Psalms 74

Psalm 74

Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation

1O God, why do you cast us off forever?[#Deut 29.20; Ps 44.9, 23]

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

2Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago,[#Deut 32.6; Ps 77.15]

which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.

Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.

3Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;[#Ps 79.1; Isa 61.4]

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

4Your foes have roared within your holy place;[#Num 2.2; Lam 2.7]

they set up their emblems there.

5At the upper entrance they hacked[#Jer 46.22]

the wooden trellis with axes.

6And then, with hatchets and hammers,

they smashed all its carved work.

7They set your sanctuary on fire;[#2 Kings 25.9]

they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,

bringing it to the ground.

8They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;[#Ps 83.4]

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9We do not see our emblems;[#1 Sam 3.1; Ps 78.43]

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is no one among us who knows how long.

10How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?[#Lev 24.16]

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

11Why do you hold back your hand;[#Ps 59.13]

why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

12Yet God my King is from of old,[#Ps 44.4]

working salvation in the earth.

13You divided the sea by your might;[#Isa 51.9]

you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15You cut openings for springs and torrents;[#Ex 17.5, 6; Num 20.11; Josh 3.13]

you dried up ever-flowing streams.

16Yours is the day, yours also the night;[#Ps 104.19]

you established the luminaries and the sun.

17You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;[#Gen 8.22]

you made summer and winter.

18Remember this, O Lord , how the enemy scoffs,[#v 10 ; Ps 39.8]

and an impious people reviles your name.

19Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;[#Ps 9.18; Song 2.14]

do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20Have regard for your covenant,[#Gen 17.7; Ps 88.6; 106.45; #74.20 Gk Syr: Heb the]

for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.

21Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;[#Ps 35.10; 103.6]

let the poor and needy praise your name.

22Rise up, O God, plead your cause;[#v 18 ; Ps 43.1]

remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.

23Do not forget the clamor of your foes,[#v 10 ; Ps 65.7]

the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ