PSALM LXXIV. This Psalm also is inscribed to Asaph. If that famous Asaph who was co-temporary with king David, it must be viewed as a predictive lamen tation of the calamities inflicted on the Jews, their city and temple, by the Chaldeans. If some other of that name, who lived after the return from Babylon, as some infer from the mention of synagogues, ver. 8. which they suppose did not exist before that period; then the Psalm must be viewed as a narrative of miseries already endured, and a prayer to God for deliverance, and the perfecting of what he had in part wrought. The enemies of Divine truth are the modern Chaldeans, who apply their axes and hammers to the carved work of God's sanctuary. The success of such is a sign that his anger smokes against the sheep of his pasture. In this case, as in the former, his people should have recourse to him by the humble prayer of faith, confessing their sins and luke-warmness, for which they are thus punished; and waiting his time by the patience of hope. In this Psalm the church laments her case as deserted of God, the return of whose favour she intreats, upon the ground that he had redeemed her of old from Egyptian bondage, verses 1, 2. From verse 3d. to the 8th she urges the ravages made by the enemy in the sanctuary, their gross insults to the God of Israel, and violent threats to extirpate his peo-ple. In verses 9-11. She laments that no signs or miracles were wrought for the confirmation of her faith and hope, and no prophet raised up to foretel the duration of her calamities, and ascertain the time of her deliverance..—In verses 11—15. she claims relation to God as her King, and proceeds to enumerate some of the mighty works which he had performed for her in that character. In verses 16, 17. she ascribes to God the vicissitudes of day and night, and of revolving seasons, implying the like order and agency in the moral state of things.-From the 18th verse to the end, the Church fervently prays the Lord would shew compassion in the mournful case, and as an argument, resumes her complaints of the impious conduct, and daring blasphemies of her enemies. or those of others; and infidels of different descriptions become their partizans. This is a strange phenomenon in what is called the religious world; but the cause of God and truth hath had more to encounter from that world, than from the openly wicked and profane. 10 God, why hast thou cast us off? Is it for evermore? Against thy pasture sheep, why doth Which thou hast purchased of old; The rod of thine inheritance, 3 To these long desolations 4 Amidst thy congregations. Thine enemies do roar; Their ensigns they set up for signs 5. A man was famous, and was had According as he lifted up His axe thick trees upon. 6 But all at once with axes now, And down the carved work thereof They break, and quite undo. Notes an Psalm LXXIV. Verse 2. The rod, tribe, or portion of thine inheritance. The whole nation is intended by the term congregation.. The writer of the Psalm proceeds to particulars, the tribe of Judah, which God chose in an especial manner as his inheritance, and lastly, mount Zion, the seat of government, and the site of the temple. Verse 7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, &c. The first temple was burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, and Antiochus set fire to the second. See 7 They fired have thy sanctuary, And have defil'd the same, By casting down unto the ground The place where dwelt thy name. They burnt up all the synagogues 9 Our signs we do not now behold: 10 How long, LORD, shall the enemy 11 Thy hand, ev'n thy right hand of might, O from thy bosom pluck it out 12 For certainly God is my king, Working in midst of all the earth Salvation manifold. 13 The sea, by thy great pow'r, to part Asunder thou didst make; + And thou the dragons' heads, O LORD, Macc. iv. 38. The dwelling place of God's name they have desecrated to the ground, the synagogues, oratories or houses of prayer, and all the places of their religious assemblies. But as they were not left without prophets in the Babylonish captivity, it is thought parts of this Psalm look forward to the present dispersed state of the Jews. Verse 13. Thou didst divide the sea, &c. What a sublime description of that event does the prophet give us, Isa. li. 9-11!—The dragons may 14 The leviathan's head thou brak'st Him to be meat unto the folk In wilderness that live. 15 Thou clav'st the fountain and the flood, 16 Thine only is the day, O LORD, And thou alone prepared hast The summer and the winter both 18 That th' enemy reproached hath, O keep it in record; འ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་དཔ intend Pharaoh and his princes, compared to the crocodile, that tyrant of the Nile. Verse 14. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan, &c. The same is here intended with a variation in the language, and an additional circumstance. The Jews may be most naturally understood by the people inhabiting the wilderness, as they sojourned there for forty years. The overthrow of Pharaoh and his host proved food to their faith, and nourishment to their hope. As all this ultimately refers to Satan and all the powers of darkness, God's people should anticipate with joy the period of their total overthrow in the Red Sea of his incensed wrath; whence the subjects of his preceding tyranny shall be rescued from bondage and dread. See Rev. xix. 17, &c. Verse 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain, &c. The bringing water out of the rock, to supply the parched Israelites with drink; and the drying up the river Jordan, are events, to which the prophet here alludes; and these have a mystical or evangelical sense which will be fully realized. Verse 16. The day is thine, &c. With what propriety may this be applied to the day of prosperity and salvation, and the night of adversity and punishment; which God hath prepared and appointed, the one opposed to the other; that according to the days in which men are afflicted, and the years in which they experience evil, they may be made glad. Psal xc. 15. In God's plan darkness goes before light. And that the foolish people have 19 Unto the multitude do not Thy turtle's soul deliver; 20 Unto thy cov'nant have respect; Full of the habitations Of horrid cruelty. 21 O let not those that be oppress'd 22 Do thou, O God, arise and plead 23. Do not forget the voice of those Of those the tumult ever grows That do against thee rise. Verse 19-thy turtle dove, a bird simple, defenceless, solitary, meek, timid, and mournful,‚—an appellation very proper to describe the Church when visited with persecution, and suitably exercised by it. The congregation of the poor may intend those who are emphatically so, of whom the Jews in Babylon were a figure, and whom the Lord will not forget for ever, or throughout the whole extent of his mediatory reign. Verse 20. The dark places of the earth, or, land, &c. Judea had its dark places, and so have nations professedly Christian. The heathen world abounds in darkness, and it is full of the habitations of cruelty. But God's covenant provides for both, to which he will have respect, in answer to prayer. Verse 21. O let not the oppressed &c. These, like the Jews from Babylon, will return to a land of promise in triumph; whence the poor and needy, in the most emphatic sense, will praise Messiah's name. Verses 22, 23. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause; &c. He that hath been so long pleading on the throne above, by prevalent intercession; |