Psalm 74 (ESV)

The Anguish They Feel

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

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

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

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

5: They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees.

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

7: They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.

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

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

10: How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

11: Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!

The Assurance They Remember

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

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

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

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

16: Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

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

The Arguments They Press

18: Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.

19: Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20: Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21: Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

22: Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

23: Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!