Psalm 74

“Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations. The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary. Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place; they set up their banners for signs. They seem like men who lift up axes among the thick trees. And now they break down its carved work, all at once, with axes and hammers. They have set fire to Your sanctuary; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground. They said in their hearts, ‘Let us destroy them altogether.’ They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land. We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet; nor is there any among us who knows how long. O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever? Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand?” Psalm 74:3-11a (NKJV)

Today’s psalm, a song of Asaph, is titled “A Plea For Relief From Oppression.”  There are several fellows named “Asaph” in the Bible, and it is possible that the title “Asaph” simply refers to an order of temple musicians established by Asaph.  

While it is considered a plea, Psalm 74 stops short of being a full-on indictment of God’s character.  Multiple times, the psalmist asks God, “Why?” and pleads with God to remember to act as if God is slow or somehow unaware of the happenings in Jerusalem.  And what is happening in Jerusalem?  The temple had been defiled and burned to the ground, along with all of the synagogues.  Whether Asaph is writing prophetically or from a first-hand account is unclear.  But we know this event did happen when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day.

“And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.” 2 King 25:8-10 (NKJV)

Asaph wrongly charged that there were no prophets, but they had Jeremiah. Sadly, nobody wanted to hear him.  The temple was destroyed because the people rejected God’s Word in favor of idolatry.  Still, God extended grace and mercy in captivity.  

“For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.” Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NKJV) (see also: Jeremiah 25:11)