The
Apple of His Eye ... commentary of Psalm 74
The Apple of His Eye
… A commentary of Psalm
74
Verse Three
Psalm 74:3 “Lift up thy
feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all
that the enemy hath done wickedly in the
sanctuary.”
“…the perpetual desolations;”
LORD: “Lift up thy feet” … [this is
anthropomorphic – showing God has human
attributes].
Though “God is Spirit” [John 4:24],
GOD “was manifest in the flesh”. This
apparent contradiction is called “the mystery
of godliness” in the BIBLE. We find
in the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy:
“And without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory.” [1 Timothy 3:16]
“Lift up thy feet”: The
sense, or meaning of this is: Call
this thing to your mind, O LORD!!! …these
“perpetual desolations”.
Before we seek the meaning of these
perpetual desolations as found in the Bible, we
need to first ask a question … just what is a
desolation?
Well, a desolation is an
amplified type of destruction.
According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, we have:
DESOLATION, a noun.
1. The act of desolating destruction or
expulsion of inhabitants; destruction; ruin; waste.
2. A place deprived of inhabitants, or
otherwise wasted, ravaged and ruined.
When desolation comes to a person
or to a people they experience a sudden
and overwhelming terror. This sudden
and overwhelming terror can literally make
the hair of the flesh to stand up on a person.
This is not unlike Job experienced when a
spirit spooked him in the days of his
calamity. Job was spooked! The
scene of this is in the book of Job, chapter four:
“Then a spirit passed before my
face; the hair of my flesh stood up:”
[Job 4:15].
This awful and frightful experience is more
perfectly described in the word of God [in Psalm,
seventy-three] in this way: “How
are they brought into desolation, as in a
moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.”
[Psalms 73:19] This whole
phenomenon occurs with the speed of a whirlwind!
You can see this also in Proverbs chapter
one, in verse twenty-seven: “When your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon
you.” [Proverbs 1:27]
Desolation occurs whenever a man, or
a woman, or a family, or a nation departs from God.
The departure comes because of a division from God.
The result of division is
shown in the Gospel according to Matthew in chapter
twelve. Read verse twenty-five:
“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto
them, Every kingdom divided against itself is
brought to desolation; and every city or house
divided against itself shall not stand:
[Matthew 12:25].
The result is always DESOLATION! A
MAXIM!
Now, what is the consequence of
desolation?
The consequence is this. When a
desolation occurs the person or the people are
removed from their home or their homeland.
For instance, God clearly told the nation
of Israel through his prophet that he would
remove them from the land if they would
not put away their abominations from his sight, and
return to him.
Now, check this thing out: … in the Book of
the Prophet Jeremiah! “If thou wilt
return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me:
and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of
my sight, then shalt thou not remove.”
[Jeremiah 4:1]
In addition to all of this, God may
remove a person, or a people from their home, or
their homeland, and thus, make them desolate
in order to try or test a person or a
people.
For this consider Job. He was made
desolate.
Here is the scene of the trial of Job in
the book of Job: “So went Satan forth from the
presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils
from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
And he took him a potsherd to scrape
himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”
[Job 2:7-8]
Job was out there somewhere and away
from his home sitting on a scrap heap,
scraping his boils and all the while
lamenting over all his trouble!
Here is the scene coming into our view in the book
of Job, chapter sixteen: “But
now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate
all my company.” [Job 16:7] He was
removed from his home, family and friends
because of his affliction. God loosed his
cord! He was made desolate. “Because he
hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have
also let loose the bridle before me.” [Job
30:11]
When your cord is loosed this is God
removing you from your set place.
Consider David. Turn to the book of
Psalms, chapter twenty-five come down to verse
sixteen and read: “Turn thee unto
me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate
and afflicted.” [Psalms 25:16]
He was removed from his home, family
and friends. God loosed his cord.
He was made desolate.
Desolation involves
removal. Desolation involves
the cords being loosed.
Now, what are these “perpetual
desolations”?
Remember this here: Something that
is told to them in the now [prophesied]
[who are living in B.C. 1040] will be the same
something that will occur in their future [in
B.C. 606.] and also, will be something that
has happened in the past from the perspective of
those who are living now [in the year A.D. 2020].
To repeat, Asaph sees something before
it happens [in B.C. 1040] because the Spirit
of God is in him [the prophet].
God puts the future things into the
prophet.
Now, Asaph did not have the details
in these “perpetual desolations”, [He just
saw them from afar.], but we have the prophet
Jeremiah who was up close to these events!
For this, we go to the Book of The Prophet Jeremiah
in chapter twenty-five, verses nine and twelve we
have:
“Behold, I will send and take all the
families of the north, saith the LORD, and
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and
will bring them against this land, and against the
inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations
round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make
them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual
desolations.
“And it shall come to pass, when seventy
years are accomplished, that I will punish
the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the
LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the
Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
[Jeremiah 25:9, 12]
In the Book of The Prophet Ezekiel, chapter
thirty-five, verse nine, Scripture saith: “I will
make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities
shall not return: and ye shall know that I am
the LORD.” [Ezekiel 35:9]
The “perpetual
desolations” deprived
the land of Israel of its inhabitants.
The LAND, thus, become a wasteland,
first, for seventy years, and next, for eighteen
hundred and seventy-eight years.
Now we need to consider another type
of desolation. Not a perpetual
desolation, but an abomination of desolation.
The prophet Daniel [in Daniel 8:13], prophesies
by the Holy Ghost what he sees coming in the
future, [even into our future to those of us who are
alive today]; that a specific person will be guilty
of desolating [standing where it
ought not], the Temple of God in
the city of Jerusalem in the time of the Great
Tribulation which is coming to this world.
During his First Advent on this earth Jesus
taught his disciples [as it is recorded in the
Gospel according to Matthew, in chapter twenty-four,
verse fifteen]: “When ye therefore
shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand:)”
[Matthew 24:15]
Run away!!! FLEE!
“Then let them which be in Judaea flee
into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not
come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field
return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that give suck in those days!
But pray ye that your flight be not in
the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for
the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”
[Matthew 24:16-22]
And in the Gospel according to Mark in
chapter thirteen, verse fourteen Jesus emphasizes
the importance of understanding the nature of this
desolation: “But when ye shall see the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that
readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea
flee to the mountains:” [Mark 13:14.]
This unclean person had no business
being where he was! He is an abominable
person involved in the
abomination of desolation!
“Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual
desolations; even all that the enemy
hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.”
“…the enemy”
Enemy?
He is the same enemy targeted by the
LORD in the book of the Exodus in chapter fifteen:
“Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in
power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces
the enemy.” [Exodus 15:6]
He is the same enemy that Job had
in the book of the Job in chapter six:
“Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or,
Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?”
[Job 6:23]
He is the same enemy shown here
in Psalm six: “O thou enemy,
destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou
hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished
with them.” [Psalm 9:6]
He is the same enemy that the Son
of God, Jesus Christ, spoke of in the parable of the
sower located in chapter six of the Gospel
according to Matthew: “He
said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The
servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go
and gather them up?” [Matthew
13:28]
This same enemy is identified as the
being the devil in this same chapter, in
verse thirty-nine: “The enemy that sowed them is
the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels.” [Matthew
13:39]
The enemy here is Satan. He is
the enemy to the house of Israel.
He is the enemy to the body of Christ
the church. He is, therefore, the
enemy to the Christian. The admonition
given to all the believers in the LORD Jesus Christ
is this: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour:” [1 Peter
5:8]
“…hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.”
Now the goal of the Devil is posture,
and yeah, even to instigate the house of
Israel into placing at the gate of the altar
an image of jealousy before the sanctuary
of God.
The goal is to corrupt and turn
the people of Israel from God and drive them
like a herd to their destruction. Call
it his master plan.
His master plan involves the hijacking the
promises of God given to Israel by blinding
them to the purposes and plan of God has to
place Israel as head all the nations. [Deuteronomy
28:13]
Blindness is a blight!
“For I would not, brethren, that ye
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should
be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part
is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the
Gentiles be come in.” [Romans 11:25]
The Spirit of God through his
prophet Ezekiel provides this supernatural window
into the placement of these great
abominations – like termites busy going about
their business. Turn to the book of Ezekiel,
chapter eight come down to verse five and we will
read from there:
“Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift
up thine eyes now the way toward the north.
So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward
the north, and behold northward at the gate of the
altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
He said furthermore unto me, Son of man,
seest thou what they do? even the great
abominations that the house of Israel committeth
here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary?
but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see
greater abominations.
And he brought me to the door of the
court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig
now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall,
behold a door.
And he said unto me, Go in, and behold
the wicked abominations that they do here.
So I went in and saw; and behold every
form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and
all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed
upon the wall round about.
And there stood before them seventy men
of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the
midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan,
with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick
cloud of incense went up.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast
thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel
do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his
imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the
LORD hath forsaken the earth.
He said also unto me, Turn thee yet
again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations that they do.
Then he brought me to the door of the
gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the
north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for
Tammuz.
Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen
this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and
thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
And he brought me into the inner court
of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the
temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar,
were about five and twenty men, with their
backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces
toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward
the east. [Ezekiel 8:5-16]
Thus we have here the gory story of
the complete and the total corruption of a
people by the enemy. Watch out!!!
There is something here for us to learn: “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]
It would behoove us as believers in Jesus
Christ in the 21st century to learn from
what happened to Israel, and furthermore to learn
just how the Devil gained the mastery
over them.
The Apostle Paul gave us this warning in
his Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
Ready? “Lest Satan
should get an advantage of us: for we are not
ignorant of his devices.” [2
Corinthians 2:11]
Remember this,
brethren, it is the little foxes that spoils
the vine. Scripture for this!
We have here in the Song of Solomon the real
thing as they say: “Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines
have tender grapes.” [Song of Solomon
2:15]
Now this is the same game plan that
Balaam taught Balak the son of Zippor, the
king of Moab.
The doctrine of Balaam: The game
plan on how to get the nation messed up
[destroyed] is laid out for all of us to see in the
book of Numbers, chapter thirty-one, verse
sixteen: “Behold, these caused the children of
Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit
trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and
there was a plague among the congregation of the
LORD.” [Numbers 31:16]
What is this matter of Peor?
Let’s read [concerning this matter of
Peor] in the book of the Numbers, chapter
twenty-five. We will start with verse one:
“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the
people began to commit whoredom with the daughters
of Moab.
And they called the people unto the
sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat,
and bowed down to their gods.
And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor:
and the anger of the LORD was kindled against
Israel.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all
the heads of the people, and hang them up before the
LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the
LORD may be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of
Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined
unto Baalpeor.
And, behold, one of the children of
Israel came and brought unto his brethren a
Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the
sight of all the congregation of the children of
Israel, who were weeping before the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,
the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose
up from among the congregation, and took a javelin
in his hand;
And he went after the man of Israel into
the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man
of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the
plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
And those that died in the plague were
twenty and four thousand.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of
Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the
children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake
among them, that I consumed not the children of
Israel in my jealousy.” [Numbers
25:1-11]
Now the exact identification of what
this stumbling block is … is identified
by Jesus Christ HIMSELF in the book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, in chapter two, verse
fourteen: “But I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast there them that hold
the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
fornication.” [Revelation 2:14]
Conclusion: Balaam taught the nations of
the world how to corrupt Israel: By
casting a stumbling block before the people,
which would in turn cause the people to trespass
against the LORD.
Corrupt the people here a little, and
there a little. “A
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
[Galatians 5:9]