Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 74:2

"Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; [And] mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt." — Psalms 74:2 (ASV)

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).