Psalm 74:3

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Lift up thy feet.—Better, Lift thy steps. A poetical expression. God is invoked to hasten to view the desolation of the Temple. A somewhat similar expression will be found in Genesis 29:1 (margin).

Perpetual desolations.—The word rendered “desolations” occurs also in Psalm 73:18, where it is rendered “destruction.” Here, perhaps, we should render ruins which must be ever ruins, or complete ruins, or possibly, taking the first meaning of netsach, ruins of splendour. Isaiah 11:4 does not offer a parallel, since the Hebrew is different, and plainly refers to the long time the places have been in ruins.

Even all . . .—Better, the enemy hath devastated all in the holy place. 1 Maccabees 1:38-40; 1 Maccabees 3:45 (“Now Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness”) give the best explanation of the verse, descriptive, as it is, of the condition of the whole of Zion.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 74:3. Lift up thy feet — This is spoken after the manner of men, and means, Come speedily to our rescue, and do not delay, as men do when they sit or stand still; unto — Or rather, because of, the perpetual desolations — Namely, those ruins of the city and country, which had lasted so very long, and which, if God did not come to their help, he intimates, would be perpetual and irrecoverable. Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly, &c. — God had deserted his sanctuary, and the shechinah, or cloud of glory, emblematical of the divine presence, had gone up from between the cherubim: see Ezekiel 10:4. In consequence of which the heathen people had invaded that holy place, and laid it waste. And the psalmist here supplicates and urges God’s return to them, as that which alone could restore their temple, city, and country to their former happy state.

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

Lift up thy feet - That is, Advance, or draw near. Come and look directly and personally on the desolations which now exist in the holy city.

Unto the perpetual desolations - Hebrew, "the ruins of perpetuity," or eternity; that is, such as have been long continued, and threaten to continue forever. The ruin had not suddenly come, and it did not seem likely soon to pass away, but appeared to be entire and permanent. The destruction of the city seemed to be complete and final.

Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly - That is, with wicked intent and purpose. The reference seems to be to the Chaldeans, and to the ruin which they had brought upon the temple and city.

In the sanctuary - That is, either Jerusalem, considered as a holy place; or the temple, the place of the public worship of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. Lift … feet—(Ge 29:1)—that is, Come (to behold) the desolations (Ps 73:19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Lift up thy feet, i.e. come speedily for our rescue, and do not sit or stand still, as hitherto thou seemest to do.

Unto the perpetual desolations; or rather, because of (as this prefix oft signifies) the perpetual desolations. So it is a powerful motive to God, to come to their help, because otherwise our destruction is everlasting and irrecoverable.

In the sanctuary; or, against thy sanctuary; of which see Psalm 74:7.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations,.... That is, arise, hasten, move swiftly, and in the greatness of strength, and come and see the desolations made by the enemy, which look as if they would remain for ever; meaning either the desolations made in the city and temple of Jerusalem, either by Nebuchadnezzar, or by Titus; or the havocs and devastations made in the church of God by the tyranny and persecutions of antichrist; which have continued so long, that an end of them has been almost despaired of. So Jacob is said to "lift up his feet"; which we render went on his way, Genesis 29:1. Some take these words in a different sense, as a prayer for the destruction of the church's enemies; so the Targum,

"lift up thy feet or goings, to make desolate the nations for ever;''

and Kimchi makes but one sentence of this and the following clause, and reads it thus,

"lift up thy feet, to make desolate for ever every enemy that does wickedly in the sanctuary:''

but the accent "athnach", which divides propositions, and is upon the word forbids such a reading. The former sense is best, and most agreeable to the context;

even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary; by profaning and destroying the temple, as did Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and Titus; or by antichrist sitting in the temple and church of God, setting up idolatrous worship in it, and blaspheming the tabernacle of God, and those that dwell therein, 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

Geneva Study Bible

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Lift up thy feet] Bestir Thyself: come in might and majesty to visit and deliver. the perpetual desolations] R.V. the perpetual ruins: a word found elsewhere only in Psalm 73:18. Cp. the threat, Jeremiah 25:9, and the promises, Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4.

even all &c.] Better as R.V., All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary; or R.V. marg., The enemy hath wrought all evil.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; or, the perpetual ruins. God is asked to visit and protect, or else to visit and inspect, the desolate ruins with which the Babylonians have covered Mount Zion. Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. The Babylonians had plundered the temple of all its treasures, breaking the precious Phoenician bronze work into pieces, and carrying off everything of value that was portable (2 Kings 25:13-17). They had also "burnt the house of the Lord "(ver. 9), and "broken down the walls of Jerusalem" (ver. 10) and the walls of the temple to a large extent (see below, ver. 7). It is quite certain that neither Shishak nor the Syrians under Antiochus Epiphanes created any such devastation. Psalm 74:3

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!