Psalm 74:14. What is Leviathan, mentioned here and in the book of Job?
Quickly we must say, I don’t know, to this one. No one knows. In the margin of some Bibles you will see “crocodile.” Some want to say it is a whale. Others, that the Biblical writers are using a known mythical sea creature of their day to make a point about God’s greatness or some other Biblical message.
Psalm 82:1, 6. Why does Asaph speak of “god” in the plural? Why did Jesus quote this very passage? (86:8)
The Hebrew is Elohim. Actually that word is a plural, the singular being El. The true God is spoken of in terms of plurality, as we have come to know His Nature is Threefold: Father, Son, Spirit. But it is not necessarily of Divinity of which we are speaking here. The word can also be used in a less than Divine way. “Judge” or “Chief”, that is, some human dignitary raised above the masses, are all Elohim.
It was this vagueness of the term that allowed Jesus to stump the Pharisees one day, when they were startled at the fact that He claimed Divinity. His response was that God Himself had called other members of the creation Elohim. Why could He not wear the title.
It was a teaser, an introduction into their hardened thinking of the possibility of greater than average respect due to the Man before them.
In the Psalm, you will read a little farther on, God tells these human “gods” that, though He had made them great and exalted above the people, they would die like every other man.
Psalm 84:5-7. What is the allusion to “Baca” here? What does this passage concern?
Baca means weeping or lamentation. On that, all are agreed. There is no such agreement on a particular valley being referenced here. So it seems we are free to enjoy the allegory that is meant to surface from the wording.
As travelers moving through a very dry and desolate valley might stop, dig ditches and wells, and wait for God’s rains to grace their recovery from the drought, so the one on His way to a lifelong walk with the Lord. He too will pass through seriously dry periods in his life. But a real saint knows how to provide for the blessing of God, and wait on Him to fill their sadnesses with His joy.
Joy always comes for these folks, if they are able to hold on for the pouring out of His rains.
Psalm 85:1. If the “sons of Korah” ministered during the days of David, why is there a mention here of the return from exile, which was several hundred years later?
The simplest answer is that the “captivity” of Jacob is not referring to that period which we call the exile, but to some earlier time when Israel had been invaded, nearer the time of David. The other possibility is that the “sons of Korah” had other sons, who had other sons, and that there was still such an organization well into the time of the ultimate Exile. Then we would have to suppose that the book of Psalms was not completed until that time.
Psalm 87:4-6. “This one was born there.” What is being described?
The summation seems to be this: There will come a day when, although it may be a thing of honor to have been born in a particular nation, there will be an even greater honor to have been born in Zion. And there seems to be a difference being made between nations, and a spiritual birth, by God Himself. Notice the “but” comparison of verse 5. And it will not just be human boasting here, but God Himself laying claim to His re-born people in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
But this is as close as I could come to it. Perhaps others see something I do not see in it.
Psalm 88 and 89. Who are the “Ezrahites”? At what date would this Psalm then be placed?
Both Ethan and Heman, Psalmists, were sons of Zerah. Descendants of this family could well have been termed Ezrahites. There seems to be no clear connection to the man Ezra.
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