This psalm is entitled "Maschil of Asaph." On the word Maschil - meaning "didactic," or adapted "to give instruction" - see the notes at the title to Psalm 32:1-11. On the phrase "of Asaph," see the notes at the title to Ps. 73. It may mean either "for" Asaph, or ""of" Asaph; that is, it may either mean that it was composed "by" him, or that it was composed "for" him, to be used by him as the leader of music in public worship. The former is the most common, and the most probable opinion. The title, however, "may" mean that the psalm was dedicated or composed for one of the descendants of this Musician, among whom the office of their ancestor Asaph was hereditary. Thus understood, it might denote simply that the psalm belonged to that class of psalms which were composed for the one who, at the time, presided over the music.
If this is the meaning, there would be no impropriety in supposing that this psalm was composed near the time of the captivity, and had reference to the struction of the temple by the Chaldeans, to which the language seems "naturally" to refer. Yet the occasion on which it was composed is not certainly known, and cannot be ascertained from the psalm. All that is manifest is, that it was at a time when the land was invaded; when great ravages were committed; and when a work of desolation was perpetrated on the edifices upon Mount Zion, and particularly on the temple. The "language" could be applied either to the destruction of the temple in the time of the Babylonian invasion; or to the times of the Maccabees, and to the desolations brought upon the land Antiochus Epiphanes; or to some desolation before the temple was built. Rosenmuller, Venema, DeWette, some others, suppose that the reference is to the time of the Maccabees. The reason alleged for this opinion is founded on what is said in Psalm 74:4, Psalm 74:9, particularly Psalm 74:9, where it is asserted that "there is no more any prophet;" that is, no one to instruct the people, or to declare what the result or the issue will be.
It is alleged by them that at the time of the invasion by the Chaldeans there were prophets in the land, and particularly that Jeremiah was then living, who distinctly predicted what the result of it would be. But this is not a conclusive objection to the idea that the reference is to the destruction of the city and the temple by the Chaldees. The meaning of Psalm 74:9 may be that there was no divine teacher who could "save" the people, or who could "prevent" those desolations; the matter had gone so far that all divine interference and protection appeared to be withdrawn, and the nation seemed to be abandoned to its fate. Still there can now be no certainty as to the time or the occasion when the psalm was composed; though the most probable reference of the psalm is to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
The psalm consists essentially of two parts: a prayer; and the reasons why the prayer is urged, and should be answered.
I. The prayer, Psalm 74:1-3. It is a prayer that God would remember Mount Zion, now made desolate, or in ruins.
II. The reasons why the prayer is urged, Ps. 74:4-23.
(1) the desolations which had come upon the city and upon the edifices devoted to religion, Psalm 74:4-8.
(2) the fact that there was among the people, in those times of calamity, no prophet - no messenger of God - no one to show them how long this would continue, or to give them assurance that these desolations would cease, Psalm 74:9-11.
(3) a reference to what God had done for his people in former times when he interposed to save them from their enemies, Psalm 74:12-15.
(4) the fact that God rules over the earth, and has control of all things; that day and night, light and darkness, summer and winter, are all under him, and are directed and controlled by him, Psalm 74:16-17.
(5) a prayer that God would not forget his own cause; that he would remember that these reproaches were reproaches of his own name; that he would call to mind his own solemn covenant; and that he would pity and relieve the people that loved him, now poor and oppressed - the people that desired to serve and praise him, Psalm 74:18-23.

The psalmtst complains of the desolations of the sanctuary, and pleads with God, Psalm 74:1-3; shows the insolence and wickedness of their enemies Psalm 74:4-8; prays to God to act for them as he had done for their fathers, whom, by his miraculous power, he had saved, Psalm 74:9-17; begs God to arise, and vindicate his own honor against his enemies, and the enemies of his people, Psalm 74:18-23.
The title is, Maschil of Asaph, or, "A Psalm of Asaph, to give instruction." That this Psalm was written at a time when the temple was ruined, Jerusalem burnt, and the prophets scattered or destroyed, is evident. But it is not so clear whether the desolations here refer to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or to the desolation that took place under the Romans about the seventieth year of the Christian era. Calmet inclines to the former opinion; and supposes the Psalm to be a lamentation over the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 74
Maschil of Asaph. Some think that Asaph, the penman of this psalm, was not the same that lived in the times of David, but some other of the same name, a descendant of his (k), that lived after the Babylonish captivity, since the psalm treats of things that were done at the time the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, or after; but this hinders not that it might be the same man; for why might he not, under a spirit of prophecy, speak of the sufferings of the church in later ages, as well as David and others testify before hand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow? The psalm is called "Maschil", because it gives knowledge of, and causes to understand what afflictions should befall the church and people of God in later times. The Targum is,
"a good understanding by the hands of Asaph.''
Some think the occasion of the psalm was the Babylonish captivity, as before observed, when indeed the city and temple were burnt; but then there were prophets, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and after them Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; which is here denied, Psalm 74:9, others think it refers to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; but though prophecy indeed had then ceased, and the temple was profaned, yet not burnt. The Jews apply it to their present captivity, and to the profanation of the temple, by Titus (l), and to the destruction both of the city and temple by him; so Theodoret: the title of it in the Syriac version is,
"when David saw the angel slaying the people, and he wept and said, on me and my seed, and not on these innocent sheep; and again a prediction of the siege of the city of the Jews, forty years after the ascension, by Vespasian the old man, and Titus his son, who killed multitudes of the Jews, and destroyed Jerusalem; and hence the Jews have been wandering to this day.''
But then it is not easy to account for it why a psalm of lamentation should be composed for the destruction of that people, which so righteously came upon them for their sins, and particularly for their contempt and rejection of the Messiah. It therefore seems better, with Calvin and Cocceius, to suppose that this psalm refers to the various afflictions, which at different times should come upon the church and people of God; and perhaps the superstition, wickedness, and cruelty of the Romish antichrist, may be hinted at.

(Psalm 74:1-11) The desolations of the sanctuary.
(Psalm 74:12-17) Pleas for encouraging faith.
(Psalm 74:18-23) Petitions for deliverances.

Appeal to God against Religious Persecution, in Which the Temple Is Violated
The מזמור 73 is here followed by a Maskı̂l (vid., Psalm 32:1) which, in common with the former, has the prominent, rare word משּׁוּאות (Psalm 74:3; Psalm 73:18), but also the old Asaphic impress. We here meet with the favourite Asaphic contemplation of Israel as a flock, and the predilection of the Asaphic Psalm for retrospective references to Israel's early history (Psalm 74:13-15). We also find the former of these two characteristic features in Psalm 79:1-13, which reflects the same circumstances of the times. Moreover Jeremiah stands in the same relationship to both Psalm. In Jeremiah 10:25; Psalm 79:6. is repeated almost word for word. And one is reminded of Psalm 74 by Lamentations 2:2 (cf. Psalm 74:7), Psalm 2:7 (cf. Psalm 74:4), and other passages. The lament "there is no prophet any more" (Psalm 74:9) sounds very much like Lamentations 2:9. In connection with Jeremiah's reproductive manner, and his habit of allowing himself to be prompted to new thoughts by the original passages by means of the association of ideas (cf. כּיום מועד, Lamentations 2:7, with בּקרב מועדך of the Psalm), it is natural to assign the priority in age to the two Asaphic national lamentation Psalm.
But the substance of both Psalm, which apparently brings us down not merely into the Chaldaean, but even into the Maccabaean age, rises up in opposition to it. After his return from the second Egyptian expedition (170 b.c.) Antiochus Epiphanes chastised Jerusalem, which had been led into revolt by Jason, in the most cruel manner, entered the Temple accompanied by the court high priest Menalaus, and carried away the most costly vessels, and even the gold of the walls and doors, with him. Myriads of the Jews were at that time massacred or sold as slaves. Then during the fourth Egyptian expedition (168) of Antiochus, when a party favourably disposed towards the Ptolemies again arose in Jerusalem, he sent Apollonius to punish the offenders (167), and his troops laid the city waste with fire and sword, destroyed houses and walls, burnt down several of the Temple-gates and razed many of its apartments. Also on this occasion thousands were slain and led away captive. Then began the attempt of Antiochus to Hellenize the Jewish nation. An aged Athenian was entrusted with the carrying out of this measure. Force was used to compel the Jews to accept the heathen religion, and in fact to serve Olympian Zeus (Jupiter): on the 15th of Chislev a smaller altar was erected upon the altar of burnt-offering in the Temple, and on the 25th of Chislev the first sacrifice was offered to Olympian Zeus in the Temple of Jahve, now dedicated to him. Such was the position of affairs when a band of faithful confessors rallied around the Asmonaean (Hasmonaean) priest Mattathias.
How strikingly does much in both Psalm, more particularly in Ps 74, harmonize with this position of affairs! At that time it was felt more painfully than ever that prophecy had become dumb, 1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41. The confessors and martyrs who bravely declared themselves were called, as in Psalm 79:2, חסידים, Ἀσιδαῖοι. At that time "they saw," as 1 Macc. 4:38 says, "the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt up, and shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest, or as in one of the mountains, yea, and the priests' chambers pulled down." the doors of the Temple-gates were burned to ashes (cf. 2 Macc. 8:33; 1:8). The religious אותות (Psalm 74:4) of the heathen filled the place where Jahve was wont to reveal Himself. Upon the altar of the court stood the βδέλυγμα ἐρημώσεως; in the courts they had planted trees, and likewise the "signs" of heathendom; and the לשׁכות (παστοφόρια) lay in ruins. When later on, under Demetrius Stoer (161), Alcimus (an apostate whom Antiochus had appointed high priest) and Bacchides advanced with promises of peace, but with an army at the same time, a band of scribes, the foremost of the Asidai'oi of Israel, went forth to meet them to intercede for their nation. Alcimus, however, seized sixty of them, slaughtered them in one day, and that, as it is added in 1 Macc. 7:16f., "according to the word which he wrote: The flesh of Thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them." The formula of citation κατὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν (τοὺς λόγου οὓς) ἔγραψε, and more particularly the ἔγραψε - which as being the aorist cannot have the Scripture (ἡ γραφή), and, since the citation is a prayer to god, not God, but only the anonymous psalmist, as its subject (vid., however, the various readings in Grimm on this passage) - sounds as though the historian were himself conscious that he was quoting a portion of Scripture that had taken its rise among the calamities of that time. In fact, no age could be regarded as better warranted in incorporating some of its songs in the Psalter than the Maccabaean, the sixty-third week predicted by Daniel, the week of suffering bearing in itself the character of the time of the end, this strictly martyr age of the Old Covenant, to which the Book of Daniel awards a high typical significance in relation to the history of redemption.
But unbiassed as we are in the presence of the question whether there are Maccabaean Psalm, still there is, on the other hand, much, too, that is against the referring of the two Psalm to the Maccabaean age. In Psalm 79:1-13 there is nothing that militates against referring it to the Chaldaean age, and Psalm 79:11 (cf. Psalm 102:21; Psalm 69:34) is even favourable to this. And in Psalm 74, in which Psalm 74:4, Psalm 74:8, Psalm 74:9 are the most satisfactorily explained from the Maccabaean age, there are, again, other parts which are better explained from the Chaldaean. For what is said in Psalm 74:7, "they have set Thy Temple on fire," applies just as unconditionally as it runs to the Chaldaeans, but not to the Syrians. And the cry of prayer, Psalm 74:3, "lift up Thy footsteps to the eternal ruins," appears to assume a laying waste that has taken place within the last few years at least, such as the Maccabaean age cannot exhibit, although at the exaltation of the Maccabees Jerusalem was ἀοίκητος ὡς ἔρημος (1 Macc. 3:45). Hitzig, it is true, renders: raise Thy footsteps for sudden attacks without end; but both the passages in which משּׁוּאות occurs mutually secure to this word the signification "desolations" (Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, and Saadia). If, however, the Chaldaean catastrophe were meant, then the author of both Psalm, on the ground of Ezra 2:41; Nehemiah 7:44 (cf. Nehemiah 11:22), might be regarded as an Asaphite of the time of the Exile, although they might also be composed by any one in the Asaphic style. And as regards their relation to Jeremiah, we ought to be contented with the fact that Jeremiah, whose peculiarity as a writer is otherwise so thoroughly reproductive, is, notwithstanding, also reproduced by later writers, and in this instance by the psalmist.
Nothing is more certain than that the physiognomy of these Psalm does not correspond to any national misfortune prior to the Chaldaean catastrophe. Vaihinger's attempt to comprehend them from the time of Athaliah's reign of terror, is at issue with itself. In the history of Israel instances of the sacking of Jerusalem and of the Temple are not unknown even prior to the time of Zedekiah, as in the reign of Jehoram, but there is no instance of the city being reduced to ashes. Since even the profanation of the Temple by the Persian general Bagoses (Josephus, Ant. xi. 7), to which Ewald formerly referred this Psalm, was not accompanied by any injury of the building itself, much less its reduction to ashes, there remains only the choice between the laying waste of Jerusalem and of the Temple in the year 588 and in the year 167. We have reserved to ourselves the liberty of acknowledging some insertions from the time of the Maccabees in the Psalter; supra, pp. 6-8. Now since in both Psalm, apart from the משׁאות נצח, everything accords with the Maccabaean age, whilst when we refer them to the Chaldaean period the scientific conscience is oppressed by many difficulties (more especially in connection with Psalm 74:4, Psalm 74:8-9; Psalm 79:2-3), we yield to the force of the impression and base both Psalm upon the situation of the Jewish nation under Antiochus and Demetrius. Their contents coincide with the prayer of Judas Maccabaeus in 2 Macc. 8:1-4.