1 Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Wherefore have You repelled us, O God, unto the end?" [Psalm 74:1]. "Have repelled unto the end," in the person of the congregation which is properly called Synagogue. "Wherefore have You repelled us, O God, unto the end?" He censures not, but inquires "wherefore," for what purpose, because of what have You done this? What have You done?
2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Remember Thou Thy congregation, which Thou hast possessed from the beginning" (ver. 2). Can this by any means be the voice of the Gentiles? Hath He possessed the Gentiles from the beginning?
3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place;
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Lift up Thine hand upon their pride at the end" (ver. 3). As Thou didst repel us at the end, so "lift up Thine hand upon the pride of them at the end." The pride of whom? Of those by whom Jerusalem was overthrown. But by whom was it, but by the kings of the Gentiles? Well was the hand of Him lifted up upon the pride of them at the end: for they too have now known Christ.
4 Sending out their voices like lions among your worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And all they have boasted, that hate You" [Psalm 74:4]. Observe the servants of demons, the servants of idols: such as at that time the Gentiles were, when they overthrew the temple and city of God, "and they boasted." "In the midst of Your festival." Remember what I said, that Jerusalem was overthrown at the time when the very festival was being celebrated: at which festival…
5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up against the thick trees.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They have set signs, their own signs, and they have not known" [Psalm 74:5]. They had signs to place there, their standards, their eagles, their own dragons, the Roman signs; or even their statues which at first in the temple they placed; or perchance "their signs" are the things which they heard from the prophets of their demons.
6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron blades.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Now let us hasten over the verses following after the destruction of Jerusalem, for the reason that they are both evident, and it does not please me to tarry over the punishment even of enemies. "As if in a forest of trees with axes, they have cut down the doors thereof at once; with mattock and hammer they have thrown Her down" [Psalm 74:6].
7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth.
8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places of worship in the land.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They have said in their heart (the kindred of them is in one)"— Have said what? "Come ye, let us suppress the solemnities of the Lord from the land" [Psalm 74:8]. "Of the Lord," has been inserted in the person of this man, that is, in the person of Asaph. For they raging would not have called Him the Lord whose temple they were overthrowing.
9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Let us see therefore in this place now the understanding of Asaph, let us see if he profiteth by tribulation. Observe what he saith: "Our signs we have not seen, no longer is there prophet, and us He will not know as yet" (ver. 9).
10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for ever?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "How long, O God, shall the enemy revile?" [Psalm 74:10]. Cry out as if forsaken, as if deserted: cry out like a sick man, who hast chosen rather to smite the physician than to be made whole: not as yet does He know you. See what He has done, who does not know you as yet.
11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your right hand in your robe?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Why do You turn away Your hand, and Your right hand from the midst of Your bosom unto the end?" [Psalm 74:11]. Again, another sign which was given to Moses. For in like manner as above from the rod was a sign, so also from the right hand now.
12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in the earth.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Asaph hath understood, because on the Title of the Psalm there is, "understanding of Asaph." And what saith he? "But God, our King before the worlds, hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth" (ver. 12).
Cassiodorus · AD 585 "You strengthened the sea in your power; you crushed the heads of dragons on the waters." And truly it would show what he said earlier—namely, that the Lord the Savior was king before the ages, who deigned to suffer for us, so that he would destroy death by dying, bestow freedom to the captives and recompense to the guilty—so he repeats the miracles which he had once done among…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Christ was such a Center in His crucifixion. "God is our king before ages; He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth." The earth is clearly the center, and hence it is the lowest, and of modest size; and because the lowest and of modest size, it receives all the heavenly influences, and brings forth a marvelous multiplication of beings.
13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Perhaps my Savior becomes a roe according to contemplation (θεωρία), a hart according to works. And what are these works? He himself slays serpents, when he cuts the throats of the opposing powers. Therefore I will say to him: You have crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water.
Jerome · AD 420 [Daniel 7:2-3] "And during the night I saw in my vision, and behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts were coming up out of the sea, differing from one another." The four winds of heaven I suppose to have been angelic powers to whom the principalities have been committed, in accordance with what we read in Deuteronomy: "When the Most Hig…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Now therefore, O Asaph, amend yourself according to your understanding, tell us what sort of Salvation God has wrought in the midst of the earth. When that earthly Salvation of yours was overthrown, what did He do, what did He promise? "You confirmed in Your virtue the sea" [Psalm 74:13].
14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you gave them as food to the fishes of the sea.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God was baptized, what godly man is he that despiseth Baptism? But He was baptized not that He might receive remission of sins, for He was sinless; but being sinless, He was baptized, that He might give to them that are baptized a divine and excellent grace.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 What more after the heads of dragons? For those dragons have their chief, and he is himself the first great dragon. And concerning him what hath He done that hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth? Hear: "Thou hast broken the head of the dragon" (ver. 14). Of what dragon?
15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made the ever-flowing rivers dry.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "You have dried up the rivers of Etham" [Psalm 74:15]....What is Etham? For the word is Hebrew. What is Etham interpreted? Strong, stout. Who is this strong and stout one, whose rivers God dries up? Who but that very dragon?
16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the light and the sun.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Your own is the day and Your own is the night" [Psalm 74:16]. Who is ignorant of this, seeing that He has Himself made all these things; for by the Word were made all things?
Desert Fathers · AD 500 A brother asked one of the hermits, 'If I happen to over-sleep, and am late for the hour of prayer, I am ashamed that others will hear me praying so late, and so I become reluctant to keep the rule of prayer.' He said, 'If ever you oversleep in the morning, get up when you wake, shut the door and the windows, and say your psalms.
17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have made summer and winter.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Thou hast made all the ends of the earth" (ver. 17). ...Behold in what manner He hath made the ends of the earth, that hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth. "Thou hast made all the ends of the earth. Summer and spring Thou hast made them." Men fervent in the Spirit are the summer.
18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Mindful be Thou of this Thy creature" (ver. 18). Of what creature of Thine? "The enemy hath reviled the Lord." O Asaph, grieve over thine old blindness in understanding: "the enemy hath reviled the Lord." It was said to Christ in His own nation, "a sinner is this Man: we know not whence He is:" we know Moses, to him spake God; this Man is a Samaritan.
19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the life of the poor go out of your memory for ever.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But what sayest thou, O Asaph, now in understanding? "Deliver not to the beasts a soul confessing to Thee" (ver. 19). ...To what beasts, save to those the heads whereof were broken in pieces upon the water? For the same devil is called, beast, lion, and dragon. Do not, he saith, give to the Devil and his Angels a soul confessing to Thee.
20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of the earth are full of pride and cruel acts.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Have regard unto Thy Testament" (ver. 20). Fulfil that which Thou hast promised: the tables we have, for the inheritance we are looking.
21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the low man and the poor give praise to your name.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Let not the humble man be turned away confounded" (ver. 21). For them pride hath confounded. "The needy and helpless man shall praise Thy name." Ye see, brethren, how sweet ought to be poverty: ye see that poor and helpless men belong to God, but "poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of Heaven." Who are the poor in spirit?
22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Arise, O Lord, judge Thou my cause" [Psalm 74:22]....Because I am not able to show my God, as if I were following an empty thing, they revile me. And not only Heathen, or Jew, or heretic; but sometimes even a Catholic brother does make a grimace when the promises of God are being preached, when a future resurrection is being foretold.
23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of those who come against you goes up every day.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Forget not the voice of them that implore You" [Psalm 74:23]. While they groan for and expect now that which You have promised from the New Testament, and walk by that same Faith, "do Thou not forget the voice of them imploring You." But those still say, "Where is Your God? Let the pride of them that hate You come up always to You." Do not forget even their pride.
Cassiodorus · AD 585 Next comes "May the haughtiness of those who hate you always ascend to you." We note that this has been aptly spoken concerning the Romans, about whom he says earlier, "In the middle of your hall they have placed their standards," in order to move the Almighty Judge most vehemently against the enemies of Jerusalem.