Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 74:11

"Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand? [Pluck it] out of thy bosom [and] consume [them]." — Psalms 74:11 (ASV)

Why do you withdraw your hand, even your right hand? — Why do you not stretch out your hand for our deliverance? The hand, especially the right hand, is the instrument by which we wield a sword or strike a blow, and the expression here is equivalent to asking why God did not interfere and save them.

Pluck it out of your bosom. — This is as if God had hidden his hand beneath the folds of his garment or had wrapped his robe tightly around him. It seemed as if he had done this, as if he looked calmly on and saw the temple fired, the synagogues burned up, the land laid waste, and the people slaughtered, without an attempt to interpose. How often are we constrained to use similar language—to ask a similar question—when iniquity abounds, when crime prevails, when sinners are perishing, when the church mourns—for God seems to have withdrawn his hand and to be looking on with unconcern! No one can tell why this is so; and, without irreverence or a spirit of complaining, but deeply affected with the mystery of the fact, we may ask Why this is so.