Psalms 74
74
PSALM 74
Common Meter: 8,6,8,6
Maschil of Asaph.
1O God, why hast thou cast us off?
is it for evermore?
Against thy pasture-sheep why doth
thine anger smoke so sore?
2O call to thy rememberance
thy congregation,
Which thou hast purchased of old;
still think the same upon:
The rod of thine inheritance,
which thou redeemed hast,
This Sion hill, wherein thou hadst
thy dwelling in times past.
3To these long desolations
thy feet lift, do not tarry;
For all the ills thy foes have done
within thy sanctuary.
4Amidst thy congregations
thine enemies do roar:
Their ensigns they set up for signs
of triumph thee before.
5A man was famous, and was had
in estimation,
According as he lifted up
his axe thick trees upon.
6But all at once with axes now
and hammers they go to,
And down the carved work thereof
they break, and quite undo.
7They fired have thy sanctuary,
and have defil'd the same,
By casting down unto the ground
the place where dwelt thy name.
8Thus said they in their hearts, Let us
destroy them out of hand:
They burnt up all the synagogues
of God within the land.
9Our signs we do not now behold;
there is not us among
A prophet more, nor any one
that knows the time how long.
10How long, Lord, shall the enemy
thus in reproach exclaim?
And shall the adversary thus
always blaspheme thy name?
11Thy hand, ev'n thy right hand of might,
why dost thou thus draw back?
O from thy bosom pluck it out
for our deliv'rance sake.
12For certainly God is my King,
ev'n from the times of old,
Working in midst of all the earth
salvation manifold.
13The sea, by thy great pow'r, to part
asunder thou didst make;
And thou the dragons' heads, O Lord,
within the waters brake.
14The leviathan's head thou brak'st
in pieces, and didst give
Him to be meat unto the folk
in wilderness that live.
15Thou clav'st the fountain and the flood,
which did with streams abound:
Thou dry'dst the mighty waters up
unto the very ground.
16Thine only is the day, O Lord,
thine also is the night;
And thou alone prepared hast
the sun and shining light.
17By thee the borders of the earth
were settled ev'ry where:
The summer and the winter both
by thee created were.
18That th' enemy reproached hath,
O keep it in record;
And that the foolish people have
blasphem'd thy name, O Lord.
19Unto the multitude do not
thy turtle's soul deliver:
The congregation of thy poor
do not forget for ever.
20Unto thy cov'nant have respect;
for earth's dark places be
Full of the habitations
of horrid cruelty.
21O let not those that be oppress'd
return again with shame:
Let those that poor and needy are
give praise unto thy name.
22Do thou, O God, arise and plead
the cause that is thine own:
Remember how thou art reproach'd
still by the foolish one.
23Do not forget the voice of those
that are thine enemies:
Of those the tumult ever grows
that do against thee rise.
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
Psalms 74
74
Prayer at the Destruction of the Temple
1A maskil of Asaph.
I
Why, God, have you cast us off forever?#Forever: the word implies that the disaster is already of long duration, cf. Ps 74:9 and note.#Ps 10:1; 44:24; 77:8.
Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?#Ps 80:5.
2Remember your people, whom you acquired of old,
the tribe you redeemed as your own heritage,
Mount Zion where you dwell.#Ps 68:17; 132:13; Ex 15:17; Jer 10:16; 51:19.
3Direct your steps toward the utter destruction,
everything the enemy laid waste in the sanctuary.
4Your foes roared triumphantly in the place of your assembly;
they set up their own tokens of victory.
5They hacked away like a forester gathering boughs,
swinging his ax in a thicket of trees.
6They smashed all its engraved work,
struck it with ax and pick.
7They set your sanctuary on fire,
profaned your name’s abode by razing it to the ground.#Ps 79:1; Is 64:10.
8They said in their hearts, “We will destroy them all!
Burn all the assembly-places of God in the land!”
9#Even so we have seen no signs… : ancients often asked prophets to say for how long a divine punishment was to last, cf. 2 Sm 24:13. Here no prophet has arisen to indicate the duration.Even so we have seen no signs for us,
there is no prophet any more,#Lam 2:9.
no one among us who knows for how long.
10How long, O God, will the enemy jeer?#Ps 89:47.
Will the enemy revile your name forever?
11Why draw back your hand,
why hold back your right hand within your bosom?#Why hold back…within your bosom: i.e., idle beneath your cloak.
II
12#Comparable Canaanite literature describes the storm-god’s victory over all-encompassing Sea and its allies (dragons and Leviathan) and the subsequent peaceful arrangement of the universe, sometimes through the placement of paired cosmic elements (day and night, sun and moon), cf. Ps 89:12–13. The Psalm apparently equates the enemies attacking the Temple with the destructive cosmic forces already tamed by God. Why then are those forces now raging untamed against your own people?Yet you, God, are my king from of old,
winning victories throughout the earth.
13You stirred up the sea by your might;#Ps 89:10.
you smashed the heads of the dragons on the waters.#Is 51:9–10.
14You crushed the heads of Leviathan,#Jb 3:8; 40:25; Is 27:1.
gave him as food to the sharks.
15You opened up springs and torrents,
brought dry land out of the primeval waters.#Waters: lit., “rivers” (cf. Ps 24:7; Is 50:2) upon which, or from which, in primordial times the earth is created.
16Yours the day and yours the night too;
you set the moon and sun in place.
17You fixed all the limits of the earth;
summer and winter you made.#Gn 1.
18Remember how the enemy has jeered, Lord,
how a foolish people has reviled your name.
19Do not surrender to wild animals those who praise you;
do not forget forever the life of your afflicted.
20Look to your covenant,
for the recesses of the land
are full of the haunts of violence.
21Let not the oppressed turn back in shame;
may the poor and needy praise your name.
22Arise, God, defend your cause;
remember the constant jeering of the fools.
23Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the unceasing uproar of your enemies.
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