The Apple of His Eye - Psalm 74The Apple of His Eye ... commentary of Psalm 74

The Apple of His Eye
… A commentary of Psalm 74


Psalm 74:1-23

“Maschil of Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

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.

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

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all 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 knoweth how long.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.

For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

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 hast made summer and winter.

Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy 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 reproacheth thee daily.

Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.”

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” [1 Corinthians 10:11]

Uss Enterprise

In the year A.D. 1973, in the fall of that year, while sitting at a desk all by myself on the 08 level, far above the flight deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise, I bowed my head, and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.  I asked Jesus Christ to save me.

Romans 10:13:For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

 I jumped up from the desk in that room!  I knew I needed to find George.  All of a sudden I realized where he was.  Down the ladders [or stairs for you land folk] I went to the hanger bay.  George Williamson was standing an industrial brow watch that night.  He was in his dress blues on the brow inside the shack.

I felt like I was floating in joy as I walked up to him.  I had a burning in my heart to ask George just one question.  When he saw me, he had the look on his face of understanding.  He knew something happened to me. 

I asked George this.  “I just received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  How can I know for sure?”   I will forever remember the gleam in eyes, while he was reaching for his pocket New Testament and opening in excitement to 1 John 5:11-13.  He said, "Rick: read this out loud.”  

After reading those verses, George said; “These are written that you may know!  Rick, it is God's Own RECORD.  He states it!  Just believe it!” 

That was it! that is how I got saved!  I have never, never doubted what God has done concerning my salvation!  I am sealed by His Holy Spirit.  I am born again!   A sinner saved by grace!  Amen! Amen! Amen!


The Record


It’s all about a record! 

Now, did God leave a record for us?

1 John 5:7:For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

1 John 5:10-13:He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

This is the record left unto us.  They are the same things which God has revealed to us, and these things also, belong to us. [See Deuteronomy 29:29]


Our Assumption:


 

It is assumed that the reader of this commentary believes God record, and that God has put HIS record into a BOOK!

This BOOK today [in the English language] is the Authorized Version of 1611, or any of its editions (1613, 1644, 1676, 1680, 1701, or 1769), and is God's pure word, preserved for us who are alive today on this earth.


Preface: The Top Step:

[The Top Step is taken from the message: the Moral Gravitation of Music [2015].

The Top StepThe book of Psalms is where a person can turn to in the time of their trouble and get help from God. 

There are one hundred and fifty psalms in the Bible and these psalms are music for the soul of man.

Now, in the last psalm, and in the last verse of this psalm, we have the purpose given by God for all men: MEN ARE TO PRAISE GOD!

“Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” [Psalm 150:6] 

This is the TOP STEP for Man. Praise ye the LORD!

Now, at this top step, we have the God of the Bible commanding the believers in Jesus Christ to speak to ourselves “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”.

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” [Ephesians 5:19]

The King James Bible of 1611 is a self-defining BOOK.  The Law of the First Mention of a word provides us the means to determine the meaning of the word.   

The means is determined by the context of the passage. The context determines the meaning of the first instance of a word [or its variants] in the BIBLE.

The words “song”, “sang”, and “sing” first show up in the book of Exodus, chapter fifteen, verses one and two:  “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.  The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.” [Exodus 15:1-2]

The context of this passage of Scripture where these words are first found is where the people of Israel [man] are rendering thanks and praise for their salvation to God, with uplifted voices.   Israel uttered with musical modulations of the voice, in unison, a poem or ballad to the GOD of Heaven to extol His greatness.

Therefore, this was the first recorded song sung by man upward to God on planet Earth.  It was from man to God, and not for man himself [mankind].  

Therefore, the first song was spiritual and not for the benefit of the self [or the flesh]. 

It was the modulation of the people’s voices to the worship of God.

The word: song appears 74 times in the King James Bible.

The word: sing appears 102 times in the King James Bible.

The word: sang appears 12 times in the King James Bible.

It will behoove us to see the importance of these words: sing, sang, song.

The “hymns” are songs in praise of God.  To sing a hymn is to sing to God.

Psalm is a hymn, and in the singular the word appears 156 times, while the plural form: Psalms appears nine times in the King James Bible.

Consider the psalms

Can ever a man or a woman or a child aim any higher?

Then shoot for it!

Psalm 150:5: “Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.”

Psalm 33:2: “Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.”

Psalm 92:3: “Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.”

Psalm 144:9: “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.”

Psalm 95:2: “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.”

Psalm 105:2: “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.”

Psalm 105:3: “Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”

Now, the psalm of thankfulness rendered to God brings praise to God.

“Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.” [1 Chronicles 16:7]

God is sick of the songs of those who say they are for praise to God. Amos 5:23: “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.”

Now a top-step song, hymn, or psalm always has as its goal to extol the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty of God.  [1 Chronicles 29:10-13]

We are ready to proceed into this commentary of Psalm 74.