The
Apple of His Eye ... commentary of Psalm 74
The Apple of His Eye
… A commentary of Psalm
74
Verse Nine
Psalm 74:9: “We see
not our signs: there is
no more any prophet: neither is there among
us any that knoweth how long.”
“We see not our signs…
They are perplexed!
Victor! Israel requires assistance!
We see in the First Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians this truth:
“For the Jews require a sign, and the
Greeks seek after wisdom:” [1
Corinthians 1:22]
In the Second Book Moses, called the
Exodus, chapter four, we will start with verse one,
and read:
“And Moses answered and said, But,
behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto
my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not
appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said unto him, What is
that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
And he said, Cast it on the ground.
And he cast it on the ground, and it
became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And
the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and
take it by the tail.
And he put forth his hand, and caught
it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may
believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
hath appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said furthermore unto him,
Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his
hand into his bosom: and when he took it out,
behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he
said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again.
And he put his hand into his bosom
again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold,
it was turned again as his other flesh.
And it shall come to pass, if they will
not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of
the first sign, that they will believe the voice of
the latter sign.
And it shall come to pass, if they will
not believe also these two signs, neither hearken
unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of
the river, and pour it upon the dry land:
and the water which thou takest out of the river
shall become blood upon the dry land.”
[Exodus 4:1-9]
This attribute is built into the
very being of these people: [The
Jews].
The Jews require a sign, and the
Greeks seek after wisdom. Every Jew has
this thing built into his very nature:
HE NEEDS A SIGN!
The first Jew was a Gentile
until he was called out of his
country.
We read in the First Book Moses, called the
Genesis, the book of beginnings:
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father's house, unto a land that I will
shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing:” [Genesis
12:1-2]
Next, Abram
became Abraham by a covenant
established by God. This is seen in chapter
seventeen. See verse three, and four:
“As for me, behold, my covenant is
with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many
nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be
called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a
father of many nations have I made thee.”
[Genesis 17:4-5]
Now, verse eleven:
“And ye shall circumcise the flesh of
your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the
covenant betwixt me and you.”
[Genesis 17:11]
The token of this covenant
was visibly made known to Abraham by the
circumcision of the flesh of his foreskin.
This token [comparing scripture with
scripture] is shown to be a sign.
In the Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to the
Romans, chapter four, verse eleven, Abraham received
the sign of circumcision:
“And he received the sign of
circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the
faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he
might be the father of all them that believe.”
The Jew requires
a sign in order to believe.
[Remember, we just read the proof text for
this fact in the first nine verses of chapter four
in the Second Book Moses called the Exodus.]
Next, skip on down to verse thirty, and
read from there:
“And Aaron spake all the words which the
LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the
sight of the people.” [Exodus 4:30]
Do you see why the signs were
needed to be performed by Moses “in the sight of
the people”? It was all done “in the sight
of the people” so that they might believe
that the LORD was indeed visiting HIS people,
and had every intention of bringing a great
deliverance, and great salvation in setting
them free from their 400-year bondage as
slaves to the Egyptians.
The book of the Acts of the Apostles
collaborates with this. For it is
recorded that Steven in his trial stood
before “the council” and recounted
to them this need for signs from their own
history BOOK:
“He brought them out, after that he had
shewed them wonders and signs in the land of
Egypt, and the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty
years.” [Acts 7:36]
God used these visible signs that
were so great, and so wonderful, to mightily move in
the hearts of Israel to sing a song of
His mightiness, which song is located in the Second
Book Moses called the Exodus:
“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 the rider hath
he thrown into the sea.”
[Exodus 15:1-2]
Now, Israel has experienced these
“wonders and signs” from God down through
the annuals of time by his direct
intervention into their affairs.
Do you remember the walls of Jericho,
and how they came down? This event
represented to them a mighty sign of God
going before them and delivering their enemy into
their hands.
Consider this also, how God gave
Israel the seventh day [along with the special
Sabbaths] as a sign to show HIM being
the LORD God “that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you” [Exodus 31:13].
This truth, that the Jew requires a
sign, reached such proportions, that even in
the very face of the presence of the incarnate Son
of God, Jesus Christ, when HE walked this earth
nearly two thousand years ago among these
unbelieving Pharisees [Jews]: They refused
to believe in Jesus Christ.
UNBELIEF ate them alive, in spite of
the benefit of all the signs, wonders and miracles
performed before them.
Therefore, in response to this UNBELIEF,
God refused to give them the very signs that they
had demanded of HIM before they would believe in His
Son [that He was the prophesied MESSIAH
Savior of Israel].
The Lord Jesus Christ HIMSELF nails it
down here in the Gospel according to Matthew, in
chapter twelve, verse thirty-eight:
“Then certain of the scribes and of the
Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a
sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them, An
evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;
and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign
of the prophet Jonas.” [Matthew
12:38]
So, they got the sign of the prophet
Jonas. Nevertheless, God was gracious to
Israel:
“God also bearing them witness, both
with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles,
and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own
will?” [Hebrews 2:4]
To sum up, the signs and wonders
that were performed by Jesus Christ [and His
apostles] when He came to this earth almost two
thousand years ago were to be a sign to
Israel of who He was, and having rejected Him, their
branches were removed from the tree.
Israel's rejection of these signs
was prophesied centuries earlier in the most
exacting precision.
“(According as it is written, God hath
given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they
should not see, and ears that they should not hear;)
unto this day.” [Romans 11:8]
Thus, Israel got to the place where they
could not see their signs!
“We see not our signs…
Victor! Israel requires
assistance to wake up from their sleep!
Back to Psalm 74:9: “We see not our signs:
there is no more any prophet: neither is
there among us any that knoweth how long.”
This foretells of the famine
that was to come into the land of Israel, a famine
to last for more than four hundred years.
This would not be famine in the natural
sense but in a supernatural sense. The
prophet Amos speaks of this dearth in the book of
the Prophet Amos, chapter eight, verse eleven.
Here we go:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord
GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the LORD:”
[Amos 8:11]
From the prophet Malachi [B.C. 397]
until John the Baptist [A.D. 27] in the Gospel
according to Matthew, there was silence … a
famine “of hearing
the words of the LORD:”
No prophets! No
one was to know, how long?