Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 74:16

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 74:16. The day is thine, the night also is thine — Thou art the Author of light, and of the sun, which is the means of dispensing it.

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

“The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou has made summer and winter.”

This psalm is called didactic, that is, a teaching psalm; and here the teaching relates to the basic truth that the God of Israel is the true Creator of everything, the day, the night, the sun, the winter, the summer, the land and the sea, everything! Significantly, this comes right after the use of that terminology from some of the ancient mythology believed by the pagan world of antiquity. We like what Baigent had to say about this:

“The vocabulary of ancient Near Eastern lore is here applied as metaphor to the Exodus. Pagan religious poets traditionally described their god’s victory over the sea and monsters like Leviathan. Israel triumphantly claimed such language for what God did on their behalf when they crossed the Red Sea and when they crossed Jordan on dry land. The lord of sacred history is also the powerful God of creation and providence.”The New Layman’s Bible Commentary, p. 652.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The day is thine, the night also is thine - Thou hast universal dominion. All things are under thy control. Thou hast power, therefore, to grant what we desire of thee.

Thou hast prepared the light and the sun - He who has made the sun - that greatest and noblest object of creation to the view of man - must have almighty power, and must be able to give what we need.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

16.The day is thine, the night also is thine. The prophet now descends to the consideration of the divine benefits which are extended in common to all mankind. Having commenced with the special blessings by which God manifested himself to be the Father of his chosen people, he now aptly declares that God exercises his beneficence towards the whole human family. He teaches us, that it is not by chance that the days and nights succeed each other in regular succession, but that this order was established by the appointment of God. The secondary cause of these phenomena is added, being that arrangement by which God has invested the sun with the power and office of illuminating the earth; for after having spoken of the light he adds the sun, as the principal means of communicating it, and, so to speak, the chariot in which it is brought when it comes to show itself to men. ⁽²⁴⁰⁾ As then the incomparable goodness of God towards the human race clearly shines forth in this beautiful arrangement, the prophet justly derives from it an argument for strengthening and establishing his trust in God.

(240) “Comme le principal instrument d’icelle, et par maniere de dire, le chariot auquel elle est apportee, quand elle se vient monstrer aux hommes.” — Fr.

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

The day is thine, and the night also is thine,.... He made the one and the other, and divided the one from the other; and can make them longer or shorter, clear or cloudy, as he pleases: and the day of prosperity and night of adversity are at his disposal; all the times of his people and of his church are in his hands; sometimes it is a night of darkness, deadness, sleepiness, and security, as it now is; ere long there will be no more night, but bright day; the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven fold as the light of seven days; and this is to be expected from him whose is the day and the night also, Revelation 21:25. Jarchi interprets the day, of the redemption of Israel; and the night, of distresses and afflictions:

thou hast prepared the light and the sun; first the light, and then the sun; for the light was before the sun; or the luminary, even the sun. Aben Ezra interprets the "light" of the moon, and so the Targum; and Kimchi, both of the moon and of the stars; Jarchi takes the light figuratively to be meant of the light of the law; but it is much better to understand it of the light of the Gospel, which God has prepared, and will send forth more largely in the latter day, whereby the whole earth shall be lightened; and when Christ the "sun" of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings, and who gives both the light of grace and glory to his people.

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.