John Calvin Commentary Psalms 74:4

"Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs." — Psalms 74:4 (ASV)

Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your sanctuaries. Here the people of God compare their enemies to lions (Amos 3:8) to point out the cruelty which they exercised even in the very sanctuaries of God. In this passage, we are to understand the temple of Jerusalem as being spoken of rather than the Jewish synagogues. Nor is it any objection to this interpretation that the temple is here called in the plural number sanctuaries, as is frequently the case in other places, since it was so called because it was divided into three parts.

If any, however, think it preferable to consider synagogues as intended, I would not dispute the point. Indeed, without any impropriety, it may be extended to the whole land, which God had consecrated to Himself. But the language is much more emphatic when we consider the temple as meant. It thus intimates that the rage of the enemy was so unbounded and indiscriminate that they did not even spare the temple of God.

When it is said, They have set up their signs, this serves to show their insulting and contemptuous conduct: in erecting their standards, they proudly triumphed even over God Himself. Some explain this as referring to magical divinations, even as Ezekiel testifies (Ezekiel 21:21, 22) that Nebuchadnezzar sought counsel from the flight and the voice of birds; but this sense is too restricted.

The explanation I have given may be viewed as very suitable. Whoever entered the Holy Land knew that the worship of God which flourished there was of a special character, and different from that which was performed in any other part of the world: the temple was a token of the presence of God, and by it He seemed, as if with banners displayed, to hold that people under His authority and dominion.

With these symbols, which distinguished the chosen tribes from the heathen nations, the prophet here contrasts the sacrilegious standards which their enemies had brought into the temple. By repeating the word signs twice, he means to emphasize the abominable nature of their act; for, having thrown down the tokens and ensigns of the true service of God, they set up strange symbols in their place.