Psalms 74:1 - Meaning and Application

This psalm is called a Maschil, which means a psalm meant to teach. It was written in a time of trouble, and trouble itself is often meant to teach us. The main lesson is this: when we are in distress, for any reason, our wisdom and duty is to turn to God in faithful, earnest prayer. We will not find that prayer is wasted.

The people of God here complain about three things. First, they lament God’s displeasure, because they see it as the root and bitterness of all their troubles. They look beyond the people who hurt them, since they know those people could do nothing unless God allowed it. So they keep their eyes on God, who had, by his wise purpose, handed them over to cruel and unreasonable men.

They speak boldly to God in Psalm 74:1, though not beyond what is proper. Even Christ, hanging on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” So the church says here, “O God, why have you cast us off forever?” These words come from their dark and painful feelings at the moment. Still, we must remember, “Has God rejected his people? By no means” (Romans 11:1). God’s people must not think that because they are cast down, they are therefore cast off.

The church is more troubled by the thought of being rejected by God than by any suffering from men. They want God to own them, whatever else happens. They also want to know why he is angry. “Why does your anger smoke?” means, why has it risen so high that everyone can see it, as in (Deuteronomy 29:24)? Compare this with Psalm 74:20, where God’s anger and jealousy are said to smoke against sinners.

They then plead with God on three grounds. First, they plead their relation to him. “We are the sheep of your pasture,” meaning his own people, set apart for his glory. Wolves may attack sheep, but would a shepherd be angry with his own sheep? They also say, “Remember your congregation” (Psalm 74:2), meaning the people he formed for himself. They are also “the tribe of your inheritance,” the people he claimed as his own in a special way (Deuteronomy 32:9). And they appeal to Mount Zion, the place where God chose to dwell and take special delight.

Second, they plead the great things God had already done for them, and the great cost he had borne for them. “It is your congregation, which you made and bought long ago by many acts of mercy, when you first formed us into a people. It is your inheritance, which you redeemed when we were slaves.” God gave Egypt over to ruin for their ransom. He gave nations for them, and peoples for their life (Isaiah 43:3, 4). So they ask, will you now abandon a people that cost you so much and has been so dear to you?

If Israel’s rescue from Egypt gave reason to hope God would not cast them off, we have even stronger reason to hope that he will never cast off those whom Christ has redeemed with his own blood. Those he has purchased will be his people forever, and they will be the people who praise him.

Third, they plead the sad condition they are in. “Lift up your feet” means, come quickly and repair the ruins in your sanctuary before they become permanent and beyond repair (Psalm 74:3). God’s judgment may strike like iron hands, but it seems to move with leaden feet. So those who wait for the day of the Lord cry, “Lord, come quickly. Make your power known in your providence.”

When the sanctuary has been ruined for a long time, we are tempted to think the damage will never be healed. But that is only a temptation. God will defend his own people, and he will do it speedily, though he may patiently bear with their enemies for a time.

Second, they complain about the violence and cruelty of their enemies. They do not speak much, or at all, about the harm done to their worldly interests. They do not dwell on burned cities or a ravaged country. Their grief is for the sanctuary and the congregation. Matters of religion should weigh on our hearts more than anything earthly. The ruin of God’s house should grieve us more than the ruin of our own homes. After all, it does not matter much what happens to us and our families in this world, if God’s name is honored, his kingdom comes, and his will is done.

The psalmist complains especially about the desolation of the sanctuary, as Daniel did (Daniel 9:17). The temple in Jerusalem was the place where God’s name dwelt, and so it was the holy place, the sanctuary (Psalm 74:7). The enemies acted wickedly in destroying it, because they did it in open contempt of God.

They “roared in the midst of your congregations” (Psalm 74:4). In the place where God’s people had gathered in humble reverence, the enemies behaved like drunken revelers. They were proud that they had seized that sanctuary, about which they had once heard terrible things.

They also “set up their banners for signs.” They planted the flags of their army in the temple, which had been Israel’s strongest defense as long as they stayed close to God. Where the signs of God’s presence had once stood, the enemy now displayed its own marks of victory. This bold challenge to God and his power deeply wounded his people.

They even boasted in tearing down the carved work of the temple. In earlier days, men had thought it an honor to help build the temple, and a man was respected for helping cut the timber for it. Now the enemies took pride in helping destroy it (Psalm 74:5, 6). In the past, those who served religion were praised as wise men. Now, those who help tear it down are applauded as clever.

Some read the sense this way: they behaved like men swinging axes high in a thick forest. They tore down the temple’s carved work without any more concern than woodcutters have when they chop trees in the woods. Their hatred for the sanctuary was so strong that they smashed its finest carving, even though it was dedicated to God and beautiful in its workmanship.

They set fire to the sanctuary, and so ruined it completely, down to the ground (Psalm 74:7). The Chaldeans, the Babylonian army, burned the house of God, that grand and costly building (2 Chronicles 36:19). Later, the Romans left not one stone on another (Matthew 24:2), tearing it down until Zion, the holy mountain, was, by Titus Vespasian, plowed like a field.

The psalmist also grieves over the ruin of the synagogues, or schools of the prophets, which were used before the captivity and even more afterward. There God’s word was read and explained, and his name was praised and called on, without altars or sacrifices. The enemies hated these places too (Psalm 74:8): “Let us destroy them together.” They meant not only the temple, but every place of worship and all who worshiped there. So they burned all the synagogues of God in the land and laid them waste.

Their rage against religion was so great that they pulled down every religious house simply because it was devoted to God. They wanted God’s worshipers to have no place to meet, no chance to honor God together, and no way to help one another by gathering in holy assemblies. This made the trouble even worse, because there was no hope of relief and no sign that the suffering would end soon (Psalm 74:9). They saw the enemy’s sign in the sanctuary, but they could not see their own signs, meaning no tokens of God’s presence and no encouraging signs of deliverance. There was no prophet left to tell them how long the trouble would last.

In Babylon, they had prophets, and they had been told how long the captivity would last. But now the day was dark and cloudy (Ezekiel 34:12), and they did not yet enjoy those comforting words. God had spoken, yes, even twice, with good and comforting words, but they did not recognize them. Notice that they do not complain mainly about missing soldiers or commanders. Their sorrow is that there is no prophet to tell them how long this will continue.

This leads them to ask God why he seems to delay, first in defending his own honor (Psalm 74:10). “How long,” they ask, “will the enemy keep mocking and blaspheming your name?” In the ruin of the sanctuary, their main concern should be God’s glory, so that his name is not dishonored by the insults of those who persecute his people for his sake. Their question is not only, “How long will we suffer?” but also, “How long will God be blasphemed?”

They also ask why God seems to hold back his power (Psalm 74:11). “Why do you keep your hand back, and do not stretch it out to save your people and destroy your enemies?” They pray that he would draw it out from his bosom and not act like a stunned man, or like a mighty man who cannot save, or will not save (Jeremiah 14:9). When the power of enemies looks most threatening, it is a comfort to turn to the power of God.