Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 74:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 74:13. Thou didst divide the sea — When our fathers came from Egypt.

Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. — Pharaoh, his captains, and all his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, when attempting to pursue them.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 74:0 Israel in captivity

This psalm belongs to the time that followed the destruction of the nation Israel. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC, and Babylon the southern kingdom during the years 605-587 BC. The people were taken captive into foreign lands and the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (2 Kings 25:8-12). Now, with the centre of their religious life gone, the people feel cut off from God. Worse than that, the bitter years in captivity lead them to doubt God’s faithfulness.

Has God forgotten his covenant with Israel? The people invite him to go and inspect the ruins of the city and the temple. Perhaps it will rouse him to remember his covenant and bring them back to their homeland (1-3). They describe the scene of defilement and destruction in the temple: heathen victory symbols set up in the Holy Place (4); the beautiful woodwork broken, smashed and burnt (5-8); not a messenger of God to be found anywhere in the land (9).
Surely such a sight will rouse God from his inaction and cause him to act for them (10-11). Certainly, he is not lacking in power, for he has worked for them in the past. He directed the world of nature in such a way as to save Israel (12-17). Will he not therefore silence those who dishonour him? Will he not save his helpless people according to the covenant he made with them (18-20)? By acting against the oppressors, God can defend his cause and rescue his people (21-23).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Yet God is my King of old, Working Salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.”

“Yet God is my king of old” With the secular kingdom and the racial nation doomed, there was little the psalmist could do except to remember God’s prior mercies and marvelous blessings wrought upon behalf of Israel; therefore, he turned to them.

“Working salvation in the midst of the earth” This refers to God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery before the eyes of all the nations on earth.

“Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength” This is undeniably a reference to God’s deliverance of Israel from the armies of Pharaoh by dividing the sea and marching them across an extensive arm of the Indian Ocean on dry land.

“Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters” The “sea monsters” here are figurative terms applicable to Pharaoh and to Egypt. They were indeed broken in the waters, when Pharaoh ordered his armies to follow Israel into the ocean.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength - Margin, as in Hebrew, “break.” That is, he had by his power “broken up” the strength of the sea so that it offered no resistance to their passing through it. The allusion is evidently to the passage through the Red Sea, Exodus 14:21.

Thou brakest the heads of the dragons - Margin, “whales.” On the meaning of the word used here - תנין tannı̂yn - see the notes at Isaiah 13:22; notes at Job 30:29. It refers here, undoubtedly, to crocodiles or sea monsters. The language here is used to denote the absolute power of God as manifested over the sea when the people of Israel passed through it. It was as if by slaying all the mighty monsters of the deep that would have resisted their passage, he had made their transit entirely safe.

In the waters - That reside in the waters of the sea.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

13.Thou hast divided the sea by thy power. The prophet now collects together certain kinds of deliverances highly worthy of remembrance; all of them, however, belonging to the first deliverance by which God emancipated his people from the tyranny of Egypt. We will find him afterwards descending to the general commendation of the goodness of God which is diffused through the whole world. Thus from the special grace which God vouchsafes to his Church, he passes on to speak of the good-will which he displays towards all mankind. In the first place, he says, Thou hast divided, or cleaved, the sea. Some think that the following clause is subjoined as an effect of what is stated in the first clause, — God, by drying up the sea, having caused the whales and other great fishes to die. I am, however, of opinion, that it is to be taken metaphorically for Pharaoh and his army; this mode of expression being very common among the prophets, especially when they speak of the Egyptians, whose country was washed by a sea abounding with fish, and divided by the Nile. Pharaoh is, therefore, not improperly termed Leviathan, ⁽²³⁵⁾ on account of the advantages of the sea possessed by his country, and because, in reigning over that land with great splendor, he might be compared to a whale moving up and down at its ease in the midst of the waters of the mighty ocean. ⁽²³⁶⁾ As God put forth his power at that time for the deliverance of the people, to assure the Church that he would always be her protector and the guardian of her welfare, the encouragement afforded by this example ought not to be limited exclusively to one age. It is, therefore, with good reason applied to the descendants of that ancient race, that they might improve it as a means of confirming and establishing their faith. The prophet does not here recount all the miracles which God had wrought at the departure of the people from the land of Egypt; but in adverting to some of them, he comprehends by the figure synecdoche, all that Moses has narrated concerning them at greater length. When he says that leviathan was given for food to the Israelites, and that even in the wilderness, ⁽²³⁷⁾ there is a beautiful allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. It is as if he had said, that then a bountiful provision of victuals was laid up for the nourishment of the people; for when their enemies were destroyed, the quiet and security which the people in consequence enjoyed served, so to speak, as food to prolong their life. By the wilderness, is not meant the countries lying on the sea coast, though they are dry and barren, but the deserts at a great distance from the sea. The same subject is prosecuted in the following verse, where it is declared, that the fountain was cleaved or divided, that is, it was so when God caused a stream of water to gush from the rock to supply the wants of the people. ⁽²³⁸⁾ Finally, it is added, that mighty rivers ⁽²³⁹⁾ were dried up, an event which happened when God caused the waters of the Jordan to turn back to make a way for his people to pass over. Some would have the Hebrew word איתן, ethan, which signifies mighty, to be a proper name, as if the correct translation were rivers of Ethan; but this interpretation is altogether without foundation.

(235) Calvin supposes that the whale is the animal here referred to, and this was the opinion for a long time universally held. But from a comparison of the description given by Job of the Leviathan (Job 41:0) with what is known of the natural history of the crocodile, there can be little doubt that the crocodile is the Leviathan of Scripture. This is now very generally agreed upon. “Almost all the oldest commentators,” says Dr Good, “I may say unconditionally all of them concurred in regarding the whale as the animal” intended by the Leviathan. “Beza and Diodati were among the first to interpret it ‘the crocodile.’ And Bochart has since supported this last rendering with a train of argument, which has nearly overwhelmed all opposition, and has brought almost every commentator over to his opinion.” — Dr Good ’s New Translation of Job “With respect to the Leviathan,” says Fry, “all are now pretty well agreed that it can apply only to the crocodile, and probably it was nothing but a defective knowledge of the language of the book of Job, or of the natural history of this stupendous animal, which led former commentators to imagine the description applicable to any other.” —Fry ’s New Translation and Exposition of the Book of Job This Egyptian animal, the crocodile of the Nile, as we have formerly observed, (p. 38, note,) was anciently employed as a symbol of the Egyptian power, or of their king. Parkhurst remarks that in Scheuchzer’s Physica Sacra may be seen a medal with Julius Caesar’s head on one side, and on the reverse a crocodile with this inscription, — Ægypte Capta, Egypt Taken. This strengthens the conclusion that the crocodile is the animal intended by the name Leviathan. Both the etymology of the name Leviathan, and to what language it belongs, according to Simonis, are unknown. But according to Gesenius it signifies “properly the twisted animal.” It is affirmed by the Arabic lexicographers quoted by Bochart, (Phaleg Lib. 1, cap. 15,) that Pharaoh in the Egyptian language signified a crocodile; and if so, there may be some such allusion to his name in this passage, and in Ezekiel 29:3, and Ezekiel 32:2, where the king of Egypt is represented by the same animal, as was made to the name of Draco, when Herodicus (in a sarcasm recorded by Aristotle, Rhet Lib. 2, cap. 23) said that his laws, — which were very severe, — were the laws οὐκ ἀνθρώπου ἀλλὰ δράκοντος, non hominis sed draconis. — Merrick ’s Annotations “The heads of Leviathan” may denote the princes of Egypt, or the leaders of the Egyptian armies.

(236) “Regnoit en grand triomphe, comme la balene se pourmene a sou aise au milieu de ce grande amas d’eaux.” — Fr.

(237) Calvin reads, “thy people in the wilderness.” But thy has nothing to represent it in the original, which literally is, “to a people, to those of the wilderness.” Those who adopt this rendering are not agreed as to what is to be understood by the expression. Some think it means the birds and beasts of prey, who devoured the dead bodies of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, when cast upon the coast of the Red Sea by the tides. See Exodus 14:30. If such is the meaning, these birds and beasts of prey are called “the people of wilderness,” as being its principal inhabitants. That עם, am, people, is sometimes to be thus interpreted in Scripture is evident from Proverbs 30:25, where both the ants and the conies are styled a people But as the desert on the coast of which the Egyptians were thrown up was inhabited by tribes of people who lived on fishes — even on those of the largest kind, which they found cast upon the shore by the tides — and were from thence called Ιχθυοφάγοι, or fish-eaters; some interpreters suppose that these are “the people of the wilderness” here mentioned; and that as Pharaoh and his host are represented under the figure of the Leviathan and other monsters of the deep, so these people, in allusion to their common way of living, are figuratively said to have preyed on their dead bodies, by which is understood their enriching themselves with their spoils.

(238) “Quand Dieu feit que de la roche saillit un cours d’eau pour la necessite du peuple.” — Fr.

(239) It is rivers in the plural, from which it would appear that the Jordan was not the only river which was dried up, to give an easy passage to the Israelites. The Chaldee specifies the Arnon, the Jabbok, and the Jordan, as the rivers here referred to. With respect to the Jordan, see Joshua 3:16. As to the miraculous drying up either of the Arnon or the Jabbok, we have no distinct account in Scripture. But in Numbers 21:0, after it is mentioned, Numbers 21:13, that the Israelites “pitched on the other side of Arnon,” it follows, Numbers 21:14, “Wherefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.” From this it would appear that God wrought at “the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar,” miracles similar to that which was wrought at the Red Sea, when it was divided to open up a passage for the chosen tribes.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 74:1-23

Psalms 74:1-23 is one of those psalms where the psalmist again is speaking of the desolation that is come, and the apparent quietness of God in the face of the desolation. God didn't do anything to stop it. God has allowed this desolation, and God's hand is not yet seen, as far as the delivering of the people.

O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Lift up your feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. For thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs. A man was famous according to as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. But now they are breaking down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers ( Psalms 74:1-6 ).

And so he speaks of the desolation that had come to the house of God. How they had taken the axe and the hammers and had destroyed the beautiful carved works that were there in the sanctuary of God. And how,

They then set it on fire, and they defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground ( Psalms 74:7 ).

And so the holy of holies was cast down.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all of the synagogues of God in the land. We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long ( Psalms 74:8-9 ).

We don't know how long this desolation is gonna go on.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? Why do you withdraw your hand, even your right hand? pluck it out of your bosom, Lord ( Psalms 74:10-11 ).

Get busy God, help us.

For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You did divide the sea by your strength: you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. You broke the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. You did cleave the fountain and the flood: and you dried up the mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night is also yours: and you have prepared the light and the sun. You have set all the borders of the earth: you have made summer and winter. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. O deliver not the soul of your turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of the poor for ever. Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches thee daily. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increases continually ( Psalms 74:12-23 ).

And so the psalmist crying out unto God because of the desolations of the temples, the synagogues, by the enemies, the oppression of God's people. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 74

The writer appears to have written this communal lament psalm after one of Israel’s enemies destroyed the sanctuary. [Note: See Ralph W. Klein, Israel in Exile: A Theological Interpretation, pp. 19-20.] The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. may therefore be the background. The writer asked the Lord to remember His people and defeat her enemies, as He had in the past, for His own glory (cf. Psalms 79; Psalms 137; Lam.).

"The temple has been violated. The key symbol of life has been lost. Things in all parts of life fall apart-precisely because the center has not held. This psalm of protest and grief does not concern simply a historical invasion and the loss of a building. It speaks about the violation of the sacral key to all reality, the glue that holds the world together." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 68.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. An appeal for divine help 74:10-17

The psalmist pleaded for God to help His people and to subdue their enemy. The Lord’s reputation fell with the sanctuary in the eyes of Israel’s neighbors. Ancient Near Easterners regarded a god’s temple as the reflection of his glory. Now that the temple on Mt. Zion had suffered damage, the nations would have concluded that Yahweh was unable to defend His people.

Asaph recalled God’s mighty acts in the past in order to motivate Him to act for His people by defeating their enemy in the present (Psalms 74:12-17). Psalms 74:13-14 describe the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus.

". . . the language of Psalms 74:12-14, while tailored to reflect the redemptive character of the Exodus event, also alludes to God’s victory over chaos at creation." [Note: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p. 260.]

The sea monsters refer to Pharaoh’s soldiers, and Leviathan was a mythical monster that the writer used to describe Egypt here. The creatures of the wilderness are the Israelites. Psalms 74:15 recalls events in the wilderness wanderings and the crossing of the Jordan. Psalms 74:16-17 go back to God’s creation of the cosmos.

"The point here is that what Baal had claimed in the realm of myth, God had done in the realm of history-and done for His people, working salvation." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 268.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength,.... This and the following instances from hence to Psalms 74:18 are proofs of God's working salvation in the midst of the earth; some of them seem peculiar to the people of Israel, and others are benefits common to mankind in general; which the church makes use of to encourage her faith and hope, in expectation of salvation, and deliverance out of her present distressed and melancholy circumstances. This seems to refer to the Lord's dividing of the Red sea into parts by a strong east wind, while Moses lifted up his rod and stretched out his hand as he was ordered, as a token of the divine power, and so the children of Israel passed through it as on dry land, Exodus 14:21, and he that did this can make way for his redeemed ones to return to Zion with everlasting joy, Isaiah 51:10. Some render the words, "thou hast broken the sea by thy strength" g; subdued and conquered it, and so hast the dominion over it, rulest the raging of it, settest bounds to it, and hast ordered its proud waves to go so far and no farther; and thus the Arabic version, "thou hast made it to stand"; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "thou hast confirmed it": but our version is best, which refers it to the work of God at the Red sea, and with which the Targum agrees; and Aben Ezra observes, that some refer it to the dividing of the Red sea:

thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters: or great whales, as the word is rendered in Genesis 1:21, by which are meant Pharaoh and his generals, his captains and chief men, who were destroyed in the waters of the Red sea; comparable to dragons for their strength, for their cruelty to the children of Israel, and for their wrath and malice against them; and so, for the same reason, another Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in later times, is called the great dragon, that lies in the midst of his rivers, Ezekiel 29:3 and the king of Babylon or of Egypt, Isaiah 27:1. So the Targum paraphrases it:

"thou hast broken the heads of dragons, and hast suffocated the Egyptians in the sea.''

Rome Pagan is compared to a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, which have been broken and destroyed, Revelation 12:3, and Rome Papal has the power, seat, and great authority of the dragon; and though the Romish antichrist has two horns like a lamb, he speaks as a dragon, who also has seven heads and ten horns, and which ere long will be broke in pieces, see Revelation 13:1, in the faith of which the church might be strengthened, by considering what God had done to the heads of the dragon in the Red sea; to which may be added that Satan is called a dragon, Psalms 91:13, whose head was bruised, and his principalities and powers spoiled, by Christ at his death, and will be utterly destroyed at his second coming.

g פוררת "contrivisti", Pagninus, Montanus; "disrupisti", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis "rupisti", Cocceius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.   13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.   14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.   15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.   16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.   17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.

      The lamenting church fastens upon something here which she calls to mind, and therefore hath she hope (as Lamentations 3:21), with which she encourages herself and silences her own complaints. Two things quiet the minds of those that are here sorrowing for the solemn assembly:--

      I. That God is the God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people (Psalms 74:12; Psalms 74:12): God is my King of old. This comes in both as a plea in prayer to God (Psalms 44:4, thou art my King, O God!) and as a prop to their own faith and hope, to encourage themselves to expect deliverance, considering the days of old,Psalms 77:5. The church speaks as a complex body, the same in every age, and therefore calls God, "My King, my King of old," or, "from antiquity;" he of old put himself into that relation to them and appeared and acted for them in that relation. As Israel's King, he wrought salvation in the midst of the nations of the earth; for what he did, in the government of the world, tended towards the salvation of his church. Several things are here mentioned which God had done for his people as their King of old, which encouraged them to commit themselves to him and depend upon him.

      1. He had divided the sea before them when they came out of Egypt, not by the strength of Moses or his rod, but by his own strength; and he that could do that could do any thing.

      2. He had destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Pharaoh was the leviathan; the Egyptians were the dragons, fierce and cruel. Observe, (1.) The victory obtained over these enemies. God broke their heads, baffled their politics, as when Israel, the more they were afflicted by them, multiplied the more. God crushed their powers, though complicated, ruined their country by ten plagues, and at last drowned them all in the Red Sea. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,Ezekiel 31:18. It was the Lord's doing; none besides could do it, and he did it with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. This was typical of Christ's victory over Satan and his kingdom, pursuant to the first promise, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head. (2.) The improvement of this victory for the encouragement of the church: Thou gavest him to be meat to the people of Israel, now going to inhabit the wilderness. The spoil of the Egyptians enriched them; they stripped their slain, and so got the Egyptians' arms and weapons, as before they had got their jewels. Or, rather, this providence was meat to their faith and hope, to support and encourage them in reference to the other difficulties they were likely to meet with in the wilderness. It was part of the spiritual meat which they were all made to eat of. Note, The breaking of the heads of the church's enemies is the joy and strength of the hearts of the church's friends. Thus the companions make a banquet even of leviathan, Job 41:6.

      3. God had both ways altered the course of nature, both in fetching streams out of the rock and turning streams into rock, Psalms 74:15; Psalms 74:15. (1.) He had dissolved the rock into waters: Thou didst bring out the fountain and the flood (so some read it); and every one knows whence it was brought, out of the rock, out of the flinty rock. Let this never be forgotten, but let it especially be remembered that the rock was Christ, and the waters out of it were spiritual drink. (2.) He had congealed the waters into rock: Thou driedst up mighty rapid rivers, Jordan particularly at the time when it overflowed all its banks. He that did these things could now deliver his oppressed people, and break the yoke of the oppressors, as he had done formerly; nay, he would do it, for his justice and goodness, his wisdom and truth, are still the same, as well as his power.

      II. That the God of Israel is the God of nature, Psalms 74:16; Psalms 74:17. It is he that orders the regular successions and revolutions, 1. Of day and night. He is the Lord of all time. The evening and the morning are of his ordaining. It is he that opens the eyelids of the morning light, and draws the curtains of the evening shadow. He has prepared the moon and the sun (so some read it), the two great lights, to rule by day and by night alternately. The preparing of them denotes their constant readiness and exact observance of their time, which they never miss a moment. 2. Of summer and winter: "Thou hast appointed all the bounds of the earth, and the different climates of its several regions, for thou hast made summer and winter, the frigid and the torrid zones; or, rather, the constant revolutions of the year and its several seasons." Herein we are to acknowledge God, from whom all the laws and powers of nature are derived; but how does this come in here? (1.) He that had power at first to settle, and still to preserve, this course of nature by the diurnal and annual motions of the heavenly bodies, has certainly all power both to save and to destroy, and with him nothing is impossible, nor are any difficulties or oppositions insuperable. (2.) He that is faithful to his covenant with the day and with the night, and preserves the ordinances of heaven inviolable will certainly make good his promise to his people and never cast off those whom he has chosen, Jeremiah 31:36; Jeremiah 33:20; Jeremiah 33:21. His covenant with Abraham and his seed is as firm as that with Noah and his sons, Genesis 8:21. (3.) Day and night, summer and winter, being counterchanged in the course of nature, throughout all the borders of the earth, we can expect no other than that trouble and peace, prosperity and adversity, should be, in like manner, counterchanged in all the borders of the church. We have as much reason to expect affliction as to expect night and winter. But we have then no more reason to despair of the return of comfort than we have to despair of day and summer.