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Psalms 74
1God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your ?
2Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have to be the tribe of your inheritance: Zion, in which you have lived.
3Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in .
4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
5They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
6Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
7They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
8They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
9We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
10How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
11Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!
12Yet God is my of old, working throughout the earth.
13You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and creatures.
15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
16The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
20Honor your , for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
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Questions this passage answers
Who is God?
God is the one living Creator who made everything and depends on nothing, and Scripture answers this question mainly by telling us his character rather than by defining his substance. When God described himself to Moses he said he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. The New Testament adds that this God is finally known in Jesus Christ, who has made him known.
Who wrote the Bible?
The Bible was written by many human authors over a long period, and Scripture presents itself as God-breathed rather than as human opinion. Some books name their writer, some do not, and honest study says which is which. Paul calls every Scripture God-breathed, and Peter says no prophecy came by the will of man but that people spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, which is the Bible's own account of how both authors are involved at once.
Can the Bible be trusted?
Scripture claims to be true and invites examination rather than avoiding it. It says God's word is truth and that it stands when everything else fades, and the New Testament writers appeal to eyewitnesses, named places and public events rather than to private experience. Trust in Scripture is finally trust in the God who speaks in it, and the clearest reason a Christian gives for that trust is that Jesus treated these writings as God's own word.
How should I pray?
When the disciples asked this, Jesus answered with a pattern rather than a technique. Pray to your Father, in private, without performance and without needing many words, because he already knows what you need. The prayer he gave begins with God's name, kingdom and will, then asks for bread, forgiveness and protection. Scripture adds that we may bring everything, that the Spirit helps our weakness, and that we can ask with confidence when we ask according to God's will.