Asaph, to write this psalm, would have been the last of the Levitical musicians to serve during a reign of a king of Judah. He would be looking back at his youth when he witnessed the temple’s destruction. No other generation fits the criterion as presented in the psalm. Not even the Levitical musicians who watched the Romans destroy the temple for Psalm 74 existed centuries before the Romans controlled Israel. Instead, they could only pray the psalm in song.
Asaph, in Babylon captivity, would have been an old man in order to write verse 9, “We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be.” Jeremiah’s prophecy ended with the temple’s destruction in 586 B.C. Daniel began prophesying years after this. However, most of Daniel’s prophecies concern the Gentiles, not the Jews. So, what of Ezekiel?
The Egyptians defeated the Jews in 609 B.C. The Babylonians defeated the Egyptians 4 years later in 605 B.C., gaining control of Jerusalem. 8 years later, in 597 B.C., during Babylon’s second victory over rebellious Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. Ezekiel was in Babylon for 5 years before he began receiving prophecies, which was 11 years before Jerusalem fell and 11 years before Jeremiah’s prophecies stopped (Ezekiel 1:1, 593 B.C.). Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s prophecies overlapped.
The Babylonians defeated Judah a third and final time in 586 B.C. They burned the temple and Jerusalem and exiled all but the poor and despondent (Jeremiah 39:9-10, 16, 40:3-6, 52:13-27). Asaph would have been taken to Babylon in 609 B.C. Ezekiel’s prophecies rebuking the Jews lasted until at least 571 B.C. and no more than 559. Then, the Lord was silent until he sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah decades later. Asaph wrote this prayer-psalm when the Lord went silent.
God’s silence will drive the faithful to where he intends us to be to change us into Jesus’ character. God has a purpose in his silence. For Asaph, God’s purpose was this psalm and the beginning of the nation’s repentance.
