PSALM 74

Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation

Psalm 74:1 O God, why do you cast us off for ever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

Psalm 74:2 Remember your congregation, which you have gotten of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

Psalm 74:3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

Psalm 74:4 Your foes have roared in the midst of your holy place; they set up their own signs for signs.

Psalm 74:5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

Psalm 74:6 And then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

Psalm 74:7 They set your sanctuary on fire; to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of your name.

Psalm 74:8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

Psalm 74:9 We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.

Psalm 74:10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name for ever?

Psalm 74:11 Why do you hold back your hand, why do you keep your right hand in your bosom?

Psalm 74:12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Psalm 74:13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons on the waters.

Psalm 74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan, you gave him as food  for the creatures of the wilderness.

Psalm 74:15 You cut open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams.

Psalm 74:16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the luminaries and the sun.

Psalm 74:17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you have made summer and winter.

Psalm 74:18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.

Psalm 74:19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the souls of your poor for ever.

Psalm 74:20 Have regard for your  covenant; for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Psalm 74:21 Let not the humble be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

Psalm 74:22 Arise, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all the day!

Psalm 74:23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries which goes up continually!