Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Ps 74:1 and following. Indeed, the “why” that begins the psalm resembles the great question on which Ps 22:1-4 opens. But the rejection, for a time, of Israel has a reason that this people will eventually understand: these are their own sins (Zechariah 12:9-14), while the abandonment of Christ was caused by our iniquities. In this3rd Book of Psalms, it is no longer only about the rest of Judah, but also about the faithful of the twelve tribes. Against them too will smoke anger, which however will not be “forever” (verse 1; Ps 30:1-6). These poor believers consider the ruins of the sanctuary, the cessation of public worship… and measure the power of opponents. They have no sign from God to encourage them; on the contrary, they understand that it was He who allowed such desolation. But they trust in the “God of seniority” and recall all that He once accomplished to deliver His people. “Remember,” they repeat (verses 2, 18, 22). They know that they are his redeemed and that therefore the enemy, when he attacked Israel and its worship, actually despised and outraged God Himself (verses 10, 18). It is He who is concerned with this matter; He will not fail to plead His own cause (verse 22).
We have in this psalm the example of a soul pleading with God, from the depths of his sadness and affection for his people. It is clear that these are the feelings of the residue contemplating the desolation of Zion. The enemy is seen triumphant, intoxicated by his victory over the house and people of God; the assembly of the Lord is delivered to opprobrium; there are no more signs or prophets. The faithful desire jehovah to manifest himself as The vengeful close relative of Israel. Under the law, in fact, it was up to the next of kin to buy, avenge and build his brother’s house. And in this psalm the faithful cry out to God to act like this avenger. This is how he had acted when he came out of Egypt, and the faithful plead with God by recalling this deliverance. God, then acting as the One who had the right of redemption, had both redeemed Israel from Egypt and avenged Israel from Egypt, opening a path for His people through the waters and breaking the heads of Leviathan. It is as vengeful that Debora celebrates Jehovah in Judges 5, and it is under the same character that heaven celebrates the Lord God in Rev 19:2.
For the prophet’s prayer has the same accent as that of Isaiah, whose heart was deeply afflicted when he contemplated in spirit the same scene of ruin: “Until when” this desolation?” he asks (v. 10; Isaiah 6:11). Furthermore, the supplicant invokes the promises that are the safety of Israel and the earth (v. 17 and Gen 8:22; and Jer. 33:20). He also invokes the covenant: this cause is the cause of God himself. In this he imitated Moses, the mediator of the people who, in his day, prayed to God to remember the fathers, the covenant of the promise, and the honor of the name of the One who had redeemed them from Egypt (Ex. 32:12-13). And Jehovah himself declares that it is out of respect for his own name that he is now watching over the safeguarding of Israel and that he will establish it in the end (Deut. 32:27). The same thought comes up again and again in the reminder of his ways towards Israel, in Ezekiel 20.
The vision of desolate Zion that we have here relates either to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or to the time of the Romans, or to the time of the iniquitous king of the last day. In fact, according to God’s judgment, Judea is one and the same scene of desolation from the days of the Chaldeans until the day when the enemy will come at the end, on the mountain of holy beauty, and the kingdom will be to Jehovah. Verse 7 may refer to the invasion of the Chaldeans (2 Kings 25:9); v.4 can make us think of the abomination of desolation (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15).
For Ps 74 complains of the desolation of the sanctuary by the enemies, after it has been rebuilt in the country. God’s adversaries, as faith calls them here, roar in the synagogues. The signs of man, not those of God, characterize their authority. Jewish public worship is overthrown. But there is more: what in such a time could have been a consolation, is completely lacking; there are no signs from God to encourage the faithful in their difficulties, no prophets, no one who knows until when,- who knows, through God’s direction, when God will intervene in power.
O God! why did you leave forever? If this complaint was written while the people were captives in Babylon, when Jeremiah had assigned the 70th year of their captivity as the period of their deliverance, it is not wonderful that such a long wait is for them a very bitter affliction, that they groaned every day under him, and that such a prolonged period seemed like an eternity to them. As for those who were persecuted by the cruelty of Antiochus, they could, not without reason, complain of the perpetual wrath of God, for lack of information about a precise moment when this persecution would end; and especially when they saw the cruelty of their enemies increase every day without any hope of relief, and their condition was constantly going from bad to worse. Having previously been greatly reduced by the many disastrous wars that their neighbors one after the other had waged against them, they were now almost on the verge of total destruction.
It is noteworthy that the faithful, persecuted by the pagan nations, looked up at God, as if all the evils they had suffered had been inflicted by His hand alone. They were convinced that if God had not been angry with them, pagan nations would not have been allowed to accept such a license by hurting them. Then convinced that they were not simply encountering the opposition of flesh and blood, but that they were afflicted by God’s just judgment, they directed their thoughts to the true cause of all their calamities, which was, that God, under whom they had once lived prosperous and happy, had rejected them and no longer deigned to account for them of his flock. We can consider the amount of what is stated as simply this, that whenever we are visited by adversity, it is not the arrows of fortune thrown at us in a business, but the plagues or sticks of God who, in his secret and mysterious providence, prepares and uses to chastise our sins. Rejection and anger here must refer to the apprehension or judgment of the flesh.
Strictly speaking, God is not angry with his chosen ones, whose diseases he heals with afflictions as well as medicines; but as the chastisements we experience tend powerfully to produce in our minds apprehensions of his wrath, the Holy Spirit, by the word anger, exhorts the faithful to acknowledge their guilt in the presence of infinite purity. When, therefore, God carries out His vengeance on us, it is our duty to think seriously about what we have deserved and to consider that, although He is not subject to the emotions of anger, it is not due to us, who have seriously offended by our sins, that His anger does not ignite against us.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Calling to God before the ruins of the temple:
- Redemption, God, author of the
Ps 31:6 I put my spirit in your hands; You will deliver me, Jehovah, God of truth! Ps 111:9 He sent deliverance to His people, He established His covenant forever; His name is holy and fearsome. Ps 130:7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord! For mercy is with the Lord, and redemption is with him in abundance. Eph 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.
- Contaminations of the House of God
Jer 7:30 For the children of Judah have done what is wrong in my eyes, says the Lord; They placed their abominations in the house on which my name is invoked, in order to defile it. Ez 8:16 And he led me into the inner forecourt of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, turning their backs to the temple of jehovah and their faces to the east; and they prostrated themselves to the east before the sun. Ez 44:7 You have brought into my sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to desecrate my house; you have offered my bread, fat and blood to all your abominations, you have broken my covenant. Zeph 3:4 His prophets are reckless, unfaithful; His priests desecrate holy things, violate the law. John 2:14 He found in the temple the sellers of oxen, sheep, and pigeons, and the seated money changers.
- Blasphemy, general references
Isaiah 65:7 Of your crimes, says the Lord, and of the crimes of your fathers, Who burned incense on the mountains, And who outraged me on the hills; I will measure the salary of their past actions. Dn 7:25 He will speak words against the Most High, he will oppress the saints of the Most High, and he will hope to change the times and the law; and the saints will be delivered into his hands for a time, times, and half a time. Acts 13:45 The Jews, seeing the crowd, were filled with jealousy, and they opposed what Paul said, contradicting and insulting him. Rev 16:11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and ulcers, and they did not repent of their works.
- Poor and unhappy, divine help for the
Ps 35:10 All my bones will say: Eternal! who can, like you, deliver the unfortunate from a stronger than him, the unfortunate and the poor from the one who robs him? Ps 40:18 I am poor and destitute; But the Lord thinks of me. You are my helper and my liberator: My God, don’t delay! Ps 70:6 I am poor and destitute: O God, hurry in my favor! You are my helper and my liberator: Eternal, do not delay! Ps 82:4 Save the wretched and the destitute, Deliver them from the hands of the wicked.
From all the above, we note that the trust that God will not abandon his people is found here; and this word: “until when”, if there is no answer for it, turns into a request: God will not leave His people forever; they trust in His faithfulness. God had once struck Egypt and delivered his people by passing them dry across the sea; alone is all power in creation. The enemy had outraged the name of the Lord. Israel must still be considered, in the residue, as the dove of God; he begs God to look to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth (or land) are full of dwellings of violence. The oppressed, the poor, the afflicted, are, as always, presented to the eyes and heart of God. We find them everywhere, like those whom God thinks of, to whom Christ takes pleasure in the land. This is so, even with regard to the spirit that must animate us. The psalmist begs God to stand up and defend his own cause: the tumult of those who rose against him was continually rising. It is remarkable to see how faith identifies the interests of the pious residue, envisioned in its poverty and oppression, with the interests of God, and pleads its cause with God. His request rises to God as coming from outside; it is to him that we address, only we remind him that the name he took in Israel was blasphemed. This name recalls (verses 19-20) Jehovah’s relationship with his people and his tender love for them by virtue of the covenant. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” the residue persecuted by the nations implores God’s deliverance.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.