Psalms 74King James Version
O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? The sanctuary has been defiled. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord. A psalm after the destruction of the temple.
A national lament over the destruction of the sanctuary. Enemies have roared in the congregations, set up their own signs, taken axes and hammers to the carved work and cast fire. There is no prophet. How long, O God? But then the appeal shifts to cosmology: you divided the sea, broke the heads of Leviathan, established the borders of the earth. The contrast between the violated sanctuary and the still-sovereign Creator is the psalm's argument.
The God who split Leviathan and founded the borders of the earth has not been defeated by the destruction of his sanctuary; the prayer invokes cosmological sovereignty to demand a historical response.
verse: "We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long." The threefold silence, no signs, no prophet, no timeline, is the psalm's most desolate moment.
Superscription: 'Maschil of Asaph.' Asaph collection, Book 3. The destruction described in vv4-8 (axes, hammers, fire, all the synagogues/meeting places burned) is consistent with the 586 BC Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The prayer for God to plead his own cause (v22) makes the argument that his own honor is at stake.
Asaph and the congregation as the survivors; God addressed as the one whose sanctuary is destroyed; enemy armies who profaned the holy place; the congregation of the poor who should not be forgotten.
Psalm 74 is one of the clearest psalm responses to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, though it may refer to an earlier destruction. The absence of prophecy (v9) is particularly significant: silence from God on top of physical destruction is the deepest desolation. The Leviathan mythology (vv13-14) draws on ancient Near Eastern chaos-combat texts.
For when what was sacred has been destroyed and there is no word from God about what it means or when it will end. This psalm names that specific abandonment.
1[Maschil of Asaph.] O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.
5A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
6But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
8They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
12For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.
18Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
20Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
23Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.