Psalm 74 commentary

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,

which by the blasphemous 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

God never did nor 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).

He complains of God’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

the Gentiles. This they 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.

Ver. 1. This Psalm, 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

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.

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

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

(Psalms 74:18-23).
The main emphasis 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

congregation of His people. ‫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).

(3) This power is 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,

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

them by the blood 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

they set before themselves 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

Solomon's peerless temple might well mourn in bitterness, when the Lord allowed
his enemies to make an utter ruin of that matchless edifice.
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.”

Rod of thine inheritance— “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.

Even all that the 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).

CALVI , “3.Lift up 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.
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

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

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;

they set up their 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

such things as were 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

synagogues; nor is it 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.
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

his people (Psalms 74:10), 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

roaring over their prey; 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

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

poet follows the work 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.

BAR ES, “A man 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

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,

made havoc with their 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!
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

Psalm 74 commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to Psalm 74 commentary

Similar to Psalm 74 commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Psalm 74 commentary