Psalms 74

Maschil] An instructing Psalme.

of Asaph] See on Psal. L in the Title. This Psalme most likely was committed to some of Asaphs posterity, long after Davids time, to tune, sing, and play it.

The time of desolation which this Psalme mentions, and bemoanes, seemes not to be that in the dayes of Antiochus Epiphanes; who prophaned and polluted much the Temple of Jerusalem; but did not cast it downe, and burne it to the ground. And he himself was long after the Canon of the Old Testament was concluded. But that rather in the dayes of Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuzaradan, 2 Kings XXV. 8.

Psalms 74:2

the rod] Or tribe; which thou hast measured out for thine owne inheritance as with a line or rod, Jer. X. 16. Deut. XXXII. 9.

Psalms 74:4

thy congregations] Meaning the Temple, where the holy Congregations assembled. And verse 7. it is in the Hebrew, thy Sanctuaries in the Plural number, meaning the Temple. The Plural number being used discretively to note out, and designe one of many. And so is that Gen. XXIII. 6. Judg. VII. 10. and XII. 7. 2 Kings V. 13. 2 Chron. XXIV. 25. Iohn VI. 45. Acts XIII. 40. Zech. IX. 9. Mat. IV. 3 compared with Luke IV. 3. And so we may understand that, Matth. XXVII. 44. compared with Luke XXIII. 40 And that 2 Chr. chap. XXVIII. 3. compared with 2 Kings XXVIII. 3. And that Matth. XXVI. 8. compared with Iohn XII. 4.

Psalms 74:9

no more any Prophet] Ezekiel, and Jeremie, were now dead. Others haply not so well known or regarded, Lam. II. 9.

Dragons] The Princes of Pharaoh.

Psalms 74:13

Leviathan] Pharaoh.

Psalms 74:14

gavest him to be meat] Him, and his, drowned, and cast upon the shoar, to be meat to the wilde beasts, and fowles of prey, called a people; as Prov. XXX. 25, 26. Or, their spoile, as meat to the Israelites. Or gavest meat, that is, Manna, to him, that is, thy people in the Wildernesse.