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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 74:1-11

1-11 This psalm appears to describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans. The deplorable case of the people of God, at the time, is spread before the Lord, and left with him. They plead the great things God had done for them. If the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was encouragement to hope that he would not cast them off, much more reason have we to believe, that God will not cast off any whom Christ has redeemed with his own blood. Infidels and persecutors may... read more

Paul E. Kretzmann

The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann - Psalms 74:1-23

Prayer for the Preservation of the Church. Maschil, a didactic poem, of Asaph, a prophetic psalm, foretelling some of the afflictions which would befall the Church of God, in the Old Testament as well as in the New. v. 1. O God, why hast Thou cast us off forever? this being the conclusion reached by the psalmist in considering the condition of the spiritual Israel as he saw it in spirit. Why doth Thine anger smoke, the smoking of the nostrils as with an inner fire being the picture... read more

Johann Peter Lange

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical - Psalms 74:1-23

Psalms 74:0Maschil of Asaph1          O God, why hast thou cast us off forever?Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?2     Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old;The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed;This mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.3     Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations;Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.4     Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their... read more

Frederick Brotherton Meyer

F.B. Meyer's 'Through the Bible' Commentary - Psalms 74:1-11

the Sanctuary of God Profaned Psalms 74:1-11 This psalm probably dates from the time when the Chaldeans destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. Compare Psalms 74:8 with Jeremiah 3:13-17 . The main emphasis of Psalms 74:1 lies in the argument which arose from Israel’s close relationship with God. Were they not His congregation! Was not the Temple His own chosen sanctuary? Did not these facts constitute the reason why He should come with swift footsteps to undo the evils that their... read more

G. Campbell Morgan

G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible - Psalms 74:1-23

This is a great complaint, but it is a complaint of faith. Hardly a gleam of light is found throughout. The singer sits in the midst of national desolation and pours out his soul to God in passionate appeal for His help, and protest against His silence and inactivity. This is not the son of an atheist, but the wail of a believer. He has a past experience of God's power and a present conviction thereof. The signs of that power are in day and night, in summer and winter. The one place from which... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 74:1-23

LXXIV. The date may be fixed with certainty and that within narrow limits. The Jews are suffering extreme distress, but apparently by no fault of their own, for there is no confession of sin. The persecution is a religious one, since we are told repeatedly ( Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:18; Psalms 74:22) that their foes blaspheme God. Synagogues, unknown in pre-exilic times, exist throughout the land. Calamities, to some extent similar, existed in 586 B.C. when the Babylonians took Jerusalem and... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Psalms 74:5

So the meaning 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 translation may seem to be favoured by the opposition in the next verse, But now, &c. But others understand the words thus translated in another sense, that every one of the enemies got renown accordingly as they showed most barbarous rage in destroying the thick wood work (which... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Psalms 74:6

See Poole "Psalms 74:5". Axes and hammers: it hath been ingeniously observed that these two words 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. read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Psalms 74:7

First they polluted it, and then they burnt it, and broke it in pieces. read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Psalms 74:1-23

INTRODUCTIONSuperscription.—“A Maschil of Asaph,” i.e., an Instruction of Asaph, a Didactic Song by Asaph. See introduction to Psalms 1:0.“But here we cannot have the least idea of the authorship belonging to David’s time. We must not, however, on this account convict the title of a mistake: for just in proportion as the contents are decidedly and manifestly inconsistent with David’s age, was it unlikely that the title would announce that the Psalm was composed at that time. Asaph was the... read more

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