Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 74:9

"We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long." — Psalms 74:9 (ASV)

We see not our signs ... —It is natural to take this statement in direct contrast to what Psalm 74:4 (see Note) says of the heathen signs. While these abominations—rallying points of savage profanity—were visibly set up, the tokens of the invisible God’s presence, His wonders worked for Israel, are no longer seen.

There is no longer any prophet. —This was the constant lament of the Maccabean period , and suits no earlier time—at least none into which the rest of the psalm would fit. During the exile period Jeremiah and Ezekiel were prophesying, and the complaint took quite a different form then and probably for some time afterwards (Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:26). The full desolation of the situation is told in “Song of the Three Children,”Psalms 74:15: “Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before Thee or find mercy.”

Neither is there among us any that knows how long. —This, too, takes us beyond the time of Jeremiah, who had given an exact date for the termination of the exile. Probably (if the arrangement of the words is right) we have here another expression of a widespread feeling—a feeling that inspired the apocalyptic literature, which partly aimed to answer this question: how long?

However, it has been suggested, as more in the Hebrew style, to end the clause with the word know and make it directly parallel with the preceding (“there is neither a prophet nor one who knows”). This would carry the interrogative to the next verse, where its repetition would add much to the force of the question posed there. (Burgess.)