Introduction
Psalm 74 is a lamentation in which the psalmist cries out to the Lord because of the trouble God’s people are facing. The title says it’s a ‘maskil of Asaph’. The previous psalm was also a psalm of Asaph, who was appointed by David along with others to provide the music for the worship of God in the tabernacle and temple. Since the psalm appears to be about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar, then it’s perhaps likely that the psalm was written, not by the original Asaph, but by one of his descendants.
The little footnote in the NIV beside the word maskil suggests that it’s a literary or musical term. It perhaps comes from a Hebrew word which means ‘to be wise’ or ‘to instruct’. In fact, the Greek version of the Old Testament refers to this psalm as a psalm of instruction. And that fits, because the psalmist is teaching us what to do in times of trouble. What should we do in times of trouble? We should call on the Lord who does great things; and who has bound himself to his people with a promise to be our God and to rescue us.
Verses 1 to 11
The first part of the psalm, which is verses 1 to 11, begins and ends with the question, ‘Why?’: ‘Why have you rejected us for ever, O God?’ and ‘Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?’ It seems to the psalmist that God has rejected his people. And it seems to him that God has rejected them, not just for a little while, but forever. It seems that God has abandoned them completely and that his anger is smouldering against them.
And that is puzzling him, because they are, after all, the sheep of his pasture. God is their shepherd; they are his sheep. And just as a shepherd protects and provides for his sheep, so the psalmist expects the Lord to protect and provide for them. And so, why has he not done so? Why has he abandoned them? Surely the Lord is not like the hired hand who runs away at the first sign of trouble. Surely the Lord is a good and faithful shepherd.
In verse 2, he asks the Lord to remember the people and Mount Zion. He purchased and redeemed the people — that is, he delivered them from their captivity — when he brought them out of Egypt in the days of Moses. And he chose Jerusalem on Mount Zion as the place where he would dwell among his people. So, instead of abandoning your people and Jerusalem, remember us: remember that we are your people; remember that Jerusalem on Mount Zion is your dwelling place.
And then, in verses 3 to 8, we discover what has happened to make him think that God has rejected them. He refers in verse 3 to ruins and to enemies who have brought destruction on the sanctuary. That is, enemies have destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. God’s foes have roared like wild animals in the place where God used to meet with his people. And they have set up their standards as signs. Presumably they set up their flag in the temple as a sign that they had conquered Jerusalem and had overcome Israel’s God. And, according to verses 5 and 6, they have destroyed the timber panelling in the temple as woodsmen might cut down a forest with their axes. And they have burned the sanctuary to the ground and defiled God’s holy dwelling-place. And according to verse 8, they have not only destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, but they destroyed every other place of worship throughout the land.
The commentators discuss what event the psalmist is describing. We read in 1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12 of a time when a king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and robbed the temple of its treasures. That was in the days of King Rehoboam. However, the description of burning the temple to the ground better fits the time when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and took the Israelites away into exile.
In verse 9 the psalmist complains that the people were given no miraculous signs. In other words, God has not given them a sign to reassure them. And there are no prophets left to tell them how long their suffering will last. We know from elsewhere in the Bible that God revealed through Jeremiah that their captivity in Babylon would last 70 years. But presumably God had not yet announced that when this psalm was written. In any case, the psalmist is depicting how it seems to them that God has completely abandoned them. In the face of disaster, God has been silent.
And then we discover in verse 10 that the thing that concerns the psalmist most of all is that their enemies are dishonouring God’s holy name. They are mocking the Lord and reviling his name. And so, how long will you let them do that? How long will you let them treat your name with contempt? And why won’t you take your hands out of your pockets and do something to defend your holy name?
Verses 12 to 17
Having appealed to the Lord in verses 12 to 17, he reminds himself in verses 12 to 17 of God’s mighty acts in the past. And he reminds himself of God’s mighty acts in the past in order to reassure himself about the future: God is able to save us and he’s able to defend his own honour, because look what he did in the past.
And you can’t help noticing that the word ‘you’ is repeated throughout this part of the psalm. You, O God, are my king from of old. You bring salvation. It was you who split open the sea. You broke the heads of the monster. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan. It was you who opened up springs and streams. You dried up the ever-flowing rivers. The day and night are yours. You established the sun and the moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth. You made both summer and winter. Who was it who did all these things? It was you, O God.
The psalmist refers to the time of the Exodus, when God opened up a way for the Israelites through the Red Sea. When he refers to monsters in the sea and to the Leviathan, he seems to be using mythological language to describe how the Lord conquered the might of Egypt. When he refers in verse 15 to God opening up springs and streams, he’s referring to the way God gave water to the people in the wilderness. And when he says God dried up the ever-flowing rivers, he’s referring to the way God brought the people through the River Jordan.
And having referred in verses 12 to 15 to God’s mighty acts to save his people in the days of Moses, he goes on in verses 16 and 17 to refer to God’s mighty acts to create the world in the beginning. And so, he created the day and night and the sun and the moon. He set all the boundaries of the earth. In other words, he established order in the world so that one season follows another season regularly.
The psalmist is praising God for his mighty acts in the past: God is the one who made all things in the beginning; and God is the one who acted in a mighty way when he delivered his people from their captivity in Egypt. And since he was able to do that in the past, then he’s able to save them from what they were suffering in the present; and he’s able to defend the honour of his name against those who do not believe.
Verses 18 to 23
In verses 18 to 23, he prays for God to act. He asks the Lord to remember how the enemy has mocked and reviled God. When he refers to God’s dove in verse 19, he’s referring to God’s people who are as weak and vulnerable as a dove. And he’s asking God not to hand them over to their enemies, who are like wild animals. And don’t forget the lives of your afflicted people.
And in verse 20 he asks the Lord to have regard to the covenant. He’s referring to the covenant which God established with his people at Mount Sinai when he promised to treat them as his treasured possession. And that means the psalmist is asking the Lord to remember his promise to protect them. The people of Israel were not strangers to God, because God had bound himself to them with a promise to take care of them always. In that case, don’t let your oppressed people retreat in disgrace. Instead, give your poor and needy people a reason to praise you in the present.
The psalmist then asks God to rise up from his throne in heaven and to defend his cause. That is to say, he wants God to defend his reputation and the glory of his name. You see, if Israel’s enemies triumphed over Israel, then they would conclude that their god is greater than Israel’s God. And so, for the sake of your own name, for the sake of your reputation, demonstrate to the world that you are the one, true and living God who reigns over all on behalf of your people. God’s reputation was bound up with the well-being of his people.
Application
Let me go back to the covenant which the psalmist mentions in verse 20. This is the covenant which God made with his people in the days of Moses at Mount Sinai. And it’s related to the one covenant of grace by which God promises us life and salvation by his Son, Jesus Christ. All of these biblical covenants speak to us of God’s commitment to his people.
And though the psalmist did not yet know it, because of God’s covenant commitment to his people, he would rescue them from their captivity in Babylon in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; and he would enable his people to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. And then, when the time was right, and because of God’s covenant commitment to his people, he would send his Only Begotten Son into the world to rescue us from our sin and misery in this life and in the next by giving up his life as the ransom to pay for our sins and by rising from the dead to give us eternal life. And then, because of God’s covenant commitment to his people, he will send his Son into the world a second time to rescue our bodies from the grave so that we will live with him in body and soul forever and forever.
Because of God’s covenant commitment to his people, sealed in the blood of Christ, we can look forward to perfect peace and rest in the life to come, where there will be no one and nothing to harm us. And though we will still suffer in this life at the hands of those who do not believe, we can look to the Lord to defend us against his enemies and trust in him for the help we need to stand firm. And by defending his people and by enabling us to stand firm, the Lord will also defend his own name, because he makes clear that he is the one, true and living God who reigns over all on behalf of his people and no one and nothing can thwart his plan to give his people eternal life in his presence.
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