Psalms 74:16 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

It is not strange nor incredible that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work. Prepared; or rather, established, as this word oft signifies; not only created, but settled in a constant and orderly course. The light; either,

1. That primitive light, Genesis 1:3, which afterwards was condensed and gathered into the sun. Or rather,

2. The moon, as divers, both ancient and modern, interpreters understand it, called here the light, to wit, the lesser luminary or light; wherein there is either a synecdoche of the general for the particular, or an ellipsis of the adjective, both which figures are very usual. And that the lesser light is here meant, may seem probable, both because it is opposed to the greater light, the sun here following; and because this is to rule the night, as the sun is to rule the day, Genesis 1:16; and so this clause answereth to and explains the former, wherein both day and night are mentioned.

Psalms 74:16

16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.