John Calvin Commentary Psalms 74:8

"They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." — Psalms 74:8 (ASV)

They have said in their heart, Let us destroy them all together. To express more forcefully the atrocious cruelty of the enemies of the Church, the prophet introduces them speaking together and inciting one another to commit devastation without limit or measure. His language implies that each of them, as if they did not possess enough courage to do mischief, stirred up and stimulated each other to waste and destroy all of God’s people, without leaving even one of them.

At the end of the verse, he asserts that all the synagogues were burned. I readily take the Hebrew word מועדים, moadim, in the sense of synagogues, because he says ALL the sanctuaries, and speaks expressly of the whole land. It is an unconvincing explanation given by some that these enemies, upon finding that they could not harm or do violence to the sanctuary of God in heaven, turned their rage against the material temple or synagogues. The prophet simply complains that they were so intent on blotting out the name of God that they did not leave a single corner that did not bear the mark of the hand of violence.

The Hebrew word מועדים, moadim, is commonly taken for the sanctuary; but when we consider its etymology, it is not inappropriately applied to those places where the holy assemblies were customarily held, not only for reading and expounding the prophets but also for calling upon the name of God. The wicked, as if the prophet had said, have done all in their power to extinguish and annihilate the worship of God in Judea.