Psalm 74:4

Psalm 74 is a maskil of Asaph, a word that marks it as a psalm for reflection and instruction. It is a lament prayed by the whole people, and it belongs to the psalms of Asaph that run from Psalm 73 to Psalm 83. It follows Psalm 73, which wrestles with the prosperity of the wicked, and it carries that struggle into a disaster that has fallen on the whole nation. It opens with a cry: “O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” (Psalm 74:1–2). The psalmist then asks God to come and survey the perpetual ruins (Psalm 74:3), and our passage is what God would see there.

Verses 4 to 8 describe what the enemy did inside the sanctuary, and verses 9 to 11 turn to the silence of God. After that the psalmist remembers God’s mighty works of old, his dividing of the sea and his setting of the sun and moon in their places (Psalm 74:12–17), and he ends by pleading with God to remember his covenant and to defend his name (Psalm 74:18–23).

The first thing the psalmist tells God is whose enemies these are: “Thine enemies”. The word behind it, tsârar, comes from a root meaning “to cramp”, and it names those who hem a people in and bring them into distress. Before they are Israel’s enemies they are God’s, and what they do in his house is done against him.

They “roar”, shâʼag, the deep rumbling roar of a lion. Where God’s people used to sing and pray, the invaders now shout their victory like beasts over their prey. The place is “thy congregations”, môwʻêd, a word that means an appointment, and so an appointed time or feast, a meeting, an assembly, or a meeting place. Here it is the place where God had appointed to meet his people, the sanctuary and its courts. The same word comes back in verse 8, where the KJV renders it “synagogues”.

“They set up their ensigns for signs.” The same Hebrew word, ʼôwth, stands behind both “ensigns” and “signs”. It means a signal or mark of any kind: a banner, a monument, an omen, a miracle, a piece of evidence. Here it is the army’s standards, the banners that stood for the conqueror’s might and his gods. Planted in God’s house, they announced that the place now belonged to the victor. Israel had known the signs of God’s presence and power in that house, and now the enemy’s signs stood where his had been. The word returns in verse 9 with a bitter turn: “We see not our signs.”

Lamentations says the same thing from God’s side, that the Lord cast off his own altar and abhorred his sanctuary (Lamentations 2:7). Scripture also looks ahead to a later desecration of the holy place, the abomination of desolation foretold in Daniel 9:27.

Verse 5 pictures the invaders as woodcutters: “A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.” “Was famous” is yâdaʻ, “to know”, here in the sense of being known. The soldiers made a name for themselves the way a woodcutter is known by how hard he swings into a thicket, and it was a grim fame, earned by wrecking the house of God. “Axes” is qardôm, a heavy cutting tool, an axe or a mattock. “Thick” is çᵉbâk, a thicket, from a root meaning to intertwine, and with ʻêts, “trees”, it pictures a dense stand of wood. The temple was built and lined with cedar and cypress, carved and overlaid with gold, and the invaders went at that holy woodwork as if it were common timber in a forest.

“But now” in verse 6 sets the present ruin against all that the house had been. “They break down”, hâlam, means to strike down or to hammer, a violent shattering. “The carved work” is pittûwach, engraving or sculpture, and in Solomon’s temple it covered the walls and doors with carved cherubims, palm trees and open flowers (1 Kings 6:29–35). That carving spoke of the beauty and holiness of God’s dwelling, and it recalled the garden of Eden. “At once”, yachad, means together, so the whole band fell on it at the same time.

Their tools are named. The axe here is kashshîyl, properly a feller, from a root meaning to stumble or fall, and the hammer is kêylaph, a club or sledge-hammer, from a root that suggests a noisy blow. These are the tools of demolition, swung at work that craftsmen had made for the worship of God.

“They have cast fire into thy sanctuary.” The histories record it: Nebuzaradan burned the house of the LORD, and its treasures were carried away (2 Kings 25:8–17, Jeremiah 52:12–23, 2 Chronicles 36:19). The word for sanctuary, miqdâsh, means a consecrated place, and it can name any holy place, even a shrine of idols, so the psalmist’s “thy” carries the weight. This was the sanctuary of the LORD.

“They have defiled”, châlal, means to profane, to treat what is holy as common. God had told Israel to reverence his sanctuary (Leviticus 19:30), and the enemy did the opposite with fire and axe.

“The dwelling place of thy name” joins mishkân, a dwelling place, the word also used for the tabernacle and for a tent, with shêm, “name”. God’s name stands for God himself as he has made himself known: his character, his authority, his presence and his reputation. The temple was the place where he had put his name among his people. To throw it “to the ground” was the enemy’s public claim that the God of Israel was powerless to protect his own house.

The loss was real, and the psalmist grieves it. Yet the LORD says that heaven is his throne (Isaiah 66:1–2), and as Stephen said long afterwards, “the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48). The enemy could burn the house, and the God whose name it bore still reigned.

“They said in their hearts.” The heart, lêb, is the inner self, the seat of mind, will and feeling, so this was a settled purpose formed within. “Let us destroy them together.” The verb, yânâh, means to rage or act with violence, to oppress or maltreat, and with “together” it is a resolve to crush the whole people at once. Haman later formed the same plan against all the Jews (Esther 3:6).

“They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.” The Hebrew joins môwʻêd, the word for the congregations of verse 4, with el, “God”: the meeting places of God. The word el means God and carries the sense of strength and might. Synagogue buildings as we know them came into their own during and after the exile, so the KJV’s word stands here for something broader: every place in the land where God’s people met him for worship, for the feasts and for instruction, with the temple in Jerusalem first among them. “All” sweeps the whole land. The enemy meant to wipe out every visible place of Israel’s worship and so cut the people off from their God and their heritage.

Verse 9 turns from the ruins to a deeper loss. “We see not our signs” uses ʼôwth again. The enemy’s signs stand in the sanctuary, while the signs Israel looked for from God, mighty works and tokens of favour like the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and the pillar of cloud and fire, are nowhere to be seen. “Our” signs are the ones God had given his people in the past, and their absence is felt all the more for that.

“There is no more any prophet.” A prophet, nâbîyʼ, is one who speaks for God and brings his word, warning and comfort to his people. With the prophets silent, the people were left without a word from God to explain what had happened or to tell them what he would do. Scripture knows such times. When Samuel was a boy the word of the LORD was rare (1 Samuel 3:1), Amos warned of “a famine of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11), and Lamentations says the same of Jerusalem’s prophets after its fall (Lamentations 2:9).

“Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.” “How long” is built on ʻad, “until” or “as far as”, a word that marks a limit. The people want to know where their suffering will stop, and the answer is hidden from them all. The three lines build on one another: the signs are gone, the voice is gone, and the end is out of sight. This is the darkest point of the passage, and it is also where the psalmist stops describing the enemy and starts speaking to God.

In verse 10 the question his people were helpless to answer becomes a prayer: “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?” The “adversary” is tsar, from tsârar, the root behind “enemies” in verse 4, and its usual meaning is just that, an adversary who presses in and brings distress. “Reproach” is châraph, to taunt, properly to say sharp things against someone. “Blaspheme” is nâʼats, to scorn, despise or revile, to treat with contempt. The two lines run side by side, adversary with enemy and reproach with blasphemy, and the second line names the target: “thy name”. The psalmist’s deepest grief is that the enemy is mocking God.

Among the nations a victory in war was taken as the triumph of the victor’s god over the god of the defeated, as the Rabshakeh boasted before Jerusalem. To the conquerors a burned temple was proof that the LORD was weak, and they said so openly. That is why the psalmist pleads for God’s honour, and he has good ground for it. God says through Ezekiel that he will act for his holy name’s sake and show its holiness before the nations (Ezekiel 36:22–23). Paul later writes that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the sins of his own people (Romans 2:24). The cry “how long” is heard often in the Psalms, and the same cry opens Psalm 13:1.

“Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.” The verb is shûwb, to turn back or return, and here God’s hand is turned back, drawn in. The “right hand”, yâmîyn, is the hand of strength and action, and in Scripture God’s right hand is the hand that delivers and judges. Israel sang of the right hand of the LORD when he brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 15:6).

“Bosom” is chêyq, the fold of a garment over the chest, a place of rest and of keeping something close. The psalmist pictures God with his hand tucked into his robe, and he begs him to draw it out and use it. The question takes for granted that God can act. What the psalmist asks is why he waits. Isaiah prays in the same spirit, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD” (Isaiah 51:9), and he also declares that “the LORD’s hand is not shortened” (Isaiah 59:1). Habakkuk asked God how long when he saw violence go unchecked (Habakkuk 1:2–4). The psalm’s own answer comes straight after these verses, where the psalmist remembers what God’s hand did in creation and in saving his people (Psalm 74:12–17) and builds his plea on that.

The New Testament carries this lament to Jesus. He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” and he spoke of the temple of his body (John 2:19–21). In him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9). The enemies who roared in God’s house point ahead to the hour when Christ himself was mocked and reviled, despised and rejected as Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 53:3). His body was broken as a willing sacrifice, wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5), and by his death and resurrection he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15) and the accuser was cast down (Revelation 12:10). God has highly exalted him, so that every knee shall bow at his name and every tongue confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:9–11). The name blasphemed in verse 10 will be honoured by all.

Through Christ his people are now God’s temple. The church together is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), each believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19), and believers are built as lively stones into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), a holy temple in the Lord with Christ as the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22). Jesus said that true worshippers would worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24). Christ ministers as high priest in a tabernacle “not made with hands” (Hebrews 9:11–12), and he will present his church to himself holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). At the end the tabernacle of God is with men (Revelation 21:3), and John sees the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb as the temple of the holy city (Revelation 21:22). The house the enemy burned has given way to a dwelling of God beyond the reach of axes and fire.

The losses of verse 9 are answered in Christ as well. When he was asked for a sign, the sign he gave was the temple of his body raised up (John 2:18), and John wrote down his signs so that we might believe (John 20:30–31). He is the prophet like Moses whom God promised (Deuteronomy 18:15) and whom Peter proclaimed (Acts 3:22–23), and in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). The “how long” of his people now waits on his promise to come again, and the church answers, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

The right hand of verse 11 has been stretched out in Christ. All things were made by him (John 1:1–3, Colossians 1:15–17), and he upholds all things (Hebrews 1:3). On the cross he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), and in that dark hour God was working the salvation of the world. Now Christ sits at God’s right hand (Psalm 110:1, Ephesians 1:20–23), where he intercedes for us (Romans 8:34), and from there he will return to bring final justice and restoration.

These verses show that God lets his people tell him everything. The psalmist names each loss before him: the roaring, the axes, the fire, the burned meeting places and the silence. Then he asks God why, and how long. God has kept this prayer in his word, so it belongs to his people whenever what is holy is trampled and his name is scorned.

The passage also shows where the psalmist’s heart lies. He grieves for his people, he grieves most of all for the name of God, and he expects God to care for that name more than anyone does. That expectation is well founded. God acts for his holy name’s sake, his right hand is strong to save, and in Christ he has built a temple that stands for ever. “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:14), and until that city comes, “how long” is a prayer the God who hears it is already answering.