Memory Verses

But as for me, I will declare it and rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. Psalm 75:9 AMP

Key people

Here is a list of key people found in today’s reading (in order of appearance) with bios from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

David. A young shepherd who gains fame first as a musician and later by killing the enemy champion Goliath.
Solomon. Son of David. Future King of the United Kingdom of Israel.

Today’s Devotional Reading: Psalm 72 – 77

Psalm 72 Amplified Version (AMP)
Psalm 73 Amplified Version (AMP)
Psalm 74 Amplified Version (AMP)
Psalm 75 Amplified Version (AMP)
Psalm 76 Amplified Version (AMP)
Psalm 77 Amplified Version (AMP)

From Matthew Henry’s Commentary

The foregoing psalm was penned by David when he was old, and, it should seem, so was this too; for Solomon was now standing fair for the crown; that was his prayer for himself, this for his son and successor, and with these two the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended, as we find in the close of this psalm (Chapter 72).

This psalm, and the ten that next follow it, carry the name of Asaph in the titles of them. If he was the penman of them (as many think), we rightly call them psalms of Asaph. If he was only the chief musician, to whom they were delivered, our marginal reading is right, which calls them psalms for Asaph. It is probable that he penned them; for we read of the words of David and of Asaph the seer, which were used in praising God in Hezekiah’s time, 2 Chron. 29:30. Though the Spirit of prophecy by sacred songs descended chiefly on David, who is therefore styled “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” yet God put some of that Spirit upon those about him (Chapter 73).

This psalm does so particularly describe the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, by Nebuchadnezzar and the army of the Chaldeans, and can so ill be applied to any other event we meet with in the Jewish history, that interpreters incline to think that either it was penned by David, or Asaph in David’s time, with a prophetical reference to that sad event (which yet is not so probable), or that it was penned by another Asaph, who lived at the time of the captivity, or by Jeremiah (for it is of a piece with his Lamentations,) or some other prophet, and, after the return out of captivity, was delivered to the sons of Asaph, who were called by his name, for the public service of the church. That was the most eminent family of the singers in Ezra’s time (Chapter 74).

Though this psalm is attributed to Asaph in the title, yet it does so exactly agree with David’s circumstances, at his coming to the crown after the death of Saul, that most interpreters apply it to that juncture, and suppose that either Asaph penned it, in the person of David, as his poet-laureate (probably the substance of the psalm was some speech which David made to a convention of the states, at his accession to the government, and Asaph turned it into verse, and published it in a poem, for the better spreading of it among the people), or that David penned it, and delivered it to Asaph as precentor of the temple (Chapter 75).

This psalm seems to have been penned upon occasion of some great victory obtained by the church over some threatening enemy or other, and designed to grace the triumph. The LXX. calls it, “A song upon the Assyrians,” whence many good interpreters conjecture that it was penned when Sennacherib’s army, then besieging Jerusalem, was entirely cut off by a destroying angel in Hezekiah’s time; and several passages in the psalm are very applicable to that work of wonder: but there was a religious triumph upon occasion of another victory, in Jehoshaphat’s time, which might as well be the subject of this psalm (2 Chron. 20:28), and it might be called “a song of Asaph” because always sung by the sons of Asaph. Or it might be penned by Asaph who lived in David’s time, upon occasion of the many triumphs with which God delighted to honour that reign (Chapter 76).

This psalm, according to the method of many other psalms, begins with sorrowful complaints but ends with comfortable encouragements. The complaints seem to be of personal grievances, but the encouragements relate to the public concerns of the church, so that it is not certain whether it was penned upon a personal or a public account. If they were private troubles that he was groaning under, it teaches us that what God has wrought for his church in general may be improved for the comfort of particular believers; if it was some public calamity that he is here lamenting, his speaking of it so feelingly, as if it had been some particular trouble of his own, shows how much we should lay to heart the interests of the church of God and make them ours (Chapter 77).

Reflection:

References

« The Amplified Bible
« The King James Bible
« Matthew Henry’s Commentary

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Image Source: 365 Seeds of Promise by Shenica Graham.

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