Psalms 74:9

We see not our signs,.... Either such miracles as were formerly wrought to support the faith of God's people in distress, and for their deliverance out of it, as when they were in Egypt, and brought

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. -The enemy has destroyed God's sanctuary and synagogues, and there are no tokens of God's presence in the land.

Our signs, i.e. those tokens of God’ s gracious presence which we and our ancestors formerly used to enjoy; either, 1. Miracles wrought for us, which are called signs, 135:9. Or, 2. The ordinances of God, the temple, and ark, and sacrifices, and solemn feasts, all which were signs between God and his people. Any prophet: either, 1. Any teacher. We have few or no teachers left to us. Or, 2. Any extraordinary prophet, who can foretell things to come, as the next words explain it. For as for Ezekiel and Jeremiah, they might be dead when this Psalm was composed; and Daniel was involved in civil affairs, and did not teach the people as a prophet; and the prophetical Spirit which sometimes came upon him, and made those great discoveries to him which we read in his book, might possibly at this time suspend his influences. Besides, it is not unusual in Scripture, to say that there is none of a sort of persons or things, when there is a very great scarcity of them. But others make this their great argument, that this Psalm speaks of that persecution in the time of Antiochus, when indeed there was no prophet at all. How long; either, 1. How long their captivity should continue; for though seventy years were determined, yet there might arise doubts among them, as there now are among us, whence they were to be computed, which might make their end uncertain. Or, 2. How long they should lie under reproach, as it follows, , which they really did, and might foresee that they should, even after the expiration of their captivity, .

Psalms 74:9 We see not our signs: [there is] no more any prophet: neither [is there] among us any that knoweth how long.Ver. 9. We see not our signs] Those testimonies of God’ s special favour, the public ordinances, together with the legal ceremonies, which was then Christ in figure, q.d. we are utterly benighted as to thee-ward. There is no more any prophet, &c.] Hence some conclude that this psalm was written about the end of the Babylonish captivity, when there was Chathimath Chazon, a sealing up of prophecy, as Daniel 12:9, unless it were so that they had prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, &c., but took no notice of them, through extremity of calamity, as Isaiah 59:10. Neither is there among us any] The want of the word, the stopping of the true ministers’ mouths, &c., should touch us to the quick.

(9) We see not our signs . . .—It is natural to take this statement in direct contrast to what Psalms 74:4 (see Note) says of the heathen signs. While these abominations—rallying points of savage profanity—were visibly set up, the tokens of the invisible God’s presence, His wonders wrought for Israel, are no more seen. There is no more any prophet.—This was the constant lament of the Maccabæan period (1Ma 4:46; 1Ma 9:27; 1Ma 14:41), and suits no earlier time—at least none into which the rest of the psalm would fit. During the exile period Jeremiah and Ezekiel were prophesying, and the complaint took quite a different form then and probably for some time afterwards (Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:26). The full desolation of the situation is told in “Song of the Three Children,” Psalms 74:15; “Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before Thee or find mercy.” Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.—This, too, carries us on past the time of Jeremiah, who had given an exact date for the termination of the exile. Probably (if the arrangement of the words is right) we have here another expression of a widely-spread feeling—a feeling which inspired the apocalyptic literature, which had for its object partly to answer this question, how long? But it has been suggested, as more in the Hebrew style, to end the clause with the word know, and make it directly parallel with the preceding (“there is neither a prophet nor one who knows”), and carry on the interrogative to the next verse, where its repetition would add much to the force of the question there put. (Burgess.)

Verse 9. We see not our signs] "They have taken away all our trophies, and have left us no memorial that God has been among us. Even thou thyself hast left us destitute of all those supernatural evidences that have so often convinced us that thou wert among us of a truth." But we may say that they were not totally destitute even of these. The preservation of Daniel in the lion's den, and of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace; the metamorphosis of Nebuchadnezzar; the handwriting that appeared to Belshazzar; were all so many prodigies and evidences that God had not left them without proofs of his being and his regard. There is no more any prophet] There was not one among them in that place that could tell them how long that captivity was yet to endure. But there were prophets in the captivity. Daniel was one; but his prophecies were confined to one place. Ezekiel was another, but he was among those captives who were by the river Chebar. They had not, as usual, prophets who went to and fro through the land, preaching repentance and remission of sins.

9. our signs] The outward and visible symbols of our religion, such as sabbath and festival, which God “had caused to be forgotten in Zion” (Lamentations 2:6). The sabbath is spoken of as a sign in Exodus 31:13; Exodus 31:17; Ezekiel 20:12; Ezekiel 20:20. The words would of course be specially appropriate to the time at which Antiochus attempted to suppress all the distinctive ordinances of the Jewish religion (1Ma 1:45-46; 1Ma 1:60-61). Note the contrast with the ‘signs’ of hostile domination, Psalms 74:4. there is no more any prophet] A characteristic of the Maccabaean age (1Ma 4:46; 1Ma 9:27; 1Ma 14:41): but the complaints of the exile are not dissimilar (Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:26); and even after the Return the angel in Zechariah’s vision (Zechariah 1:12) asks ‘How long?’

We see not our signs - The emblems of worship, or the national emblems or banners, which we have been accustomed to see. There are no signals or tokens of our nationality in the land.

9. We see not our signs—The word rendered “our signs” implies tokens or answers of prayer, of a general character, connected with the instituted ordinances of worship.