Psalm 74--Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

Psalm 74
English Standard Version

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
A Maskil of Asaph.
74 O God, why do you cast us off forever?
    Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember 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.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
    the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4 Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
    they set up their own signs for signs.
5 They were like those who swing axes
    in a forest of trees.
6 And all its carved wood
    they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
    they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it down to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9 We do not see our signs;
    there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is none among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
    Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!

12 Yet God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
    you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
    you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You split open springs and brooks;
    you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
    you have made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
    and a foolish people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
    do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20 Have regard for the covenant,
    for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
    let the poor and needy praise your name.

​22 Arise, O God, defend your cause;
    remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

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Asaph looks at the enemies attacking the Land from all sides who have apparently gotten into Jerusalem and attacked the Temple sanctuary (or perhaps the Holy Spirit has revealed to Asaph what Babylon is going to do in the future).  Asaph sees the people as helpless sheep and their Shepherd needs to come to their rescue.  Asaph just simply asks the LORD to "remember" (which doesn't just sit there and ponder but leads the one remembering to action).  We too are often times told to "remember" things in the Bible and that "remembering" should also lead us to action.

Asaph recounts the enemies' victories and Israel's defeats for the LORD kind of like pointing to the scoreboard in the 4th quarter and making a point that something big needs to happen and happen quickly and that "thing" in this case needs to be a miracle from the hand of the LORD.  Asaph wants the LORD to work in a mighty way like He did in Egypt, but he agrees that even if He's working quietly, He's always working towards the salvation of His people.

God demonstrated His superiority over the untamable sea and the mighty creatures that live in it, including Leviathan which many would call a "sea monster."  God has made springs of water appear in dry places (like the water that came from the Rock in the wilderness).  The LORD has made the sun and the moon and all the heavenly host (this includes all the angelic beings--it's not just speaking of the stars here) and has set times and seasons and boundaries for the earth and the sky and the sea, and nations and peoples exist because He divided them at Babel and gave them languages and territories.  None of these nations would exist or have any power the LORD did not allow them to live on the Earth He created.

One day the LORD will bring all nations to account (that is what Asaph is waiting and hoping for, but it is a day that is still in the future for us) and the wicked will get the wages of their sin--eternal death.  Just like the LORD promised Adam and Eve in The Garden of Eden.  God will also remember the righteous in that day (those whom He has declared righteous and clothed with His own righteousness that is pure and perfect, not our self-righteousness that is like filthy rags to Him).  Yes, there is a day that is coming when all men will give an account to the LORD and God will ultimately save His people, even if that doesn't happen here and now the way that we want it to happen when we want it to happen.  However, I think Asaph knows that the LORD has more in store for His people because there are unfulfilled promises (he refers to the covenant of the LORD).  For the LORD to make good on His Word, He must save His people, and continue to save them until everything He promised has been accomplished.  We too can be sure of this.