1 A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
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 Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
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 Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
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 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
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 behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of 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 Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
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 burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
8 They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
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 see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows 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 How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
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 do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
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 Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of 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 You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
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 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
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 opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
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, the night is also yours. You have prepared 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 You have set all the boundaries of the earth. 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 Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Lord. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
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 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever.
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 Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
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 Do not let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise 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 Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all 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 Do not forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
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.