royed all them that are disloyal to thee.

72:28. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the
Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the
daughter of Sion.

Psalms Chapter 73

Ut quid, Deus.

A prayer of the church under grievous persecutions.

73:1. Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the
end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

73:2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the
beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed:
mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

73:3. Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what
things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

73:4. And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of
thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

Their ensigns, etc... They have fixed their colours for signs and
trophies, both on the gates, and on the highest top of the temple: and
they knew not, that is, they regarded not the sanctity of the place.
This psalm manifestly foretells the time of the Machabees, and the
profanation of the temple by Antiochus.

73:5. And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As
with axes in a wood of trees,

73:6. They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet
they have brought it down.

73:7. They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the
dwelling place of thy name on the earth.

73:8. They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let
us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.

73:9. Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will
know us no more.

73:10. How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to
provoke thy name for ever?

73:11. Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the
midst of thy bosom for ever?

73:12. But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the
midst of the earth.

73:13. Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush
the heads of the dragons in the waters.

The sea firm... By making the waters of the Red Sea stand like firm
walls, whilst Israel passed through: and destroying the Egyptians called
here dragons from their cruelty, in the same waters, with their king:
casting up their bodies on the shore to be stripped by the Ethiopians
inhabiting in those days the coast of Arabia.

73:14. Th