Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

Psalm 74

A Maskil 1 of Asaph.

1
O God, why do you s cast us off forever?
Why does your anger t smoke against u the sheep of your pasture?
 2 v Remember your congregation, which you have w purchased of old,
which you have x redeemed to be y the tribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, z where you have dwelt.
 3 Direct your steps to a the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4 Your foes have b roared in the midst of your meeting place;
c they set up their d own signs for e signs.
 5 They were like those who swing f axes
in a forest of trees. 2
6 And all its g carved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
 7 They h set your sanctuary on fire;
they i profaned j the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.
 8 They k 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 l signs;
m there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
 10 How long, O God, n is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
 11 Why o do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment 3 and destroy them!

12 Yet p God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
 13 You q divided the sea by your might;
you r broke the heads of s the sea monsters 4 on the waters.
 14 You crushed the heads of t Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
 15 You u split open springs and brooks;
you v dried up ever-flowing streams.
 16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established w the heavenly lights and the sun.
 17 You have x fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made y summer and winter.

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

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

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

  1. Cross References
    Psalms 50:1
    The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 44:9
    But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies.
  3. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 29:20
    The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.
    Psalms 18:8
    Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.
  4. Cross References
    Psalms 79:13
    But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
    Psalms 100:3
    Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
    Jeremiah 23:1
    Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the Lord.
    Ezekiel 34:31
    And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.
    Psalms 95:7
    For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 74:18
    Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
    Psalms 74:22
    Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
  6. Cross References
    Exodus 15:16
    Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
    Deuteronomy 32:6
    Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
    Psalms 78:54
    And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won.
  7. Cross References
    Psalms 77:15
    You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
    Isaiah 63:9
    In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
  8. Cross References
    Isaiah 63:17
    O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.
    Jeremiah 10:16
    Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.
    Jeremiah 51:19
    Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.
  9. Cross References
    Psalms 9:11
    Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!
  10. Cross References
    Isaiah 61:4
    They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
  11. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:6 - 7
    He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the Lord has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.
  12. Cross References
    Matthew 24:15
    So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place ( let the reader understand).
  13. Cross References
    Numbers 2:2
    The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers' houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
  14. Cross References
    Psalms 74:9
    We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.
  15. Cross References
    Jeremiah 46:22
    She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away; for her enemies march in force and come against her with axes like those who fell trees.
  16. Cross References
    1 Kings 6:18
    The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen.
    1 Kings 6:29
    Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.
    1 Kings 6:32
    He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
    1 Kings 6:35
    On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work.
  17. Cross References
    2 Kings 25:9
    And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
    Psalms 79:1
    O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
  18. Cross References
    Psalms 89:39
    You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust.
    Lamentations 2:2
    The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers.
  19. Cross References
    Psalms 26:8
    O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.
  20. Cross References
    Psalms 83:4
    They say, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!
  21. Cross References
    Psalms 74:4
    Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs.
  22. Cross References
    1 Samuel 3:1
    Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
    Lamentations 2:9
    Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.
    Ezekiel 7:26
    Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders.
    Amos 8:11
    Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
  23. Cross References
    Psalms 74:18
    Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
    Psalms 74:22
    Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
    Psalms 79:12
    Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
    Psalms 89:51
    With which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
  24. Cross References
    Lamentations 2:3
    He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.
  25. Cross References
    Psalms 44:4
    You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!
  26. Cross References
    Exodus 14:21
    Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
  27. Cross References
    Isaiah 51:9
    Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?
  28. Cross References
    Isaiah 27:1
    In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
  29. Cross References
    Job 41:1
    Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?
  30. Cross References
    Psalms 78:15
    He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
    Psalms 105:41
    He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.
    Exodus 17:5 - 6
    And the Lord said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
    Numbers 20:11
    And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.
    Isaiah 48:21
    They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.
  31. Cross References
    Joshua 2:10
    For we have heard how the Lord dried up the wat...
    Joshua 4:23
    For the Lord your God dried up the waters of th...
    Isaiah 51:10
    Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters...
    Psalms 66:6
    He turned the sea into dry land; they passed th...
    Exodus 14:21 - 25
    Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,...
    Joshua 3:13 - 17
    And when the soles of the feet of the priests b...
  32. Cross References
    Psalms 104:19
    He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
    Genesis 1:14 - 16
    And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.
  33. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:8
    When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
    Acts 17:26
    And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.
  34. Cross References
    Genesis 8:22
    While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
  35. Cross References
    Psalms 74:2
    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.
    Psalms 74:22
    Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
    Psalms 89:50
    Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations.
    Revelation 16:19
    The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
    Revelation 18:5
    For her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
  36. Cross References
    Psalms 39:8
    Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
    Deuteronomy 32:6
    Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
  37. Cross References
    Song of Solomon 2:14
    O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
  38. Cross References
    Psalms 68:10
    Your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.
  39. Cross References
    Psalms 106:45
    For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
    Genesis 17:7 - 8
    And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
    Leviticus 26:44 - 45
    Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.
    Jeremiah 33:21
    Then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers.
  40. Cross References
    Psalms 10:8
    He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless.
  41. Cross References
    Psalms 9:9
    The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
    Psalms 10:18
    To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
  42. Cross References
    Psalms 6:10
    All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
  43. Cross References
    Psalms 86:1
    Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
  44. Cross References
    1 Samuel 24:15
    May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
  45. Cross References
    Psalms 74:2
    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.
    Psalms 74:18
    Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
  46. Cross References
    Psalms 65:7
    Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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