The
Apple of His Eye ... commentary of Psalm 74
The Apple of His Eye
… A commentary of Psalm
74
Verse Eight
Psalm 74:8: “They said in
their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they
have burned up all the synagogues of God in the
land.”
“They”
Who are the they?
Back to verse three: It is
the enemy! In verse four: Thine
enemies. These are the
enemies of God; making them our enemies.
“…in their hearts”
Genesis 6:5: “And
GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.”
Now, we come to this matter of the heart
[the heart of man].
First and foremost,
we cannot trust the heart of man.
And why is this so?
Why … the heart is
deceitful. And how do we know this to be true?
We know this to be true because God told us
so … through the prophet.
It is written in the book of the Prophet
Jeremiah, chapter seventeen, verse nine:
“The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?” [Jeremiah 17:9]
Knowing this, we can move forward to
establish this premise: Your heart is
the center of you. My heart is
the center of me. The heart you have is
… YOU! Webster's 1828 Dictionary
says:
The heart is the “seat of the
will” and in it resides its “secret
purposes” and its “intentions or designs.”
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is
he.” [Proverbs 23:7a]
Now, let's search out this matter
of the heart!
In the book of the Proverbs 4:23, God gives
us this command: KEEP IT!
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for
out of it are the issues of life.”
[Proverbs 4:23]
This is our responsibility!
Now, in the book of the Judges, in chapter
five, is the song of Deborah and Barak.
There are [in verses fifteen and sixteen]: these
references to the heart in the divisions of
the tribe of Reuben:
“And the princes of
Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar,
and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben there were great
thoughts of heart.”
Why abodest thou among
the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks?
For the divisions of Reuben there were great
searchings of heart.” [Judges
5:15-16]
Though the heart be
desperately wicked, it is capable of great
thoughts.
Though the heart be
desperately wicked, we must conduct a campaign of
great searching within the heart but only
with the help of God.
We have within us, as the
believers in Jesus Christ in the body of Christ, the
Holy Ghost:
“But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
[Romans 8:9]
Next:
·
The Spirit of God …
inside of us “helpeth
with our infirmities” to have great thoughts!
·
The Spirit of God …
inside of us “helpeth
with our infirmities” to have great searching’s!
We have this help
today! It is the promise of God!
Now fasten unto this
promise for yourself, which promise is located
in the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, in
chapter eight, verse twenty-six:
“Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what
we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered.” [Romans
8:26]
The infirmities
[we need help with] are due to our heart.
It is only God
that knows the heart.
“I the Lord search the
heart, I try the reins, even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of
his doings.”
It is God only who
knows and understands the heart’s
inner workings.
“Man's goings are of
the LORD; how can a man understand his own way?”
[Proverbs 20:24]
[I am inditing in a
good matter, I am thus, committing my words to
writing]. [Psalm 45:1]
The heart is the
highway for many things!
Now, consider this!
It is “with the heart” that man [having been
conditioned by repentance], believes
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the saving of
his own soul.
“For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.”
[Romans 10:10]
The heart is
deceitful, yet it is with the heart that
he believes ... what God has said in
His Book. Oh, how can this be true?
We need to learn,
[in the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter
two, in verse nine], that the things of God
will not enter into the old unregenerate heart
of man.
“But as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.”
[1 Corinthians 2:9]
Turn to the book of the
prophet Ezekiel, chapter eighteen, verse thirty-one
and also, to the first book of Samuel the prophet,
chapter ten, verse nine. Let me quote them
now:
Ezekiel 18:31: “Cast
away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye
have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a
new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
1 Samuel 10:9: “And
it was so, that when he had turned his back
to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and
all those signs came to pass that day.”
Man needs “a new heart
and a new spirit” [Ezekiel 18:31] or “another
heart” [1 Samuel 10:9], and God can [and does]
give you and I a new heart, and a new spirit,
or another heart.
You might ask, why
does God put so much emphasis on the heart in
the Bible? It is for this reason: The “Lord
looketh on the heart” so as to get the right
take, or judgement, concerning the motives.
Look in the first book of
Samuel the prophet, chapter sixteen, verse seven:
“But the LORD said
unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the
height of his stature; because I have refused him:
for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD
looketh on the heart.” [1 Samuel
16:7].
God in His judgments,
wants to perform righteous judgment:
“But, O Lord of hosts,
that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and
the heart …” [Jeremiah 11:20].
Now, for reasons only
found in GOD’s infinite MERCY and GREAT GRACE, God
wants to give us a new heart and a new spirit,
another heart, so that you and I may know
HIM intimately. [See Jeremiah 24:7]
Verse eight again [in
Psalm 74]: “They said in their hearts, Let us
destroy them together: they have burned up all the
synagogues of God in the land.”
…the synagogues of God…
A synagogue refers
to a congregation or assembly of
people, or it could refer to a congregation’s
meeting place: a building for the purpose
of assembling together.
Note: There are the
synagogues of Jews, and there are also, the
synagogues of the Devil. The Devil has his
following. The synagogues of Satan are
made up with people who lie claiming to be
Jews, and yet, are not true Jews. We
might call them fake Jews! This is sad
but true. The book of the Revelation of
Jesus Christ provides the following records of the
existence of these synagogues of Satan [in chapter
two and three]:
Revelation 2:9
“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty,
(but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy
of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but
are the synagogue of Satan.”
Revelation 3:9:
“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,
which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie;
behold, I will make them to come and worship before
thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”
The word: synagogue
appears forty-four times in the New Testament only.
The first mention
of the plural form of the word: synagogues
here, in verse eight, is the only time that it is
found in the Old Testament. All the
other instances of this word: synagogues appear in
the New Testament twenty-three times.
It is important to note:
At the time Asaph used this word given by the
Spirit of God there were no synagogues in the
land. They were an unknown commodity.
Thus, we see here that God is prophesying
through the psalmist of this future institution.
The synagogues of
Jews were for the purpose of the assembly of the
congregation to teach and to pray and they came
into being after the destruction of the
Temple of Solomon. This why the existence of
the synagogues is shown to be so prominent in the
New Testament.
There is something to
note here. Jesus Christ spent much of his time
in the synagogue where he had been
brought up!
Luke 4:16: “And
he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up:
and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue
on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.”
Verse eight once again
[in Psalm 74]: “They said in their hearts, Let us
destroy them together: they have burned up all the
synagogues of God in the land.”
“…they have burned up all…”
Who burned up all the
synagogues?
Now, since there were no
synagogues in Israel in Asaph’s day [in
B.C. 1040], the word: “They” in the text is a
reference to the enemies [in the plural]
present in a time somewhere in Asaph’s future.
Note: This prophecy
in Psalm 74 is not pointing to any particular
enemy [in the singular] as was Titus, the
Roman general, who effected the destruction
of the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, along with
the city’s synagogues. I am sure he
destroyed many synagogues.
No, this prophetic event
has not yet been fulfilled.
It is yet to be
fulfilled!
What we have here in
Psalm 74 is a prophetic window opened
to us living here today in the 21st
century, and allows us to see into the future
time of the Great Tribulation when the
enemies of Israel [these being all the nations
of the earth] will be coming to destroy with fire
all “the synagogues of God in the land.”