Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
The temple lies in ruins, no prophet remains, and the cry "how long?" has had no answer. Here the psalmist turns from his own loss and asks God to remember something else: an insult aimed at God's own name.
Everything in this prayer rests on one thing. Not Israel's record, but the name God had taken as His own:
God's people turn from the cruelty and blasphemy of lawless wickedness and appeal to Him who long ago took the name of Israel as His own. He had lived at Zion. He had bought the people and redeemed the land to be His own. The covenant of His promise stayed in the hearts of the believing few among His servants, as the sure witness of these things. So His Name is the only ground of this appeal.
The word "foolish" here is not about low intelligence. It is a verdict on how a person treats God:
"How long" (the prophetic word of faith and grace) will the enemy outside and the oppressor inside blaspheme God's name? ... Someone had blasphemed Jehovah's name. It was the enemy outside, "the foolish people" — that is, people who in their folly did not know God and did not own Him — who had done it.
Commentators differ over who these foolish people are. Another writer sees the nation itself in the same verse:
The enemy outside has destroyed everything in the sanctuary (v. 3), despises the name of God for ever (v. 10), and insults Jehovah (v. 18). The enemy within roars in God's place of assembly (v. 4), and sets up his own banners of power there. The people as a whole have become foolish and have turned away from God (v. 18), led by 'the foolish man' (v. 22), for folly and godlessness go closely together.
The attack was never only about the people. Strike them, and you have struck their God:
The moment calls for Him to step in now. It is Jehovah Himself whom the enemy insults! It is that glorious and awesome Name that the fool mocks and defies. Then the psalmist pleads with Israel's Redeemer: it is His turtle-dove that is in danger — defenceless, and innocent as far as the enemy is concerned.
Faith reaches that conclusion by looking back at what God has already done:
But faith remembers that God was Israel's King long ago, working deliverance in the middle of the earth (v. 12). The Red Sea proved it ... So faith rises to see Jehovah as one with His people: to insult them was to insult Him and to despise His name.
This changes what insults do to a believer. What could crush him becomes the material of his prayer:
So if the people are brought very low, and the uproar of enemies rises higher and higher, that is only one more reason to appeal to Him. It is grace, and faithful grace, and He holds power over all things. The heart calls on God to remember the enemy's attacks and insults instead of taking fright at them, for the insult falls on His name. And this is true. When the world hates God's people, it is the Lord it hates. If they were not His people, the world would not bother much about them.
The same writer points out the other edge of that truth:
But for that very same reason God allows no evil, because His name is connected with His people. We see this in Israel: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."
Asking God to remember is not telling Him something He forgot. It is confidence expressed as a request:
God's authority over all nations is settled. Could He then forget the contemptible insults of His enemies against Him? Of course He will remember, though He will repay in His own time. What foolishness man is guilty of when he blasphemes the name of the Almighty! (v. 18).
- Remember — the plea. The prayer rests on nothing the people can claim. God's name, and the promise attached to it, is the only ground of the appeal.
- Remember — the insult. The enemy's folly is not stupidity. It is refusing to know God and to own Him. Commentators differ on whether this points to the invader outside or the nation within.
- Remember — the target. God has tied His name to His people. Whoever insults them insults Him.
- Remember — the reflex. Faith brings the enemy's taunts to God as a reason for Him to act, not as a reason to be afraid.
- Remember — the answer. He will not forget the reproach, but the repayment comes in His own time, not ours.
Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
Psalm 74 is the cry of worshippers standing in the wreckage of God's sanctuary. No prophet is left, and no one knows how long the ruin will last. In verse 19 the prayer narrows to two small things: a dove, and a company of poor people.
The verse comes after a long look back at what God has already done for His people.
The psalmist has encouraged his soul by remembering how God stepped in for His people in the past. Now he boldly appeals to God to remember that His Name is being reproached, and that His people are defenceless — like a turtle dove — and poor, oppressed, and needy.
Notice the order. The reproach on God's Name comes first. The weakness of the people comes second.
The bird is not chosen at random. A dove has nothing to fight with.
Asaph pleads for the life of God's turtledove, that it should not be delivered to a wild beast. The turtledove is a picture of helplessness, but it is a clean bird. It stands for the poor and oppressed of Israel, whom God will certainly not forget.
The bird also had its own place in Israel's worship.
Even the poorest could easily get turtledoves for the offerings, and a pair of them was brought when the Lord was presented in the temple.
The possessive matters: the dove belongs to God. The sanctuary lies in ruins, yet that bond still holds.
The enemy had reproached the name of Jehovah. Israel is still held to be, in the remnant, as God's turtledove. That name recalls the covenant relationship with His people, and Jehovah's tender love towards them.
The remnant means the faithful few who are left. Commentators read the psalm's setting differently: some see an event already past, others a time still to come.
Some have applied this to the defiling of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. But as prophecy it points instead to that end-time, when the enemy will defile the temple with the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15). Then the remnant, who love the sanctuary, tell the Lord about it, and plead mightily for Him to step in.
Translators differ over this verse. In the ESV the first half reads "wild beasts" and the second reads "life" — yet one Hebrew word stands behind both.
Chajath, as in Psalm 68:10, literally means a "living creature." It is also used for a "troop" or "company" — a body of people who, as it were, breathe one spirit and live one life. It must surely be translated the same way in both halves of one verse.
Read that way, one small bird stands against a whole crowd. The plea presses that contrast:
The psalmist pleads with Israel's Redeemer: it is His turtle-dove that is in danger — defenceless, and innocent as far as the enemy is concerned. Can He give it up to men driven only by their lusts? They are His community, and their affliction is now the same for all. Can they be forgotten for ever?
The second half asks God not to forget His afflicted ones for ever. Who, then, is really under attack?
So comes the prayer for the deliverance of God's turtledove, and of His poor, the oppressed, and the needy. Their cause is the cause of God. Their enemies are the enemies of God; for those who are carrying all before them are rising up against Him.
This is not just something to notice. It shapes how we are to think and feel.
The oppressed, the poor, the needy are, as ever, presented to the eye and heart of God. We find them always coming before us as those whom God thinks about, and in whom Christ delighted in the land. And so it is even as to the spirit we are to be of.
- Dove — one image holds two things. The bird has no defence, yet it is clean, and even the poorest could afford to bring it.
- Yours — the plea rests on ownership. The sanctuary lies in ruins, yet these people are still God's turtledove.
- Multitude — one Hebrew word can mean a wild creature or a troop. Read as a troop, one small bird stands against a crowd that breathes one spirit.
- Poor — the second half names the same people by their condition. God's eye and heart rest on the poor, the oppressed and the needy.
- His cause — in the end the prayer is not "our cause" but God's, because the enemy reproaches His Name. That is the spirit we are to share too.
Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
Psalm 74 is the cry of people watching enemies burn down God's sanctuary. No prophet is left to say how long the ruin will last. In verse 20 that cry becomes a plea. Faith stops arguing from Israel's own condition and appeals to God's covenant. It points to a land so dark that cruelty has made itself at home there.
Here the psalmist stops describing the wreckage and appeals to what God has bound Himself to. Older translations read "cruelty" where the ESV reads "violence." One writer traces the psalm's turn, and notes that the word for "earth" can also be read as "land":
Still there is faith here that God will not forsake His people, and that word, How long? if there is no answer to it, turns into a cry. It cannot be for ever. Faith trusts God's faithfulness… God still counts Israel, in the remnant, as His turtledove. He is asked to have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the earth (or land) are full of the habitations of cruelty. The oppressed, the poor, the needy, are, as always, presented to the eye and heart of God.
Israel had more than one agreement with God. So which one do these people call on, with their sanctuary in ashes? One commentator finds the answer in a promise that asks nothing back:
The turtledove is a picture of helplessness, but a clean bird. It stands for the poor and oppressed of Israel, whom God will certainly not forget… This is certainly not the covenant of law, for under law Israel could expect no favour from God. The New Covenant is entirely a promise of blessing from God to Israel, with nothing required on Israel's part (Jer. 31:31-34). God will have respect for this, no matter how dark and full of cruelty the haunts of evil men are.
The people claim no right of their own here. That hands the whole matter over to God as His own cause. The covenant then becomes a lamp shining into the darkness the verse describes:
Faith rises up to identify Jehovah with His people, so that to insult them was to insult Him, and to despise His name. The covenant rises once more on the horizon of faith — a lamp of hope for the dark places of the earth. It is now a covenant of mercy, for it is God's 'own cause,' not a right belonging to the nation. The adversaries were His, not merely theirs.
Commentators read the psalm's ruined sanctuary in more than one way. Some tie it to an attack on the temple long ago. One writer sees its main meaning still ahead:
Some have applied this to the defilement of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. But as prophecy it points instead to the end time, when the enemy will defile the temple with the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15). Then the remnant who love the sanctuary tell the Lord about it, as we read in this Psalm, They plead with all their strength for Him to step in… How true that will be during the great time of trouble.
The second half of the verse is more than poetry. One writer uses it to describe places where no one has read God's Word. He sets their darkness against the day that is coming:
The pagan temples, splendid as they are, are places of vile sin and dark superstition. "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty" (Ps. 74:20). What a glorious day it will be! Then "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).
The verse asks God to look at the homes of cruelty. One writer says He has already gone there Himself:
Grace led God to stoop down from His throne in the heavens to visit "the habitations of cruelty." It led Him to lift a poor perishing sinner out of them, and to bring him, through the purging power of the blood, into a place of marvellous blessing indeed.
- Covenant, not condition — the plea does not rest on what the people are. It rests on what God has promised. This is not the covenant of law, under which Israel could expect no favour.
- Covenant as mercy — the nation has no claim left of its own. So the matter becomes God's own cause, and the enemies are His, not just theirs.
- Covenant as lamp — that same promise rises like a lamp on the horizon of faith. It shines into the dark places the verse names.
- Covenant and the weak — the oppressed, the poor and the needy are always before the eye and heart of God. He does not forget the helpless "turtledove."
- Covenant fulfilled — grace has already stooped from heaven into the habitations of cruelty to lift sinners out. And a day is coming when the knowledge of God's glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
Psalm 74 is a prayer prayed from ruins. The sanctuary is burned. The places where God's people met Him are wrecked, and no prophet is left to say how long the trouble will last. At verse 21 the prayer turns. The people stop describing the damage and start asking: let no one who has been crushed walk away ashamed.
The psalmist has already looked back at how God struck Egypt and brought His people through a divided sea. Out of that memory he asks. His plea rests on three things: God's name, His people's weakness, and His promise:
The psalmist has strengthened his soul by remembering how God stepped in for His people in the past. Now he boldly asks God to remember that people are insulting His Name. He asks Him to remember that His people are defenceless — like a turtle dove — and poor, oppressed, and needy. And God cannot forget the covenant He has made to bless His people.
The psalm names the oppressed, the poor, the needy. One writer says these people show us where God's attention goes, and what our own spirit should be:
The oppressed, the poor, the needy are, as always, set before the eye and heart of God. They come before us again and again as the people God thinks about, the people Christ delighted in while He was in the land. And this is the spirit we are to have as well.
They bring God nothing but their need. One commentator says that need is itself what makes their plea work:
So even though the earth is dark, and homes of violence stand all around them, their need will be a plea that works with the One who can show Himself fully to such humbled people. They can ask that the oppressed will not turn back ashamed — that God will bring the poor and needy to praise His Name.
Verse 19 asks God to spare His turtledove, and verse 20 asks Him to respect the covenant. Verse 21 leans on both. Commentators differ on which covenant is meant, but they agree it is not the law. One takes it as the new covenant promised through Jeremiah:
The turtledove is a picture of helplessness, but it is a clean bird, standing for the poor and oppressed of Israel, whom God will certainly not forget. This is surely not the covenant of law, because under law Israel could expect no favor from God. The New Covenant is entirely a promise of blessing from God to Israel, with nothing required on Israel's part (Jer. 31:31-34). God will have respect for this covenant, no matter how dark and cruel the haunts of evil men are.
Another reaches further back, to the promise God made to Abraham before the law existed:
Their father Abraham's body was "as good as dead," since he was "about a hundred years old." Like him, they could still believe in the God of resurrection. They could fall back on that "covenant of promise," given long before, when there was as yet no law to load it with conditions (Gal. 3:15-17). So even in their wretched state they could rise to be true children of their father Abraham. God's mercy had already foreseen the destitution and helplessness they are now in, and had provided for it.
The prayer asks for more than relief. It asks that shame turn into praise, and one commentator ties that hope to God's goodness:
How perfectly good God is toward the oppressed! They will not return ashamed to the place where God has set His name. Instead they will be full of praise to His name (v. 21). "Arise, O God, defend Your cause" (v. 22). So the godly will long for God to step in, and they may long with the fullest confidence, if only they realize how great and faithful their Creator is.
The next verse asks God to plead His own cause — not theirs. One writer explains why the two amount to the same thing:
Redemption has proved His deep and profound interest in them. They are His own... The heart asks God to remember the enemy's attacks and insults, instead of being frightened by them, because the insult falls on His name. And this is true. When the world sets itself against His people, it is really setting itself against the Lord.
- Need pleads. The oppressed bring God nothing but their need. That need is itself the plea that moves Him.
- Promise holds. The appeal rests on a covenant of pure promise, not on law the people had already broken.
- God notices. The poor and needy are the ones always before His eye and heart, and we are to share that same spirit.
- Shame reverses. The one who came to Him ashamed goes home full of praise to His name.
- His cause. Attacks on His people are attacks on His name, so the weakest can pray boldly: the case they are pleading is His.