You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
Psalm 74 is the prayer of people standing in the wreckage of God's sanctuary. No prophet is left, and no one knows how long the ruin will last. At verse 14 the prayer turns back to a night when God smashed a monster in the sea. So why should a memory of Egypt comfort anyone now, and who is Leviathan?
Ruin Behind the Memory
The memory in verse 14 is not comfort for its own sake. It is an argument the psalmist puts to God. One writer lists what had been lost, and what faith still held on to:
WhybrowThe psalmist appeals to the fact that God redeemed and bought them long ago, and he holds that up against the present ruins. The sanctuary was on fire, its decorations destroyed, all God's meeting places burned up. There were no signs of divine power, and no one left to pass on His Word. No wonder they cried, "How long?" But faith remembers that God was Israel's King long ago, working deliverances in the midst of the earth.
Another notes what this does to hope in a wrecked situation: "Flesh cannot build up what God has put under the power of judgment; but faith can wait on God, till He glorifies Himself."
Leviathan Identified
The monster is not a myth. Commentators read it as a real creature used as a picture of a real nation:
L. M. GrantLeviathan is clearly a crocodile, and here it refers to Egypt (see Ezekiel 32:2). God broke the heads of that nation to pieces, and in effect gave them as food for the people who lived in the wilderness.
Others put it more simply still: God "divided the sea, and destroyed the power of Pharaoh, figured by monsters."
Why God Struck in Public
Where God struck mattered as much as the blow itself:
Numerical Bible NotesHe was "working deliverances in the midst of the earth" — there where the eyes of men would be most upon them. Egypt, which he goes on to speak about, was such a place. Its proud king was just the man in whom God could make His power known, and declare His name throughout all the earth.
The Enemy Behind Egypt
Pharaoh is the visible enemy, but writers see another enemy behind him:
Morrish Bible DictionaryLeviathan is a fitting symbol of the enemy of God's people, Ps. 74:14. In Isa. 27:1 it also typifies Satan: "leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent," whom God will punish.
The same reading applies to the sea itself. God "broke the head of the sea serpent in the waters, speaking of the satanic power by which they were threatened."
Food for the Wilderness
The second half of the verse is stranger than the first. God hands the dead monster over as a meal. Commentators differ on who eats it. The ESV reads "the creatures of the wilderness." Older translations take it of people: "those that people the desert." One writer defends that older sense:
Numerical Bible NotesSome object that the word only means animals of the desert. Even so, these last words surely refer to Israel. For a time they lived in the wilderness, and their enemies became their spoil. Caleb and Joshua later speak of the Canaanites in the same way: "they shall be food for us" (Num. 14:9)… Israel's difficulties only become God's opportunities, and their enemies only supply them with food… and so it is with all the people of God.
The Kinsman Who Avenges
This memory carries weight because it shows God acting in a role Israel's law made familiar:
J. G. BellettThe desire is that the Lord will show Himself as the kinsman-avenger of Israel. For under the law, the kinsman was to ransom, to avenge, and to build up the brother's house. And this is a cry to Him to act as an avenger. At the exodus from Egypt He acted in just that way, and the psalmist pleads it here. As their kinsman He had done both. He ransomed Israel out of Egypt, and He avenged Israel on Egypt. He divided the waters for His people, and He broke the heads of leviathan.
That plea is not selfish. Faith here "identifies the interests of the godly remnant and of God." Their enemies are His enemies. Their cause is His cause.
Summary
- Ruin. The sanctuary lies burned, no prophet speaks, and nobody knows how long. This verse prays from inside that.
- Remembrance. Faith cannot build on the rubble. It reaches back to the God who was King of old, and waits for Him to glorify Himself.
- The head. Commentators read Leviathan as the crocodile, standing for Egypt and Pharaoh. Behind that visible power stands the enemy God will punish at the end.
- The meal. The beaten enemy becomes food. Israel's difficulties turn into God's opportunities, and their enemies feed a people still in the desert.
- The plea. He once ransomed and avenged as their kinsman, so they ask Him to do it again — and He counts their cause as His own.