Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinwill be more probable that these complaints belong to the time of Antiochus; 212 for the Church ofGod was then without prophets. If, however, any would rather refer it to the Babylonish captivity,it will be an easy matter to solve this difficulty; for although Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, werethen alive, yet we know that they were silent for a time, as if they had finished the course of theirvocation, until at length Daniel, a little before the day of their deliverance, again came forth for thepurpose of inspiring the poor exiles with courage to return to their own country. To this the prophetIsaiah seems to have an eye, when he says in the fortieth chapter (Isaiah 40:1) of his prophecies atthe beginning, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, will your God say.” The verb, which is therein the future tense, shows that the prophets were enjoined to hold their peace for a time.Psalm 74:1-81. O God! why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thy anger smoke against the flock ofthy pastures? 2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed of old, the rod of thyinheritance which thou hast redeemed, this mount Zion on which thou hast dwelt. 3. Lift up thystrokes to destroy for ever every enemy that worketh mischief to thy sanctuary. 4. Thy adversarieshave roared 213 in the midst of thy sanctuaries; they have set up their signs for signs. 5. He wholifted up the axes upon the thick trees was renowned as doing an excellent work. 6. And now theybreak in pieces the carved work thereof with axes and hammers together. 7. They have set on firethy sanctuaries; they have polluted the dwelling-place of thy name, levelling it with the ground.8. They have said in their heart, Let us destroy them all together: they have burned all the tabernaclesof God in the land.1. O God! why hast thou east us off for ever? If this complaint was written when the peoplewere captives in Babylon, although Jeremiah had assigned the 70th year of their captivity as theperiod of their deliverance, it is not wonderful that waiting so long was to them a very bitter affliction,that they daily groaned under it, and that so protracted a period seemed to them like an eternity. Asto those who were persecuted by the cruelty of Antiochus, they might, not without reason, complainof the wrath of God being perpetual, from their want of information as to any definite time whenthis persecution would terminate; and especially when they saw the cruelty of their enemies dailyincreasing without any hope of relief, and that their condition was constantly proceeding from badto worse. Having been before this greatly reduced by the many disastrous wars, which their neighborsone after another had waged against them, they were now brought almost to the brink of utterdestruction. It is to be observed, that the faithful, when persecuted by the heathen nations, lifted uptheir eyes to God, as if all the evils which they suffered had been inflicted by his hand alone. Theywere convinced, that had not God been angry with them, the heathen nations would not have beenpermitted to take such license in injuring them. Being persuaded, then, that they were notencountering merely the opposition of flesh and blood, but that they were afflicted by the justjudgment of God, they direct their thoughts to the true cause of all their calamities, which was, thatGod, under whose favor they had formerly lived prosperous and happy, had cast them off, and212 Rosenmüller is of opinion that this is the period referred to. “For my part,” says Dr Geddes, “I think it must have beencomposed during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes; and the best commentary on it is the first chapter of the first book ofMaccabees. The author may have been Mattathias.”213 “Ont rugi comme lions.” — Fr. “Have roared like lions.”97