You Did It To Yourself

Psalm 74: 1 – 23

You did it to yourself

A Contemplation of Asaph.

1 O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? 2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed— This Mount Zion where You have dwelt. 3 Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations. The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary. 4 Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place; They set up their banners for signs. 5 They seem like men who lift up axes among the thick trees. 6 And now they break down its carved work, all at once, with axes and hammers. 7 They have set fire to Your sanctuary; They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground. 8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them altogether.” They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land. 9 We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet; Nor is there any among us who knows how long. 10 O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?

11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them. 12 For God Is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. 14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up mighty rivers. 16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. 17 You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter. 18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name. 19 Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast! Do not forget the life of Your poor forever. 20 Have respect to the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty. 21 Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed! Let the poor and needy praise Your name. 22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; Remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. 23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies; The tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually.

I think it is fair to say that we all are excited as we look around at the conditions of the world today is the fact that the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is soon.

However, along with this good news is the fact that we see the awful things that go along with the end times.

I am bothered by what is happening to our country. One group continues to break the laws of the land and nothing happens to them while innocent people are set up with lies and deceit and they are constantly dealt with severely.

The persecution of innocent people and lawlessness is a big problem but the one thing which that really bothers me is the insult that is against our Holy King. You see it says in the bible which I will point out in a moment that He Is the One Who Is in control of all things. He Is the One Who puts people in authority so when mere men and women pull their evil acts against someone He has put in authority then I see it as a direct offense against my Holy God.

Romans 13: 1 – 2, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”

Notice the end of verse 2, “They will bring judgment on themselves.” This is why verse 22 stood out to me which says, “Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; Remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily.”

A Contemplation of Asaph.

The Psalm is described as a maschil of Asaph. It is not, however, likely that it was written by Asaph himself as it refers to the destruction of the Sanctuary. We may thus see it as the composition of one or more of ‘the sons of Asaph’, the Temple musicians, those who carried on the family tradition.

Thirteen Psalms are called Maschils, but we do not know precisely why. Some have suggested that it means a didactic (teaching) Psalm but as that is not true of all the Psalms described as Maschils the idea must be partly discounted. It is true that the word ‘maschil’ could relate to the idea of instruction, but it could equally refer to having ‘understanding’ or be indicating that it is a meditation. Thus, applying all three ideas we can see it as instructing us so that we gain an understanding of God and His ways through meditation.