Psalm 74 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

Psa 74:1A Maskil[fn] of Asaph.
O God, why do you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

Psa 74:2

Psa 74:2Remember 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.

Psa 74:3

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

Psa 74:4

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

Psa 74:5

Psa 74:5They were like those who swing axes
in a forest of trees.[fn]

Psa 74:6

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

Psa 74:7

Psa 74:7They set your sanctuary on fire;
they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.

Psa 74:8

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

Psa 74:9

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

Psa 74:10

Psa 74:10How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

Psa 74:11

Psa 74:11Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment[fn] and destroy them!

Psa 74:12

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

Psa 74:13

Psa 74:13You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters[fn] on the waters.

Psa 74:14

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

Psa 74:15

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

Psa 74:16

Psa 74:16Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

Psa 74:17

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

Psa 74:18

Psa 74:18Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
and a foolish people reviles your name.

Psa 74:19

Psa 74:19Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.

Psa 74:20

Psa 74:20Have regard for the covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Psa 74:21

Psa 74:21Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

Psa 74:22

Psa 74:22Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

Psa 74:23

Psa 74:23Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(74:1)

Probably a musical or liturgical term

(74:5)

The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

(74:11)

Hebrew from your bosom

(74:13)

Or the great sea creatures

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