1 Unto the end, corrupt not, a psalm of a canticle for Asaph.
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 We will praise thee, O God: we will praise, and we will call upon thy name. We will relate thy wondrous works:
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 When I shall take a time, I will judge justices.
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 The earth is melted, and all that dwell therein: I have established the pillars thereof.
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 I said to the wicked: Do not act wickedly: and to the sinners: Lift not up the horn.
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 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not iniquity against God.
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 For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert hills:
8 For God is the judge. One he putteth down, and another he lifteth up:
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 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture. And he hath poured it out from this to that: but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink.
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 But I will declare for ever: I will sing to the God of Jacob.
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 And I will break all the horns of sinners: but the horns of the just shall be exalted.
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.