*Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters
Psalm 74 is a lament over a ruined sanctuary, sung at a time when no prophet could say how long the trouble would last. At verse 13 the tone changes. The one praying stops describing the wreckage. He starts naming what God once did to a sea and to the monsters in it.
The psalm's first half is all loss, and heaven sends no answer. Faith meets that silence with memory.
There are no signs from God to meet it, no prophets, no one who knows how long. Still there is faith here that God will not forsake His people. If the words How long? get no answer, they turn into a cry. It cannot be for ever. Faith trusts God's faithfulness. Before this He had struck Egypt and delivered His people through a divided sea. All power in creation was His.
The order matters. He does not skip the pain to reach the comfort.
Having laid the whole trial out before God, the psalmist takes courage in God. Despite all the failure among God's people, and all the power of the enemy, God is King, and God is working salvation in the midst of the earth.
God did not work this rescue in a corner. He staged it where the watching world could see, and He chose the proudest king of the day to show His power.
The psalmist now looks back to the far past. He comforts himself with what God did for the people, when He led them out of Egypt into this very land — the land where such a terrible disaster has now fallen. "God my King is from of old," he says, "working salvation in the midst of the earth" — there where the eyes of men would be most upon them. Egypt, which he speaks of next, was such a place. Its proud king was just the person in whom God could make His power known, and declare His name throughout all the earth.
Commentators differ on what the monsters stand for. Some read them as the power of Pharaoh; some read a darker power standing behind him.
He has been Israel's King from all past ages, working salvation in the midst of Egyptian oppression (v. 12). God's greater power divided the mighty sea that blocked their escape from Egypt, and Israel marvelled at their rescue. He broke the head of the sea serpent in the waters. This speaks of the satanic power that threatened them.
Scripture uses this picture in more than one way, so both readings can stand.
It may mean any great serpent or sea monster, a symbol of a huge destructive creature… Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is called the great dragon (Ezekiel 29:3)… In the New Testament the dragon is a picture of Satan and those he empowers.
The psalm looks back at the rescue from Egypt to claim what is still ahead.
So the Spirit of Christ writes for them by the pen of Asaph, "Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your might" (Psalm 74:12-13). By the power and might of His own right arm He brought them out of Egypt. That act was the pledge that the same strength would carry them over into the mountain of His inheritance.
One writer follows that same arm to a supper table in Jerusalem, where the Lord sat with His disciples.
The circumstances were special. The Arm of Jehovah, who had cut Rahab in pieces and wounded the dragon (Isaiah 51:9), was sitting at the table with them… Israel in Egypt had proved God's power and faithfulness. At the supper the disciples saw how lasting divine love is, and how low the Lord would stoop to serve His own.
- Old — God is King "from of old"; the plea rests on what He has already done, not on what the eye can see now.
- Open — God works salvation "in the midst of the earth," where the eyes of men would be most upon it; He rescued in the open on purpose.
- Broken — commentators read the heads in the waters as Pharaoh's power, and behind it the power of Satan; God breaks both.
- Pledge — the strength that brought them out of Egypt is the pledge of the strength that will bring them in.
- Alive — the Arm that wounded the dragon later sat at supper with His disciples and stooped to serve them; the same power now serves in love.
*Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
Psalm 74 is the prayer of people standing in the wreckage of God's sanctuary. No prophet is left, and no one knows how long the ruin will last. At verse 14 the prayer turns back to a night when God smashed a monster in the sea. So why should a memory of Egypt comfort anyone now, and who is Leviathan?
The memory in verse 14 is not comfort for its own sake. It is an argument the psalmist puts to God. One writer lists what had been lost, and what faith still held on to:
The psalmist appeals to the fact that God redeemed and bought them long ago, and he holds that up against the present ruins. The sanctuary was on fire, its decorations destroyed, all God's meeting places burned up. There were no signs of divine power, and no one left to pass on His Word. No wonder they cried, "How long?" But faith remembers that God was Israel's King long ago, working deliverances in the midst of the earth.
Another notes what this does to hope in a wrecked situation: "Flesh cannot build up what God has put under the power of judgment; but faith can wait on God, till He glorifies Himself."
The monster is not a myth. Commentators read it as a real creature used as a picture of a real nation:
Leviathan is clearly a crocodile, and here it refers to Egypt (see Ezekiel 32:2). God broke the heads of that nation to pieces, and in effect gave them as food for the people who lived in the wilderness.
Others put it more simply still: God "divided the sea, and destroyed the power of Pharaoh, figured by monsters."
Where God struck mattered as much as the blow itself:
He was "working deliverances in the midst of the earth" — there where the eyes of men would be most upon them. Egypt, which he goes on to speak about, was such a place. Its proud king was just the man in whom God could make His power known, and declare His name throughout all the earth.
Pharaoh is the visible enemy, but writers see another enemy behind him:
Leviathan is a fitting symbol of the enemy of God's people, Ps. 74:14. In Isa. 27:1 it also typifies Satan: "leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent," whom God will punish.
The same reading applies to the sea itself. God "broke the head of the sea serpent in the waters, speaking of the satanic power by which they were threatened."
The second half of the verse is stranger than the first. God hands the dead monster over as a meal. Commentators differ on who eats it. The ESV reads "the creatures of the wilderness." Older translations take it of people: "those that people the desert." One writer defends that older sense:
Some object that the word only means animals of the desert. Even so, these last words surely refer to Israel. For a time they lived in the wilderness, and their enemies became their spoil. Caleb and Joshua later speak of the Canaanites in the same way: "they shall be food for us" (Num. 14:9)… Israel's difficulties only become God's opportunities, and their enemies only supply them with food… and so it is with all the people of God.
This memory carries weight because it shows God acting in a role Israel's law made familiar:
The desire is that the Lord will show Himself as the kinsman-avenger of Israel. For under the law, the kinsman was to ransom, to avenge, and to build up the brother's house. And this is a cry to Him to act as an avenger. At the exodus from Egypt He acted in just that way, and the psalmist pleads it here. As their kinsman He had done both. He ransomed Israel out of Egypt, and He avenged Israel on Egypt. He divided the waters for His people, and He broke the heads of leviathan.
That plea is not selfish. Faith here "identifies the interests of the godly remnant and of God." Their enemies are His enemies. Their cause is His cause.
- Ruin. The sanctuary lies burned, no prophet speaks, and nobody knows how long. This verse prays from inside that.
- Remembrance. Faith cannot build on the rubble. It reaches back to the God who was King of old, and waits for Him to glorify Himself.
- The head. Commentators read Leviathan as the crocodile, standing for Egypt and Pharaoh. Behind that visible power stands the enemy God will punish at the end.
- The meal. The beaten enemy becomes food. Israel's difficulties turn into God's opportunities, and their enemies feed a people still in the desert.
- The plea. He once ransomed and avenged as their kinsman, so they ask Him to do it again — and He counts their cause as His own.