Psalm 74:2

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Purchased.—Or, as in LXX., acquired. This word, together with the word “redeemed” in the next clause, and “right hand” in Psalm 74:11, show that Exodus 15 was in the writer’s mind. (See especially Psalm 74:12-13; Psalm 74:16 of that chapter.)

The word “congregation” here, as in the Mosaic books, presents the people in its religious aspect, as the expression “rod (or, tribe) of thine inheritance” presents it in its political character.

The rod of . . .—Better, which thou hast redeemed as the tribe of thine inheritance, i.e., as thine own tribe.

The expression, “rod of thine inheritance,” comes from Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19. (Comp. Isaiah 63:17.) It refers not to the shepherd’s crook, but to the sceptre, or leading staff, of the prince of a tribe, and so passes into a term for the tribe itself (Exodus 28:21; Judges 20:2).

Benson Commentary

Psalm 74:2. Remember thy congregation — That is, the Israelites, who are thy church, and whom at the expense of so many miracles, thou didst make thy peculiar people; show by thine actions that thou hast not utterly forgotten and forsaken them; which thou hast purchased — Hebrew, קנית, kanita, rendered bought, Deuteronomy 32:6, but which also signifies acquired or procured, though without price, as Ruth 4:9-10. Of old — When thou didst bring them out of Egypt, and form them into a commonwealth; gavest them laws, and didst enter into covenant with them at Sinai. The rod of thine inheritance — That people which thou hast measured out, as it were, by rod, to be thy portion: or, the tribe (as the word שׁבשׂ, shebet, here rendered rod, commonly signifies) of thine inheritance, that is, the tribe of Judah, which thou hast, in a special manner, chosen for thine inheritance, and for the seat of thy church and kingdom, and the birth of the Messiah. And thus here is an elegant gradation from the general to particulars: First, the congregation, consisting of all the tribes; then the tribe of Judah; and lastly, mount Zion. Nor is it strange that he mentions this tribe particularly, because the calamity and captivity here lamented principally befell this tribe and Benjamin, which was united with it, and subject to it; and those who returned from the captivity were generally of this tribe. This mount Zion — Which is often put for the temple, or the hill of Moriah, on which it was built.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

74:1-11 This psalm appears to describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans. The deplorable case of the people of God, at the time, is spread before the Lord, and left with him. They plead the great things God had done for them. If the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was encouragement to hope that he would not cast them off, much more reason have we to believe, that God will not cast off any whom Christ has redeemed with his own blood. Infidels and persecutors may silence faithful ministers, and shut up places of worship, and say they will destroy the people of God and their religion together. For a long time they may prosper in these attempts, and God's oppressed servants may see no prospect of deliverance; but there is a remnant of believers, the seed of a future harvest, and the despised church has survived those who once triumphed over her. When the power of enemies is most threatening, it is comfortable to flee to the power of God by earnest prayer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Remember thy congregation - The word rendered "congregation" means properly an "assembly," a "community," and it is frequently applied to the Israelites, or the Jewish people, considered as a body or a community associated for the service of God. Exodus 12:3; Exodus 16:1-2, Exodus 16:9; Leviticus 4:15; Numbers 27:17. The word used by the Septuagint is συναγωγή sunagōgē - synagogue - but refers here to the whole Jewish people, not to a particular synagogue or congregation.

Which thou hast purchased of old - In ancient times; in a former age. That is, Thou hast "purchased" them to thyself, or as thine own, by redeeming them from bondage, thus securing to thyself the right to them, as one does who redeems or purchases a thing. See the notes at Isaiah 43:3.

The rod of thine inheritance - Margin, as in Hebrew, "tribe." The Hebrew word - שׁבט shêbet - means properly "a staff," stick, rod; then, a shepherd's staff, a crook; then, a scepter; and then it is used to denote a "tribe," so called from the staff or scepter which the chief of the tribe carried as the symbol of authority. Exodus 28:21; Judges 20:2. The word "inheritance" is frequently applied to the children of Israel considered as belonging to God, as property inherited belongs to him who owns it - perhaps suggesting the idea that the right to them had come down, as inherited property does, from age to age. It was a right over them acquired long before, in the days of the patriarchs.

Which thou hast redeemed - By delivering them out of Egyptian bondage. So the church is now redeemed, and, as such, it belongs to God.

This mount Zion - Jerusalem - the seat of government, and of public worship - the capital of the nation.

Wherein thou last dwelt - By the visible symbol of thy presence and power. - On all these considerations the psalmist prays that God would not forget Jerusalem in the present time of desolation and trouble.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. The terms to denote God's relation to His people increase in force: "congregation"—"purchased"—"redeemed"—"Zion," His dwelling.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Remember; show by thine actions that thou hast not utterly forgotten and forsaken them.

Thy congregation; thy church or people. Purchased; or, redeemed, as it follows; or, bought, as it is Deu 32:6; or, procured, though without price, as this word is used, Ruth 4:9,10.

Of old; when thou broughtest them out of Egypt, and formedst them into a commonwealth, and gavest them laws, and didst enter into covenant with them at Sinai.

The rod of thine inheritance; that people which thou hast measured out as it were by rod, to be thy portion or inheritance, as they are called also Deu 32:6 See also Psalm 16:5,6 Jer 10:16. Or, the tribe (as this word commonly signifies)

of thine inheritance, i.e. the tribe of Judah, which thou hast in a special manner chosen for thine inheritance, and for the seat of the kingdom, and for the birth of the Messiah. And thus here is an elegant gradation from the general to particulars; first the congregation, consisting of all the tribes; then the tribe of Judah; and lastly,

Mount Zion. Nor is it strange that he mentions this tribe particularly, because the calamity and captivity here remembered did principally befall this tribe and Benjamin, which was united with it and subject to it, and the most that returned were of this tribe; for the generality of the other tubes were long before dispersed into other lands, and continue in their captivity to this day. Mount Zion; which is oft put for the temple, or the hill of Moriah, on which it was built.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old,.... Alluding to the redemption of the congregation of Israel out of Egypt, when they were said to be "purchased", Exodus 15:16 and as that people were typical of the people of God, they may be said to be "purchased then", even of old; though the purchase in reality was not made till the blood of Christ was shed, with which he purchased his church, Acts 20:28, indeed he was the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, in the purpose and promise of God, and in the typical sacrifices so early offered up, Revelation 13:8, and besides, the words may be considered as the words of the church of God groaning under antichristian oppression and cruelty, hundreds of years since the death of Christ, and so may be said to be of old purchased; and which is called a "congregation", because a select number, chosen of God, and called out of the world, and brought into one body, and into fellowship with Christ and one another; and though they may not meet together in one place, they are all of one body, and will one day make one general assembly and church of the firstborn, called "the congregation of the righteous", Psalm 1:5 now it is desired of the Lord for these, that they might be remembered with his lovingkindness and tender mercies, with his covenant and promises, and be delivered and saved out of the hands of their enemies:

the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; the Targum adds, out of Egypt; but this is to be understood not of the redemption of the people of Israel, but of the redemption of the church of God from sin, Satan, the law, the world, hell, and death; who are chosen by the Lord for his inheritance, his peculiar treasure and portion; and which he highly values and esteems, and is dear unto him as such, as the redemption of them by the blood of Christ shows:

this Mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt; meaning the church of God, which often goes by this name, both in the Old and in the New Testament, comparable to the mount of Zion for its height, holiness, and immoveableness; where the Lord has promised to dwell, and where he does dwell, and will for evermore. As the reference to Sion literally understood, it is called "this Sion", because well known, and because the psalm might be composed or said in it, as Kimchi observes; and which shows that it was written before the destruction of the city and temple, and while Zion was the seat of religious worship, and therefore a prophecy of future times.

Geneva Study Bible

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the {b} rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

(b) Which inheritance you have measured out for yourself as with a line or rod.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Remember] Cp. Psalm 74:18; Psalm 74:22; Lamentations 5:1; Isaiah 62:6.

purchased … redeemed] Reminiscences of the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:13; Exodus 15:16). Cp. Psalm 77:15; Psalm 78:35; Deuteronomy 32:6.

the rod &c.] Render with R.V.,

Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance.

The nation is called a tribe, as in Amos 3:1 it is called a family. So too in Jeremiah 10:16 (= Psalm 51:19); cp. Isaiah 63:17.

this mount Zion] Omit this: the pronoun here serves for the relative.

dwelt] Cp. Psalm 68:16. The verb is that from which later Judaism derived the term Shechinah to denote the abiding Presence of God among His people.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; or, which thou didst purchase of old. The reference is to the redemption out of Egypt (see Exodus 15:16). God is besought, though he has forgotten, once more to remember his people, and urged to do so by the memory of his former mercies (comp. vers. 12-17). The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; rather, which thou didst redeem to be the tribe of thine inheritance; i.e. the people of thine inheritance. "The conventional expression, 'the tribes of Israel,' was not always used after the fall of the northern kingdom" (Cheyne); comp. Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19. This Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt (comp. Psalm 73: 68). The expression, "this Mount Zion," implies that the psalm is composed either by one of the exiles before he is removed from the Holy Land, or by one of those who were left behind by the conquerors (2 Kings 25:12, 22; Jeremiah 42:10; Jeremiah 52:16). Psalm 74:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet begins with the earnest prayer that God would again have compassion upon His church, upon which His judgment of anger has fallen, and would again set up the ruins of Zion. Why for ever (Psalm 74:10, Psalm 79:5; Psalm 89:47, cf. Psalm 13:2)? is equivalent to, why so continually and, as it seems, without end? The preterite denotes the act of casting off, the future, Psalm 74:1, that lasting condition of this casting off. למה, when the initial of the following word is a guttural, and particularly if it has a merely half-vowel (although in other instances also, Genesis 12:19; Genesis 27:45; Sol 1:7), is deprived of its Dagesh and accented on the ultima, in order (as Mose ha-Nakdan expressly observes) to guard against the swallowing up of the ah; cf. on Psalm 10:1. Concerning the smoking of anger, vid., Psalm 18:9. The characteristically Asaphic expression צאן מרעיתו is not less Jeremianic, Jeremiah 23:1. In Psalm 74:2 God is reminded of what He has once done for the congregation of His people. קדם, as in Psalm 44:2, points back into the Mosaic time of old, to the redemption out of Egypt, which is represented in קנה (Exodus 15:17) as a purchasing, and in גאל (Psalm 77:15; Psalm 78:35, Exodus 15:13) as a ransoming (redemptio). שׁבט נחלתך is a factitive object; שׁבט is the name given to the whole nation in its distinctness of race from other peoples, as in Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19, cf. Isaiah 63:17. זה (Psalm 74:2) is rightly separated from הר־ציון (Mugrash); it stands directly for אשׁר, as in Psalm 104:8, Psalm 104:26; Proverbs 23:22; Job 15:17 (Ges. 122, 2). The congregation of the people and its central abode are, as though forgotten of God, in a condition which sadly contrasts with their election. משּׁאות נצח are ruins (vid., Psalm 73:18) in a state of such total destruction, that all hope of their restoration vanishes before it; נצח here looks forward, just as עולם (חרבות), Isaiah 63:12; Psalm 61:4, looks backwards. May God then lift His feet up high (פּעמים poetical for רגלים, cf. Psalm 58:11 with Psalm 68:24), i.e., with long hurried steps, without stopping, move towards His dwelling - lace that now lies in ruins, that by virtue of His interposition it may rise again. Hath the enemy made merciless havoc - he hath ill-treated (הרע, as in Psalm 44:3) everything (כּל, as in Psalm 8:7, Zephaniah 1:2, for חכּל or את־כּל) in the sanctuary - how is it possible that this sacrilegious vandalism should remain unpunished!