition of the Lord, in a moment of such danger, became as food to the faith of the people upon all after-trials. Whenever the church was brought low, they were to recollect the events of the Red Sea, and feed by faith upon God, and His assured promises in Christ. Reader, do not overlook your personal concern in those sweet scriptures. Did God break the monster's head then, and will he not bruise Satan under your feet shortly now? Did the rock follow Israel, and was that rock Christ? And will not Jesus follow thee, go before thee, and bring thee through every difficulty? Oh! how blessed is it to read the Old Testament saints experiences in a gospel dress, and see our own interest in the whole of them.... READER, behold in this Psalm, the best and strongest arguments for the church to plead in sad times, namely, God's great name, and the security of His own honour in the salvation by Jesus. Let the enemies of the church seem to triumph as they may, with a high hand; and though they but too often derive success to their cause from the unworthiness and backsliding of the Lord's people; yet their triumph is short, and the church's down-falling not long to be continued; God will be gracious for His name's sake, and will make His mighty power to be known. The Lord will have respect unto His covenant: God hath taken His people into covenant relations with Himself; He hath received a ransom for their deliverance, from their glorious Surety; He hath engaged for their salvation; and He will fulfil it. Oh! precious consideration, amidst all the Pharaohs of the present hour, and all the remains of indwelling corruption, under which the people of God groan. Precious Lord Jesus! it was Thou that didst break the head of Leviathan in pieces! It was Thou that didst divide the sea before Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name! It was Thou that didst supply Thy people through all the wilderness dispensation, in cleaving the hard rock, and in drying up mighty waters! Oh! do Thou now, blessed Jesus, perform all that is needful for Thy redeemed: for Thou art the same Jesus yesterday, and today, and forever. Break down, and break through, all the power of the enemy, and make Thy people more than conquerors, through Thy grace helping them. Be Thou, Lord, the all in all to them in every situation and circumstance; for then Thy poor and Thy needy will never go away ashamed, but will sing aloud praises to Thy name.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)