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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.

12. But God is my King from the beginning. In this verse, as we have often seen to be the case in other places, the people of God intermingle meditations with their prayers, thereby to acquire renewed vigor to their faith, and to stir up themselves to greater earnestness in the duty of prayer. We know how difficult it is to rise above all doubts, and boldly to persevere in a free and unrestrained course of prayer. Here, then, the faithful call to remembrance the proofs of God’s mercy and working, by which he certified, through a continued series of ages, that he was the King and Protector of the people whom he had chosen. By this example we are taught, that as it is not enough to pray with the lips unless we also pray in faith, we ought always to remember the benefits by which God has given a confirmation of his fatherly love towards us, and should regard them as so many testimonies of his electing love. It is quite clear that the title King, which is here applied to God, ought not to be restricted merely to his sovereignty. He is addressed by this appellation because he had taken upon him the government of the Jewish people, in order to preserve and maintain them in safety. We have already stated what is implied in the words, from the beginning. By the midst of the earth some think that Judea is intended, because it was situated as it were in the midst of the habitable globe. There is no doubt that it is to be understood of a place which stands prominently in view. We find the expression used in this sense in these words which God commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh,

“And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth,”
(Exodus 8:22.)

The simple and natural meaning, therefore, is, that God had wrought in behalf of the chosen people many deliverances, which were as open and manifest as if they had been exhibited on a conspicuous theater.