Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 74
The lxxiv. PSALM.
The Psalmist lamenteth the woful declentions of the flourishing estate of the Kingdom and Church of Iudah, by the desolations and captivation of that nation probably by the Babylonians or Caldees for to those times most of those particulars in the Psalm seem to point. All which are very pathetically deplored, and affectionatly expostulated with God, not onelyonly in their behalf, but also in his own, in respect of as well the blasphemies as the cruelties of the enemie; inter-weaving prayers inforced with those arguments both for their restauration, Gods own vindication, and their enemies confusion.
Psalm lxxiv. Maschil of (or, for) Asaph.A Psalm to mind God of his peoples distress and his own dishonour, made either prophetically by David, and so committed to Asaph, or by Asaph himself, or committed to those of his course that bare his name after him by some other man of God that made it upon the captivitie, which is the most probable.
1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy past…?1 O God, why hast thou brought us into such a state, as seems to be an utter dereliction of us, for length of time and immeasurableness of miserie, why is thy displeasure so hot; and thy favour so clouded against the people of thine own chusing to worship thee, and special providing for? doubtless its very strange, and causeth very great thoughts of heart.
2Remember the congregation which thou hast purchased of old: the rod of thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed, this mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt.2 Be not unmindful (though thou seemest so) of thy peculiar people which thou didst redeem out of their Egyptian thraldom long ago, nor of the land which thou didst allot for their portion, so as to let it be inhabited again by the nations whom thou hast cast out, and destroyed for their sakes, or such like; but remember graciously what thou hast promised and undertaken concerning them to make it good, and particularly the Citie Jerusalem, and in it Sion the habitation of thine Ark, the pledge of thy presence, be evermore propitious to it.
3Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations: even all that the enemie hath done wickedly in the sanctuarie.3 Lord make hast to destroy utterly those enemies that have made cruel havock of thy people, spoiled the land and prophaned thy worship.
4 O the Lion-like cruelties that are executed upon thy people by the Gentils,4Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs. those enemies of thine and theirs, murdering them in the very Temple and Synagogues in scorn and hatred of thine holy assemblies, offering all manner of despightful insolencies to thy worship and worshippers, destroying both them and all the holy things thereof, they even crie victoria against God himself, and brave thee to thy face by advancing the monuments of their Idolatrie in the places of thy worship, and fixing their displayed ensigns on the top of all thy Temple, proudly triumphing over thee as vanquished by them, and unable to defend either thy worship or people against them, to thine unspeakable dishonour.
5 Lord how are things changed,5A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. the time was when happie was he that could contribute most and readiest assistance to the erecting and beautifying of thy temple, when no pains nor cost was spared.
6 But now the heathen that are victors,6But now they break down the carved work thereof at once, with axes and hammers. and have broken in upon us, take as much felicitie to demolish it as ever thy people did to erect it, plundering it of all its treasure and rich utensils, and every one putting to his helping hand, have regardlesly to the beautie and holiness of such a place, defaced all the curious workmanship thereof with militarie violence, and noise of axes and hammers, that was erected without any, and in a moment, have they utterly defaced that which was so many years in building and beautifying.
7 And not satisfied with the demolishings and defacings of so glorious a structure,7They have cast fire into thy sanctuarie, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground. the better to perfect their malice upon it, and to bring dishonour to thy name, and root out thy worship, they have burnt it down to the ground, all the wayes they could devise have they abased and annihilated it.
8They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the land.8 It is a fearful thing to tell what havock they have made, and with what minds they did it; every one, one as forward as another, nay each one striving who could exceed his fellow▪ each emulating and imitating other, in doing most mischief and making quickest work; threatening thunder-bolts, and thinking on nothing but how to multiply and perfect the destruction of thy people, without exception of age, sex or degree, and encrease the devastations of the land; especially of the Temple and Synagogues, which because they more immediatly concerned thee and thy worship, have they the more elaboratly destroyed them every where, none escaping; and to make the surer work have done it with fire.
9We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet: neither is there any among us that knoweth how long.9 O what a sad condition are we in under such woful pressures by raging enemies! and at the same time utterly benighted as to thee-ward, no testimonies at all of thy favour towards us, or presence with us, are now remaining; all such signs have quite left us, neither know we whither to go, nor how to do to enquire of thee as formerly our predecessours were wont to do in straits, never age nor miserie was like to this, since thy people were a people, for we have not so much as one prophet (that were wont to have whole schools of them) nor prophetess in all the whole land, who can either instruct us what to do to reconcile our selves to thee, nor how long it will be before thou beest reconciled, and thy favour renewed to us, as it was ever heretofore wont to be after some short space.
10 O God find out a way to let us know the end of our miseries,10O God, how long shall the adversarie reproch? shall the enemie blaspheme thy name for ever? and the rather for the disgrace thou sufferest the whilest, for thine honour lies in the dust, as well as we; through our sides thou art wounded, and divided, as if thou also wert conquered, and that thou canst not deliver nor restore us now as heretofore, though thou hast been too hard for our enemies, yet now they are too hard for thee, thus thine omnipotencie is impeached, and thou scorned, as a God that art not able to succour and befriend thy people. Let the consideration hereof move thee.
11 Lord,11Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom. why doest thou suffer thy self thus to be dishonoured, and thy people thus to be destroyed? heretofore thou wast alwayes wont to appear for them upon less occasions, and powerfully to preserve them, and to be jealous for thy worship; and Lord, why art thou not so now, why doest thou not put forth thy power, and magnifie thy grace now as then, Good Lord be intreated to do so, who canst if thou wilt.
12 For Lord thou knowest how thou hast ever been related to us and we to thee above all the World,12For God is my King of old: working salvation in the midst of the earth. as King and people, and what remarkable protection and great deliverances both before and since we were planted in Canaan, thou hast vouchsafed us answerable to such relations, in the sight and to the admiration of all both far and near, upholding us thus long a people to thee in the navel of the earth, in despight of all the enmitie and combinations that have been against us round about.
We have not forgotten,13Thou didst divide the Sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. and we pray thee also to remember it, what thou didst for us when thou broughtest us thitherward out of Egypt, how thou miraculously made the sea drie-land for us to pass through, and by thine Almightie power madest the water to stand like walls on our right hand and on our left, till we were safely landed on the other side, and till the whole Host of the Egyptians in pursuit of us, was ingaged and ensnared in the deep, and then thou causedst the waters to come together again, and so destroyedst that bloud-thirstie and mightie armie in their own element, even the Egyptians by inundation of water, that are a nation above all the World blessed and preserved by it, and as it were bred and born in it like the Crocodile in Nilus.
14Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.14 Even Pharaoh himself and all his armie utterly perished there, whose countrey of Egypt by the mightie over-flowings of that famous river, is as it were a Sea, and he the whale and master-fish therein, even he with all his host was drowned in the red-sea, where whale-like he purposed to have devoured the whole Host of Israel, and cast up on that side towards the wilderness, where thy people were safe on shore, to be a prey to them and provision for them of many necessaries in that their journey towards Canaan through the wilderness, chiefly for their faith, to feed upon in all their after-straits and necessities, and their carcasses to be devoured by wild beasts and ravenous birds.
15Thou didst cleave the fountain and the floud: thou driedst up mightie rivers.15 Thou then wast pleased to work wonders every way for us, as well for our preservation against extremities of nature, hunger and cold, as from our enemies. Insomuch, as when thy people Israel extreamly provoked thee, yet wast thou gracious to them, and in their distress didst cleave the rock in Horeb, and after that too, and madest thence to flow sweet and plentiful streams for their refreshing, and supply of them and their cattel, and when they were to possess the promised land, thou didst make way through Jordan even then when it overflowed all its banks, for their entering into Canaan as thou didst before at the red-sea for their comming out of Aegypt, that is, madest it drie land for them to pass.
16, 17 Thou canst do but what thou wilt,16The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun. there are no bounds to thy power but thy will. Thou that rulest all times, and in all places, ordeining and ordering day and night,17Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. sun, and moon, and stars in the heavens above, and hath scituated the earth, and the several climates thereof so as they are, accommodating it, and the inhabitants thereof with meet and fruitful seasons of summer and winter.
18 Thou,18Remember this, that the enemy hath reproched, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. art the God whom we worship above all the World, thou that art thus Almightie, whilst our enemies worship stocks and stones; and yet they triumphing in their success reproch us with thee even with thee, O Lord, and this heathenish Idolatrous nation magnifie their Gods above thee, because they are now above us, saying, thou didst not, because thou couldest not, deliver us, and so blaspheme thine omnipotencie, and nullifie thy very essence and being: Now, O Lord, as thou art severe to punish us, so forget not we pray thee to vindicate thine honour, and to plague them answerably to the greatness of their provocations.
19 Resume thy goodness toward us.19O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked, forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. Thou hast but one spouse, one nation and people in all the World that by contract are married to thee, do not thou, O Lord, so far obdurate thy self against this wife of thy bosom, thine helpless and harmless Israel to expose her to a barbarous prophane nation to be preyed upon and devoured, as a Turtle by a Hawk, or a Lamb by a Wolf, but work their deliverance, and restauration, and forget not thy poor distressed and captived people, to leave them in that estate for ever.
20Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of crueltie.20 But remember and fulfill the obligations of grace, thou boundest thy self in to our forefathers thy friends and servants, how thou wouldest be their God, and the God of their seed after them to bless them, which we are, even we that are now led captive out of the land of the living God, into the dark corners of the world amongst a people that know not the Lord; and that have as little true humanity as divinity, for, for thy sake, because, we belong to thee and worship thee, whom they neither know nor serve, are we used with all manner of barbarism and cruelty by them.
21O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.21 O let not no more now, then heretofore in Egypt, the pressures of thy people go unpunished, but magnifie thy power in our wonderfull deliverances and our enemies confusion, that for thy sake have reproached us. Let us find thou art a God that hearest prayer, and fulfillest the desire of thy poor necessitated people, as well now as then, that as they, so we for our remarkable return to Canaan, may praise and magnifie thy power and greatness.
22Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reprocheth thee dayly.22 So much vilified by these heathenish wretches, if not for our sufferings yet for thine own, which we cannot chuse but lay to heart, however thou doest by us, O God, be intreated to vindicate thy self upon this prophane nation, that foolishly judging by success, magnifie themselves and their Gods, above us and ours, dayly hitting us in the teeth with thee.
23 We must needs put thee in mind again and again,23Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually. and ease our minds in opening our hearts and uttering our complaints unto thee, concerning what (to our unsupportable grief) we dayly see and hear from our enemies, how they roar it out against thee, the uncontrolable outragious carriage of those that have invaded and conquered us (and thee also as they think) by thy forbearance to punish them, and thy severitie to us, grows continually worse and worse. Lord take notice of it to plague them for it.