Asaph appears to have been a Jew in captivity in Babylon. He was old enough to remember the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. But he wrote before Cyrus allowed the Jews to return in 536 B.C.
Asaph began the psalm with three things he did not understand about what God was doing and why. First, he asked God why He had rejected the people for so long. For one thing, the Jews had rejected God and were worshipping idols of neighboring nations; this had been going on for over 100 years beginning at least during the reign of Ahaz and especially during the reign of Manasseh. The second reason the people had neglected to let the land remain untilled every 7th year as required in the law; every Sabbatical year the people were to harvest only the “voluntary crops”. There were 70 missed Sabbatical years so there was to be 70 years of exile, 606-536 B.C.
Second, he then accused God of forgetting His people, but God had not forgotten them. God continued to send messages to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel during this time.
Third Asaph reminded God that His earthly home was Jerusalem. But Ezekiel recorded a vision of God’s presence leaving the Temple and Jerusalem before they were destroyed. There is nothing in Scripture that God ever returned when the new Temple was finished; the Ark of the Covenant disappeared during the captivity so how could there continue to be a yearly Day of Atonement because the blood of the sacrifice could not be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat.
Many times in life we see things we do not understand. It is important we do not lose our trust in God. This psalm and the Book of Job were given to us to help us trust God when we don’t understand.