You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.
Psalm 74 is a lament sung in the middle of ruin, when no prophet can say how long it will last. Verse 17 turns from what enemies tear down to what God has fixed in place — and if the earth's boundaries and the seasons are His work, He still holds His people's history.
Creation as a standing witness
In verses 12–17 the psalmist stops looking at the enemy and lists what God has done. One writer traces the move from God's rescues in history to the settled order of the world.
Hamilton SmithThen, moving on from these miraculous interventions of God, the psalmist sees in creation the ever-present witness of God's mercy to man. The day and the night, the moon and the sun, the land and water, summer and winter, are a constant witness that God does not forget His creatures.
Boundaries that hold
The boundaries here cover the coastline and the map of the nations. God set both, and one writer says what that means for nations that think they stand on their own.
L M GrantHe has set the boundaries of the earth, allowing the sea to come so far and no farther (v. 17). In fact, God has ordained Israel's boundaries, and no doubt also the boundaries of other nations, so that they are not so independent as they like to think. God also declares that He has made summer and winter, another thing man cannot change.
Why nations fight
If God fixed the limits, then much of human conflict is a refusal of them. One writer traces war itself back to that refusal.
J T MawsonPaul's address to the Athenians (Acts 17) is helpful here. Verse 26 of that chapter shows that the earth's surface is enough for men to live on, and that God has set the bounds of the nations. If men had respected these God-appointed bounds, and had been content with the "place in the sun" that He had given them, there would have been no wars. But they did not find satisfaction in what they owned, and they refused to feel after God for it. So they have cast covetous eyes on their neighbours' land and have broken the bounds God appointed. From that come the bloodshed and the sorrow. Again the cause lies in the sinful and covetous will of man, which refuses the restraint God has put on it.
Boundaries and bread
Fixed borders and fixed seasons are not two separate facts. Together they decide whether people eat.
Numerical Bible NotesIn a world of opposites and constant conflict, how we need One who sets limits to it. God fixes the limits of the land itself in this way, and a little knowledge of physical geography will teach us how important that is. Compare land-locked Siberia, with its mountains cutting off the south. Then look at the countries washed by the currents from the equator. So the limits of the land tie in with that "arrangement" of summer and autumn, which man's food supply depends on.
The order of nature as covenant pledge
Verses 16 and 17 are not a nature poem dropped into a lament. They are an argument. One writer names what the psalmist appeals to, and points to Jeremiah 33 for it.
J. N. DarbyPsalm 74 may be taken as the expression of the very lowest extremity to which their own sin had brought them — when "the enemies roar in the congregation" (v. 4), when there are "no signs from God" (v. 9), no prophets, none that can tell "how long" before God comes in power for His people. Yet there is faith that God will not utterly forsake His people, and the word "how long?" turns into a cry. It cannot be "for ever." His faithfulness is trusted in redemption (vv. 2 and 13-15); His covenant faithfulness (vv. 16, 17), see Jeremiah 33:20.
There God stakes His promise to Israel on something that has never yet failed.
William KellyThen the Lord gives them the pledge that He will no more break this covenant with Israel than His covenant of day and night.
Hope drawn from an old promise
Looking back at old mercies is how faith finds hope in a ruined present.
A. PridhamThe clear light of God's deliverance is seen by looking back (verses 12-17). Faith remembers where the ancient mercies came from — the first covenant of promise — and draws from it signs of hope that hold it up while the desolations last. For the secret of God is known and treasured in the hearts of those who fear His name. He does not forsake His saints.
Summary
- Boundaries set. God fixed the shoreline, the seasons, and the map of the nations — none of it is man's to redraw.
- Boundaries witness. Day, night, land, water, summer and winter are a constant witness that God has not forgotten His creatures.
- Boundaries feed. The shape of the land and the round of the seasons work together to supply human food.
- Boundaries ignored. Nations that break God's limits and grab a neighbour's land reap bloodshed and sorrow.
- Boundaries pledge. Because His covenant with day and night holds, His covenant with His people holds too. That is why faith can still hope among ruins.