Ps. 74:0 i.e. Composed by Asaph; either, 1. By that famous Asaph who flourished in David’s time, and by the Spirit of God foresaw and foretold the things here mentioned.

Why hast thou cast us of for ever, so as to leave us no visible hopes of restitution? Thine anger; or, thy nose; a metaphor from a man who in a great rage sends forth fumes out of his nostrils. Against the sheep of thy pasture; against thy chosen and peculiar people.

Remember; show by thine actions that thou hast not utterly forgotten and forsaken them. Thy congregation; thy church or people. Purchased; or, redeemed, as it follows; or, bought, as it is Deut. 32:6; or, procured, though without price, as this word is used, Ruth 4:9–10.

Lift up thy feet, i.e. come speedily for our rescue, and do not sit or stand still, as hitherto thou seemest to do. Unto the perpetual desolations; or rather, because of (as this prefix oft signifies) the perpetual desolations.

Roar, i.e. make loud outcries; either from their rage and fury against the conquered and captivated Israelites now in their power; or rather, in way of triumph for their success and victory.

So the meaning is this, The temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great honour to any man to be employed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the trees of Lebanon. And this translation may seem to be favoured by the opposition in the next verse, But now, &c.

See Poole “Ps. 74:5”. Axes and hammers: it hath been ingeniously observed that these two words are not Hebrew, but Chaldee or Syriac words, to point out the time when this was done, even when the Chaldeans brought in their language together with their arms among the Israelites.

First they polluted it, and then they burnt it, and broke it in pieces.

Destroy them together, root and branch, one as well as another, or all at once. So they desired, and many of them intended, although afterwards, it seems, they changed their counsel, and carried some away captives, and left others to manage the land. All the synagogues of God in the land, i.e.

Our signs, i.e. those tokens of God’s gracious presence which we and our ancestors formerly used to enjoy; either, 1. Miracles wrought for us, which are called signs, Ps. 78:43, Ps. 135:9. Or, 2.

Reproach; understand here thy name, which is expressed in the next clause of the verse, by saying that thou art either unkind to thy people, or unfaithful in thy covenant, or unable to deliver thine out of their miseries.

Why withdrawest thou thy hand? why dost thou suspend or forbear the exercise of that power, which thou hast so oft put forth on the behalf of thy people? Pluck it out of thy bosom, in which thou now seemest to hide it, as idle persons use to do, Prov. 19:24, Prov. 26:15.

My King, in a singular manner: it belongs therefore to thine office to protect and save me. In the midst of the earth; in the view of the world; so saving thy people so eminently and gloriously, that all people round about them observed and admired it.

The dragons; or, the crocodiles. He means Pharaoh and all his mighty men, who were like these beasts in strength and cruelty. The waters, to wit, of the sea, where they were drowned.

The heads, i.e. the head; called heads, partly for the greatness of this beast, as that great monster is called beasts, Job 40:20, for the same reason; and partly for the several heads or princes who were and acted under his influence. Leviathan; Pharaoh.

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood, i.e. thou didst by cleaving the rock make a fountain in it, and a flood or stream to flow from it, for the refreshment of thy people in those dry deserts. The phrase is like that Isa. 47:2, grind meal, i.e. by grinding the corn make meal.

It is not strange nor incredible that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work.

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast fixed the bounds, both of the habitable world in general; so as the seas, though they do encompass and assault them, yet they shall never be able to remove them; and of all the countries and people upon earth, whom thou hast confined to such…

Though we deserve to be forgotten and destroyed, yet remember thyself, and do not suffer thine and our enemies to reproach and blaspheme the name of that great and glorious God, the Creator and sovereign Lord of the whole world, whom they ought always to reverence and adore.

The soul, i.e. the life. Thou hast delivered thy people into captivity; do not deliver them to death, nor suffer their enemies utterly to destroy them. Of thy turtle-dove, i.e.

Have respect unto the covenant made with Abraham, whereby thou didst give the land of Canaan to him, and to his seed for ever; and thou didst further promise, that if thy people were carried captive into strange lands and did there humble themselves, and pray and turn unto thee, thou wouldst…

Return ashamed from thee, and from the throne of thy grace, to which they make their resort in this their distressed condition.

Plead thine own cause; maintain thy honour, and worship, and service against those that reproach thee, as it here follows, and was noted before, Ps. 74:10, Ps. 74:18. As we are reviled and persecuted for thy sake, so thou art injured in all our wrongs.

The voice; their insulting and reproachful expressions against time, as well as against us. The tumult, i.e. the tumultuous noise of the loud clamours. Increaseth, Heb. ascendeth, to wit, into heaven, being either directed thither by them; their mouth being set against heaven, as theirs was, Ps.