Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 74:16
The day [is] thine, the night also [is] thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
16. The day &c.] Thine is the day and the night is thine.
the light and the sun ] Possibly equivalent to ‘the moon and the sun’ (Psa 104:19); but more probably ‘the luminaries and especially the sun.’ Cp. Gen 1:14; Gen 1:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16, 17. All the fixed laws and ordinances of the natural world were established and are maintained by God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The day is thine, the night also is thine – Thou hast universal dominion. All things are under thy control. Thou hast power, therefore, to grant what we desire of thee.
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun – He who has made the sun – that greatest and noblest object of creation to the view of man – must have almighty power, and must be able to give what we need.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 74:16
The day is Thine, the night also is Thine.
The day and the night
I. Gods ordinances.
1. Day is a Divine institution, and is strongly characterized by that wisdom and goodness which are over all Gods works. In its principal feature–light–light over all, filling the heavens, flushing the earth, mantling over hill and valley, meadow and plain, kindling the great face of the ocean into a mirror, till it reflects on its bosom all that is above it, and repeats in shadow all that is upon it–it may even be regarded as the similitude of God, for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
2. But if the day is Gods institution, so also is the night, which is not less closely written over with the characters of His wisdom and goodness. If day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. They are parts and counterparts of each other. The day makes us ready to welcome the night, and the night furnishes us with a standard by which to measure and estimate the splendours of the day.
II. Gods servants. Neither of these two servants of God ever rests. There is always day somewhere, and there is always night somewhere. Continually the night is laying down one half the world to repose, and continually the day is leading forth the other half of the world to work. The night receives the world weary from the hands of the day, and puts it to rest; and the day receives the world refreshed from the hands of the night, and lights it to action. And all the time also they are otherwise doing for man what man cannot do for himself. They are growing his food. They are weaving his raiment. They are enriching his dwelling-place with beauty and verdure. And in all this multiform kindness to us they are serving God, fulfilling His pleasure, doing what He meant them to do, when He set them in the heavens to be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. So that, in point of fact, this manifold service of nature is just Gods kindness to us through the ministry of His two great servants, the day and the night.
III. Gods absolute possession. That is to say, we are not at liberty to do what we choose with them. For the manner in which we deal, with the possibilities of good which they contain, we are strictly and constantly under law to God. In ministering to us as He has ordained, they are serving Him. But in the use we make of them we must serve Him too. What they do unconsciously we must do consciously, in the exercise of those higher faculties which render us capable of a higher service. God has always been jealous of the treatment His servants have received at the hands of those whom He has appointed them to serve. Touch not Mine anointed, nor do My prophets any harm. And even these unconscious and inanimate servants, the Day and the Night, have a voice in His ears which He does not disregard, calling for judgment on those who treat them ill, who turn them to purposes of selfishness and sin; who degrade them to be the ministers of unworthy pleasures, or even slothful ease, and who do not rather send them back to their Proprietor laden with the fruits of righteousness unto life everlasting. (A. L. Simpson, D. D.)
Disorder in the Church
We have lost that immediate vision which is the peculiar privilege and gift of those religious Easterns, who see God in the undeviating realities of experience. The Jew sees God with the seeing of the eye, sees Him in the mighty activities of nature, sees Him in the concrete facts of experience. God is present to him there, attesting His validity, disclosed as the supreme and only actuality. In the roar of the storm, in the rush of the rain, in the splendour of the sun, in the obedience of the moon, in the steady fixities of rock and tree and cliff, he and his God come face to face and commune together. There is the dominion where his God never fails him. Tossed and afflicted as he may be in his spiritual experiences, he still holds fast to this abiding consolation. Anyhow the day is Thine, the night also is Thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. We have to learn to see with his eyes. That is what we mean by taking the Bible as our authority in revelation. And then we have one other lesson to learn from him. Not only did he find absolute certainty of evidence of God in nature, but he was also prepared to be loyal to a revelation which for long dark periods may fail to accord him that clear security of Gods close presence, that regularity of order and seemliness in Gods workmanship which he found so constant in the natural world, It is his revelation which is disturbed by such strange perplexities. It is his special privileges, sealed to him by God, which is open to such terrible insecurities. It is the holy Church which seems to be emptied of God, deserted, forgotten, left to the scorn of adversaries who make havoc of its fair delights. Outside there the great order of nature proclaims aloud Gods mighty name, The day is thine; the night is thine. They never languish or grow troubled. But inside the Church he cannot understand what God is about; and yet it is His congregation. It is His inheritance. Nothing shakes the Jews loyal belief in the peculiar favours which were shown to him. He never dreams of arguing, If it is a revelation it is bound to be clear, decided, protected against all possible doubts and uncertainties. God would never give a revelation and then leave it open to perplexities. The Jew answers, That is just what God has done. It is a revelation which He gives. We are His flock, His inheritance, His Church. That is certain, and yet look at our actual situation, how we are troubled, and tossed, and agonized, not knowing which way to turn. Nature is calm, but we are disturbed. And yet we will not fail the word given us, for all that. We are the Divine society, the holy congregation, even though God seems absent from us so long. And we must possess ourselves of a like loyalty to his. The extraordinary assumption that a revelation, if it be a revelation, must be free from difficulties, must be clear-cut, logical, complete, must leave no problem unsolved, must secure itself against every possible misunderstanding, is flatly contradicted by everything that we know of the only revelation of which we have any experience at all. It is the mark of heresy–it was always the mark in old years–to aim at logical completeness, at clear-cut consistency. Surely we will take courage from this Israelite in our psalm. We may desire, as he did, that Gods revelation in Jesus Christ might work with the even, smooth, unbroken regularity of natural law. We may painfully contrast, as he did, the comfortable certainty of the one with the perplexity of the other. But God will not have it so. And we know too little of the end He has in view to criticize or complain. Therefore, as the Jew of old, so we at all costs will surrender ourselves to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, however strange its adverse fortunes, however belated its victory. (Canon Scott Holland.)
The night also is Thine.
The God of the night
Regard night–
I. As a division of time. And as such it is–
1. The first.
2. Natural.
3. Universal.
4. Beneficent. The dews of the night heal the wounds of the day.
II. As the product and possession of God. Of storm as well as of calm, of night as well as of day. God is at once the Source and Sovereign. Therefore–
III. Learn.
1. A lesson for the regulation of conduct. Take care to wisely and rightly use the night time.
2. A message for the consolation of human sorrows. For our nights of pain and sorrow are ordained, relieved and terminated by God. (Wingate Thomas.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. The day is thine, the night also is thine] Thou art the Author of light, and of the sun, which is the means of dispensing it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is not strange nor incredible that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work.
Prepared; or rather, established, as this word oft signifies; not only created, but settled in a constant and orderly course.
The light; either,
1. That primitive light, Gen 1:3, which afterwards was condensed and gathered into the sun. Or rather,
2. The moon, as divers, both ancient and modern, interpreters understand it, called here the light, to wit, the lesser luminary or light; wherein there is either a synecdoche of the general for the particular, or an ellipsis of the adjective, both which figures are very usual. And that the lesser light is here meant, may seem probable, both because it is opposed to the greater light, the sun here following; and because this is to rule the night, as the sun is to rule the day, Gen 1:16; and so this clause answereth to and explains the former, wherein both day and night are mentioned.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16, 17. The fixed orders ofnature and bounds of earth are of God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The day is thine, and the night also is thine,…. He made the one and the other, and divided the one from the other; and can make them longer or shorter, clear or cloudy, as he pleases: and the day of prosperity and night of adversity are at his disposal; all the times of his people and of his church are in his hands; sometimes it is a night of darkness, deadness, sleepiness, and security, as it now is; ere long there will be no more night, but bright day; the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven fold as the light of seven days; and this is to be expected from him whose is the day and the night also, Re 21:25. Jarchi interprets the day, of the redemption of Israel; and the night, of distresses and afflictions:
thou hast prepared the light and the sun; first the light, and then the sun; for the light was before the sun; or the luminary, even the sun. Aben Ezra interprets the “light” of the moon, and so the Targum; and Kimchi, both of the moon and of the stars; Jarchi takes the light figuratively to be meant of the light of the law; but it is much better to understand it of the light of the Gospel, which God has prepared, and will send forth more largely in the latter day, whereby the whole earth shall be lightened; and when Christ the “sun” of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings, and who gives both the light of grace and glory to his people.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. The day is thine, the night also is thine. The prophet now descends to the consideration of the divine benefits which are extended in common to all mankind. Having commenced with the special blessings by which God manifested himself to be the Father of his chosen people, he now aptly declares that God exercises his beneficence towards the whole human family. He teaches us, that it is not by chance that the days and nights succeed each other in regular succession, but that this order was established by the appointment of God. The secondary cause of these phenomena is added, being that arrangement by which God has invested the sun with the power and office of illuminating the earth; for after having spoken of the light he adds the sun, as the principal means of communicating it, and, so to speak, the chariot in which it is brought when it comes to show itself to men. (240) As then the incomparable goodness of God towards the human race clearly shines forth in this beautiful arrangement, the prophet justly derives from it an argument for strengthening and establishing his trust in God.
(240) “ Comme le principal instrument d’icelle, et par maniere de dire, le chariot auquel elle est apportee, quand elle se vient monstrer aux hommes.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) The light and the sun.Evidently from Gen. 1:14; Gen. 1:16, where the same word occurs for the heavenly luminary generally, and then for the sun as chief.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(16-18) An appeal from the God of history to the God of nature. Not only did He work wonders, but even the universe is the work of His hand.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. The day is thine From a glance at God in history the psalmist ascends to God in nature. Faith rises upon these steps of ascent, and pleads, Cannot the God of history interpose now as of old? Cannot the God of day and night, of sun and earth, of summer and winter, restore his own people?
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun The light, even the sun. So the Hebrew particle is often used.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Here is a beautiful acknowledgment of God, in his works of nature and providence, who had before been adored in his works of grace: and perhaps in allusion to the Lord’s appearing for his people in times of danger, when in the wars of Joshua and in that of Deborah and Barak, the Lord arrested the course of nature, and caused the sun and the stars to fight for Israel. Jos 10:12-13 ; Jdg 5:20 . It is probable also, that the Lord is here reminded of his covenant engagements to his people, that he who is faithful in sending the regular return of day and night, summer and winter, will be faithful to all his covenant promises. Gen 8:22 . The Lord himself makes an appeal to this, by way of confirmation to his people’s faith, Jer 31:36Jer 31:36 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 74:16 The day [is] thine, the night also [is] thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Ver. 16. The day is thine, the night also is thine ] He had argued with God, and strengthened his own faith from God’s extraordinary works; and now he doth the like from his ordinary works in nature, with the alternate course thereof, wherein appeareth a kind of image of the seasonable driving away of calamities, and turning all things into a desired state, Psa 30:5 Lam 3:23 .
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun light. Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulg, read “moon”.
Psa 74:16-17
Psa 74:16-17
“The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou has made summer and winter.”
This psalm is called didactic, that is, a teaching psalm; and here the teaching relates to the basic truth that the God of Israel is the true Creator of everything, the day, the night, the sun, the winter, the summer, the land and the sea, everything! Significantly, this comes right after the use of that terminology from some of the ancient mythology believed by the pagan world of antiquity. We like what Baigent had to say about this:
“The vocabulary of ancient Near Eastern lore is here applied as metaphor to the Exodus. Pagan religious poets traditionally described their god’s victory over the sea and monsters like Leviathan. Israel triumphantly claimed such language for what God did on their behalf when they crossed the Red Sea and when they crossed Jordan on dry land. The lord of sacred history is also the powerful God of creation and providence.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 74:16. God has complete jurisdiction over day and night. The reader should note that light and sun are mentioned separately and that light is named first. That agrees with Gen 1:3; Gen 1:14 which shows there was light 3 days before there was any sun. But it does not agree with the “scientists” who say that all light originated with the sun through its vibratory action on the so-called ether.
Psa 74:17. Set all the borders means that God had made the arrangements that have been followed by the earth. Since God has made summer and winter it is plain to see why he could make the prediction of Gen 8:22.
The day: Psa 136:7-9, Gen 1:3-5
prepared: Psa 8:3, Psa 19:1-6, Psa 136:7-9, Gen 1:14-18, Mat 5:45
Reciprocal: Gen 1:5 – and Gen 1:16 – to rule Gen 8:22 – seedtime Deu 4:19 – which the Lord Deu 33:14 – the precious Jos 10:12 – Sun Jos 10:13 – So the sun Job 38:12 – commanded Psa 19:2 – night unto Psa 65:8 – outgoings Psa 104:20 – makest Psa 139:9 – dwell Jer 31:35 – which giveth Jer 33:25 – and if 2Co 4:6 – who
ALTERNATIONS AND CONSOLATIONS
The day the night.
Psa 74:16
I. The alternation of day and night is part of a universal law.(1) Everywhere in nature. (2) In our daily life. (3) In our spiritual experiences. (4) In all history.
II. All these alternations are Divinely regulated and controlled.God rules the darkness as well as the light. Our misfortunes as well as blessings are under His control. I, the Lord, create light, and I create darkness.
III. Side by side with this law of alternation there is anotherviz. the law of compensation.Darkness and light are not opposing forces. Night has its beauties, its pleasures, and its purposes as well as day. (1) Night reveals more of the heavens than we see by day. Sorrow brings out truths as night brings out the stars. (2) If day afford opportunity for work, night brings rest. (3) If day yields heat, night brings the cool refreshing dews. (4) Night is quite as essential as day. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.
IV. These laws of alternation and compensation have many valuable lessons for us.(1) We must expect changes and vicissitudes. (2) We should learn lessons of contentment. (3) We should learn to trust in the Lord at all times. (4) We should remember that the night of death as well as the short day of life is in Gods hands. He will wake us in the morning where there are no more alternations.
Psa 74:16. The day is thine, the night also is thine It is not strange that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and appointed the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work. Thou hast prepared Hebrew, , hachinota, thou hast established, that is, not only created, but settled in a constant and orderly course, the light and the sun That primitive light mentioned Gen 1:3, and the sun, in which it was afterward condensed and gathered: or the luminaries in general, with their chief the sun. Thus, from the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf of his people, the psalmist passes to those ordinary and standing evidences of his goodness toward us, the sweet vicissitudes of light and darkness, and the grateful succession of times and seasons; by which man is taught, in the most sorrowful night, to look for a joyful morning; and, during the severest winter, to expect a reviving spring. Thus is the revolving year our constant instructer and monitor; incessantly inculcating the duties of faith and hope, as well as those of adoration, gratitude, and praise. Horne.
74:16 The {m} day [is] thine, the night also [is] thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
(m) Seeing that God by his providence governs and disposes all things, he gathers that he will take care chiefly for his children.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes