Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 74

Why have ... —Better, why have you never ceased abandoning us?

Anger. —Literally, nostril, as in Psalm 18:8, there went a smoke from his nostril.

The sheep of your pasture. —An expression peculiar to the Asaphic psalms and Jeremiah 23:1.

Purchased. —Or, as in the LXX, acquired. This word, together with the word "redeemed" in the next clause, and "right hand" in Psalm 74:11, shows that Exodus 15 was in the writer’s mind. (See especially Psalm 74:12-13 and Psalm 74:16 of that chapter.)

The word "congregation" here, as in the Mosaic books, presents the people in its religious aspect, as the expression the rod (or, tribe) of thine inheritance presents it in its political character.

The rod of ... —Better, which you have redeemed as the tribe of your inheritance, that is, as your own tribe.

The expression, rod of thine inheritance, comes from Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19. (Compare 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).

Lift up your feet. —Better, Lift your 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” also occurs in Psalms 73:18, where it is rendered “destruction.” Here, perhaps, we should render it as ruins which must be forever 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 has devastated all in the holy place. 1 Maccabees 1:38-40 and 1 Maccabees 3:45 (Now 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.

Thine enemies ... —As the text stands, understand it as: Thine enemies have roared in the midst of thine assembly, but many manuscripts have the plural, as in Psalms 74:8 (see the Note there for the meaning of the word).

For “roared,” see Psalms 22:1, Note, and compare 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 around 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.

The Authorized Version, with the ancient versions, has entirely mistaken the meaning of this verse, though, unlike the Septuagint and Vulgate, it has the merit of being intelligible. Literally the words read, he (or it) is known like one causing to come in on high against the thicket of trees axes, which is generally understood as, it seems as if men were lifting up axes against a thicket of trees.

The ruthless destroyers go to work like woodcutters in a forest—the carved pillars are no more than so many trees to fell. But though this is intelligible, it does not read like Hebrew, and the contrast apparently intended between the signs of the heathen and the signs of Israel in Psalms 74:9 is not preserved. If, with the Septuagint, we read the verb in the plural, are known instead of is known, and supply the subject from the last clause, this contrast is clearly brought out:

They have set up their idols as signs,
They (these signs) are known in the lifting up on high.

These visible idols are easily seen and recognised as soon as set up, but (Psalms 74:9) we see not our signs.

According as ... —We now, as so frequently, have to supply the sign of comparison, and this clause with the next verse reads plainly enough—

As in a thicket of trees with axes,
So now they break down all the carved work thereof with
axes and hammers.

The “carved work” of Solomon’s Temple represented palm-trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:29), and possibly these were imitated in the second Temple; if so, the image is very appropriate.