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

Verse Eleven


Psalm 74:11: “Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.”


“…withdrawest…


Funny things happen when the closest of your friends seem to melt away, and be so far from you.   They are now very distant, and survive, only as a memory.  

A pall of eeriness [a silence] comes over you once you begin to realize you have done so much wrong.

Man forsakes, God withdraws.  Check it out! 

Turn to the Second book of the Kings, chapter twenty-one, verse nineteen:

“Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.

And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.” [2 Kings 21:19-22]

Now, Amon was not the only one who had forsaken the LORD!

The apple of his eye, Israel, forsook the LORD betimes - over and over again!  Read for this through the Book of Judges, and see!

·         Judges 10:6: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.”

·         Judges 2:12-13: “And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”

And we have these records located in the first Book of the Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles:

·         “And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.” [1 Kings 9:9]

·         “And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.” [2 Chronicles 7:22]

Now, if man forsakes, he deserts.   Man is a deserter.

The deserter abandons his God.  The deserter renounces his God.

Bottom-line: Man is prone to leave the God he loves.

It’s like the song we sing:

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;

Prone to leave the God I love:

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it,

With Thy Spirit from above.”

We forsake, God withdraws!

When God withdraws, he will quietly leave.

When HE leaves a people, or a person, HE goes from them.

Open your BIBLE to the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter nine, verse one:

“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.” [Jeremiah 9:1-3]

Go from them?  This happens every time when a people are not valiant for the TRUTH! 

So, God left them!

“Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.” [Jeremiah 14:9]

They should have remained fastened to this prayer.  Leave us not!

Now, do not miss this one.  What God really desired was to be in the midst of His people, Israel, the apple of His eye, but they let sin destroy betimes their relationship with HIM.   They just proceeded from evil to evil, till as a result, they knew not the LORD. 

SIN had separated Israel from her God.  This is crystal clear, read the book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter fifty-nine, verse two:

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” [Isaiah 59:2]

A person, or a people, that know not the LORD will not even realize that God has left them, nor even heard them.

God gave them up!!

You say: Does God give people up?

Yes, God does!  Read of it in the following: God gave them up!

·         2 Chronicles 30:7: “And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.”

·         Psalm 81:12: “So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”

·         Acts 7:42:Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?”

·         Romans 1:24:Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:”

Turn to the book of First Samuel, chapter twenty-eight, verse fifteen and sixteen, and we will see Saul acknowledging that God had left him:

“And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.

Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?” [1 Samuel 28:15-16]

This pall of eeriness came over Saul.  He realized there was just silence from God.  Saul was all alone.

Man forsakes, God withdraws.

Now, what is the remedy?

The remedy for the apple of His eye is the very same remedy for all of us living here today in the 21st century, if peradventure we feel after the LORD as in the Epistle of James, chapter four, verse eight:

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” [James 4:8]

Now something else needs to be added here.

1 Corinthians 3:16: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Though the believer in Jesus Christ [Christ in you - Colossians 1:27] has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit [He will not leave us], we can still grieve HIM.  

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” [Ephesians 4:30]   

This is why we are admonished and commanded by the Apostle Paul to let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths [this in verse twenty-nine].  This will grieve HIM.

When we grieve HIM, we hurt our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When we grieve HIM, we lose our fellowship with Jesus Christ.

The Christian forsakes, God’s Spirit is grieved.

It’s like the song we sing:

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;

Prone to leave the God I love:

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it,

With Thy Spirit from above.”