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74. Psalm 74

¹ O God, why have you rejected us forever?
   Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
   the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—
   Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
³ Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
   all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

    ⁴ Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
   they set up their standards as signs.
⁵ They behaved like men wielding axes
   to cut through a thicket of trees.
⁶ They smashed all the carved paneling
   with their axes and hatchets.
⁷ They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
   they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
⁸ They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
   They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.

    ⁹ We are given no signs from God;
   no prophets are left,
   and none of us knows how long this will be.
¹⁰ How long will the enemy mock you, God?
   Will the foe revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
   Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!

¹² But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.

    ¹³ It was you who split open the sea by your power;
   you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
¹⁴ It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
   and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ It was you who opened up springs and streams;
   you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and yours also the night;
   you established the sun and moon.
¹⁷ It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
   you made both summer and winter.

    ¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked you, LORD,
   how foolish people have reviled your name.
¹⁹ Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
   do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
²⁰ Have regard for your covenant,
   because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
   may the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
   remember how fools mock you all day long.
²³ Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
   the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.

16. The day is thine, the night also is thine. The prophet now descends to the consideration of the divine benefits which are extended in common to all mankind. Having commenced with the special blessings by which God manifested himself to be the Father of his chosen people, he now aptly declares that God exercises his beneficence towards the whole human family. He teaches us, that it is not by chance that the days and nights succeed each other in regular succession, but that this order was established by the appointment of God. The secondary cause of these phenomena is added, being that arrangement by which God has invested the sun with the power and office of illuminating the earth; for after having spoken of the light he adds the sun, as the principal means of communicating it, and, so to speak, the chariot in which it is brought when it comes to show itself to men. ²⁴⁰²⁴⁰ “Comme le principal instrument d’icelle, et par maniere de dire, le chariot auquel elle est apportee, quand elle se vient monstrer aux hommes.” — Fr. As then the incomparable goodness of God towards the human race clearly shines forth in this beautiful arrangement, the prophet justly derives from it an argument for strengthening and establishing his trust in God.