Psalms 74:5

"They have set signs, their own signs, and they have not known" [Psalm 74:5]. They had signs to place there, their standards, their eagles, their own dragons, the Roman signs; or even their statues which at first in the temple they placed; or perchance "their signs" are the things which they heard from the prophets of their demons. "And they have not known." Have not known what? How "you should have had no power against Me, except it had been given you from above." [John 19:11] They knew not how that not on themselves honour was conferred, to afflict, to take, or overthrow the city, but their ungodliness was made as it were the axe of God. They were made the instrument of Him enraged, not so as to be the kingdom of Him pacified. For God does that which a man also ofttime does. Sometimes a man in a rage catches up a rod lying in the way, perchance any sort of stick, he smites therewith his son, and then throwes the stick into the fire and reserves the inheritance for his son: so sometime God through evil men does instruct good men, and through the temporal power of them that are to be condemned He works the discipline of them that are to be saved. For why do you suppose, brethren, that discipline was even thus inflicted upon that nation, in order that it might perish utterly? How many out of this nation did afterwards believe, how many are yet to believe? Some are chaff, others grain; over both however there comes in the threshing-drag; but under one threshing-drag the one is broken up, the other is purged. How great a good has God bestowed upon us by the evil of Judas the traitor! By the very ferocity of the Jews how great a good was bestowed upon believing Gentiles! Christ was slain in order that there might be on the Cross One for him to look to who had been stung by the serpent.. ..

Famous - The temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great honour to any man to be employed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the trees of Lebanon.

A man was famous,....

A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. Once men were renowned for felling the cedars and preparing them for building the temple, but now the axe finds other work, and men are as proud of destroying as their fathers were of erecting. Thus in the olden times our sires dealt sturdy blows against the forests of error, and laboured hard to lay the axe at the root of the trees; but, alas! their sons appear to be quite as diligent to destroy the truth and to overthrow all that their fathers built up. O for the good old times again! O for an hour of Luther's hatchet, or Calvin's mighty axe!

A man was famous - literally, “He is known;” or, shall be known. That is, he was or shall be celebrated. According as he had lifted up axes - literally, “As one raising on high axes;” that is, as one lifts up his axe high in the air in order to strike an effectual stroke. Upon the thick trees - The clumps of trees; the trees standing thick together. That is, As he showed skill and ability in cutting these down, and laying them low. His celebrity was founded on the rapidity with which the strokes of the axe fell on the trees, and his success in laying low the pride of the forest. According to our common translation the meaning is, that “formerly” a man derived his fame from his skill and success in wielding his axe so as to lay the forest low, but that “now” his fame was to be derived from another source, namely, the skill and power with which he cut down the elaborately-carved work of the sanctuary, despoiled the columns of their ornaments, and demolished the columns themselves. But another interpretation may be given to this, as has been suggested by Prof. Alexander. It is, that “the ruthless enemy is known or recognized as dealing with the sanctuary no more tenderly than a woodman with the forest which he fells.” The former, however, is the more natural, as well as the more common interpretation. Luther renders it, “One sees the axe glitter on high, as one cuts wood in the forest.” The Vulgate, and the Septuagint, “The signs pointing to the entrance above that they did not know.” What idea was attached to this rendering, it is impossible to determine.