The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 74

We mnat explain the "title" by the con- t~l\snres, brcl\king the precious Phroniri1m eideratiCln thnt As11ph, like Jeduthun and bronze-work into pieces, and carrying off Heman, bcoame a tribe-name, attaching to everything of value that Wl\S portnblo (2 all the desciendants of the originA-1 Asaph, Kings xxv, 13-17). They had also "burnt the houso of the Lord" (ver. 9), e.nd "bl'oken and was equivalent to "sou of Asl\ph" down the walls of Jerusalem" (ver. 10) o.nd (see Ezra ii. 41; iii. 10; Noh. vii. 44; xi. 22). the walls of the temple to & lo.rge exteQt The psalm consists of three portions : 1. (seo below, var. 7). It is quite certain tho.t A complaint to God, including a description neither Shishak nor the Syrians under of all the horrors of the situation (vcrs. 1- Antiochus Epiphanes created nny such devastation. 11). 2. An enumeration of God's mercies Ver. 4.-Thine enemies roar in the midat in the olden time, as a foundation for hope of thy oongregations; or, have roared; i.e. that he will yet rescue Israel (vers.12-17). hl\ve created disturbances, or raised tumults. 3. An earnest pre.yet· for relief and restora- The temple did not poss into the enemy's tion, nnd the re-establishment of the cove• hands without fighting and bloodshed; the battle-cry of the sssailonts and their shouts nant (vers. 18-23). of triumph when victorious resounded through it (comp. Lam. ii. 7) They set up Ver. 1.-0 God, why hast thou cast us oft' their ensigns for signs. Probably for tokens for ever 1 It could only have been in the of victory and dominion. Scarcely as objects extremity of distress that a devout Israelite of. worship, sinoe their intention was to believed, even for & time, that Israel was destroy the temple and leave Jerusalem "ca.st off for ei,er" ( comp. Ps. Ixxix. 5, which desolate. must have been written nearly at the same Ver. 5.-A ma.n waa famous according as period as tliis). Why doth thine a.nger he had lifted up a:a:ea upon the thick trees ; llllloke against the sheep of thy pasture 1 rather, they seemed aa men that plied awft God's anger "smokes " when it is hot and hatchet, in a thicket of trees ( so Ke.y, Canon Carious (see Pss. xviii. 8; civ. 32; cxliv. 5). Cook, Professor Cheyne, &ad the Revised It is now smoking "against the sheep of his Version); i.e. they plied their hatchet.a with pnsture "-his own flock (Pe. lx.xviii 53), e.s litUe reverence as if they had been hewing his peculiar people (comp. Jer. llili. 4; I. timber in a copse of wood. 6, 17; and Ps. lxxiL 13). Ver. 6.-But now they break down the Ver. 2.-B.emember thy congregation, carved work thereof at once with ues a.nd which thou hast purchased of old; or, which hammers. The" carved work" (pittuohim) thou didst purchase of old. The reference of the temple oonsisted of the cherubim is to the redemption out of Egypt (see Exod. and pa.Im trees and open flowers which xv. 16). God is besought, though he has formed the decoration of the temple walls forgotten, once more to remember hispe~ple, (see 1 Kings vi. 29, where the same word, and nrged to do so by the memory of his pittuchim, is nsed). This snperfieie.l carved former mercies (comp. vers. 12-17). The work may have been broken <lown for the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast sake of the gold with which it was overlaid redeemed ; rather, which thou did,/, redeem (1 Kings vi 22, 32, 35). to be the tribe of thine inheritance; i.e. the Ver. 7.-They have cast fire into thy people of thine inheritance. •• The conven- sanctuary ; or, they have set thy sanctuary tional expression, ' the tribes of Israel,' w&e on fire (Revised Version). The temple of not al ways used after the fall of the northern Solomon was burnt by Nebuchadnezzar (2 kingdom" (Cheyne); comp. Jer. x. 16; li. Kings xxv. 9; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19). Tho.t 19. Th.i.B IIon.nt Zion, wherein thou hast of Zerubbabel was never bnrnt, but was dwelt (comp. Ps. lx.xiii 68). The expres- entirely rebuilt, and on a. much larger scnlc, sion, "this Mount Zion," implies that the by Herod the Great. That of Hero<l the psalm is composed either by one of the Great was burnt in the siege by Titus. exiles before he is removed from the Holy They have d11filed by casting down the Land, or by one of those who were left dwelling-plaoe of thy Name to the ground behind by the conquerors (2 Kings xxv. 12, (comp. Lam. ii. 6; iv. 1). The very founda- 22; Jer. xiii. 10; Iii. 16). tions of the second temple h&d to be laid Ver. 3.-Lift up thy feet unto the per- by Zerubbabel (Ezra iii. 6, 12). petual desolatiom ; or, the perpetual ruin,. Ver. 8.-They said in their hearts, Let us God is &eked to visit and protect, or else to destroy them altogether. It w&e, no doubt, visit and inspect, the desolate ruins with the intention of Nebueha<lnezze.r to destroy which the Babylonians have covered Mount Israel as a. nation. Hence the complete Zion. Even all that the enemy ha.th clone destruction of the city and temple (2 Kings wickedly in the Hnetnary, The Baby- xxv. 91 10; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19; Lam. ii, loniaD.B had plundered the temple of all its 1-9, etc.); hence the deportation of all the PS, LXXIV, 1-23,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 83