Hello Pastor John,
I hope y’all are having a sweet time at Vince and Amy’s this weekend.
Jamie and I were reading Psalms this morning, and a question came up as we were reading Psalm 74. In verses 3-10, it sounds as if some enemies of Israel had profaned and destroyed the temple.
- O lift up your feet to these perpetual ruins, to all the evil the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
- Your adversaries roar within your place of assembly; they set up their own signs as signs.
- One became famous as he brought axes up the ascent to your sanctuary, as against a thicket of trees,
- and then, with hatchet and hammers, they smashed all its engraved works.
- They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned to the ground the dwelling place of your name.
- They said in their hearts, “We will subdue them altogether.” They burned all of God’s meeting places in the land.
- We do not see our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and none among us knows for how long.
- How long, O God, will the adversary mock? Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
But we weren’t sure when this could have happened, assuming that this psalm was written sometime around David’s or Solomon’s reign (during David’s time, there wasn’t even a temple, although there was a tabernacle).
So my question is: Was there a time during David’s (or Solomon’s reign) when a foreign nation destroyed God’s holy place in Israel? Or is this a prophecy concerning the Assyrian or the Babylonian invasion and captivity that would take place hundreds of years later?
Thank you.
Zoli
============
Hi Zoli.
We recently read through Psalms here, and we commented on those same verses. This is obviously a prophecy of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. One can only imagine what Asaph, who wrote this psalm, thought when the Spirit spoke those things through him.
Pastor John