Psalm 74:23

Psalm 74 is a lament for the whole nation, one of the psalms of Asaph in the third book of the Psalter (Psalms 73–89). It opens with the cry “O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?” (Psalm 74:1), and then tells what the enemy has done to the sanctuary. They set up their own ensigns in it, broke down its carved work, burned it, and threw down “the dwelling place of thy name” to the ground (Psalm 74:3–8). The people’s signs are gone, the prophets are silent, and nobody can say how long this will last (Psalm 74:9). So the psalmist asks, “O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?” (Psalm 74:10). Then he turns to what God has done before, in the verses that begin “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth” and go on through his mighty works in creation (Psalm 74:12–17).

The disaster fits best the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 BC (2 Kings 25), although the psalm itself leaves the enemy unnamed. The Temple was the place where God had set his presence among his people and the centre of their worship. When an army destroyed a nation’s temple, the nations around took it as the defeat of that nation’s god, so Israel’s ruin brought shame on the LORD’s name as well as on his people.

Verses 18 to 23 close the psalm with a string of requests. Each one asks God to act, and each gives him a reason that comes from himself: his name, his turtledove, his covenant, his poor, his own cause, his enemies.

“Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.” The people have lost their city, their Temple and many lives, yet the first thing the psalmist lays before God is what has been said against God himself. The verb for “reproached”, châraph, means to reproach or taunt, properly to say sharp things against someone. “Blasphemed”, nâʼats, means to scorn or despise, and with God as its object it means to revile him and treat him with contempt, a heavier word than the first. Both land on God’s “name”, shêm, which in Hebrew stands for God himself as he has made himself known, his character and his honour. The psalmist calls on him as Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, the name by which he bound himself to Israel.

The English words “reproach” and “blaspheme” already stood together in verse 10, and the passage keeps coming back to what is said against God. Verse 22 asks him to remember “how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily”, where the word for reproach is ḥerpāh, and verse 23 ends the psalm on “the voice of thine enemies”. The mockery that wounded Israel was aimed at the LORD. When the enemy burned the house called by his name and taunted his people, they were insulting him.

That is why the prayer can be so bold, because God himself guards the honour of his name. Through Ezekiel he says that his holy name had been profaned among the nations where Israel was scattered, and that he would act for the sake of that name and show it to be holy (Ezekiel 36:20–23). Through Isaiah he says, “how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another” (Isaiah 48:11). In Isaiah the LORD also asks a proud enemy, “Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 37:23). Another psalm prays against God’s enemies “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth” (Psalm 83:18). The God who is mocked still reigns: “But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment” (Psalm 9:7).

“O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked.” The turtledove, tôwr, is a small, gentle bird, easily caught, and it pictures a people who are defenceless and meek. It was also the offering of the poor, since a worshipper too poor to bring a lamb brought two turtledoves or two young pigeons (Leviticus 5:7). The psalmist calls Israel “thy turtledove”. The bird belongs to God, and its life is his to guard.

“Soul” is nephesh, a breathing creature, life, the self, so “the soul of thy turtledove” is the very life of God’s people. “Deliver” here translates nâthan, to give or hand over. The request is that God would keep his dove out of the hands of those who would destroy it.

“Have respect”, nâbaṭ, means to look intently, to regard with favour and care. The psalmist asks God to turn his gaze on the covenant, bᵉrîyth, a word for a covenant, alliance, treaty or league. Here it means the binding commitments God made to his people: his call and promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1), the covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19) and his promise to David (2 Samuel 7). Those promises made Israel God’s people and gave them land, descendants and a lasting bond with him, and in them God had bound himself. Moses taught Israel that the LORD is “the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him” (Deuteronomy 7:9). So the psalmist pleads what God has promised, which is the firmest ground his people ever have.

“O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.” The oppressed, dak, are the crushed, and figuratively the injured, afflicted and oppressed. “Ashamed”, kâlam, means to be ashamed or disgraced. To “return ashamed” is to come back from seeking God with hopes unanswered, disgraced before the enemy who mocked them for trusting him. In Israel shame and honour were public matters, and a people left in shame brought dishonour on the God they called on. So this request for the oppressed is also a request for God’s own name.

The second line says what the psalmist longs to see instead. “The poor and needy” are ʻânîy, the word for “poor” in verse 19, and ʼebyôwn, needy, a pair often joined in Scripture for those with no means to defend themselves. “Praise” is hâlal, to celebrate, commend and glory in someone, and Strong’s gives it the senses of shining and of boasting. When God rescues the lowly, their lament turns into open praise, and everyone who sees it learns who he is. God himself has joined rescue and praise together: “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). Another psalm gives the testimony: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6). “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9).

God’s care for the poor runs through the Law and the Prophets, and he asks his people to share it. Proverbs calls for a ruler who will “plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9). Amos cries, “let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). The one on whom the Spirit of the Lord GOD rests is anointed “to preach good tidings unto the meek” (Isaiah 61:1). Justice for the lowly and the worship of God belong together.

“Arise”, qûwm, means to rise, stand up or take action. It is a common cry in Scripture for God to step in and show his power, spoken as if he had been sitting still while his enemies did as they pleased. “Plead thine own cause” uses rîyb, to quarrel, contend or accuse, and in another sense to plead someone’s cause, a word at home in disputes and lawsuits. The psalmist asks God to take up his own case and be the advocate for his own name against those who slander it. The quarrel is God’s, and the psalmist leaves it in his hands.

The reason is given at once: “remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.” “Daily” means the mockery goes on every day, without a pause. Here the plea for the poor and the plea for God’s honour become one plea, because God’s honour is bound up with what happens to his people. When he rescues them, he answers his mockers.

“Forget not the voice of thine enemies.” “Voice”, qôwl, is a voice or sound, and here it is the enemy’s boasting, taunting and blasphemy, the speech that went with the burning. “The tumult”, shâʼôwn, is an uproar, as of rushing waters or a crowd, and by implication destruction, the din of battle and of a destroying force. “Those that rise up against thee” uses qûwm, the verb of “Arise” in verse 22. The psalmist has asked God to rise, and he closes by pointing to the enemies who have risen against him. “Increaseth continually” joins ʻâlâh, to go up or rise up, with tâmîyd, always or continually, of something that goes on or keeps being repeated. The uproar goes up and keeps going up.

The psalm ends there, with the tumult still rising and the answer still to come, and every word of it is spoken to God. Other psalms ask the same thing: “LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?” (Psalm 94:3). Nehemiah and those rebuilding Jerusalem met mounting opposition (Nehemiah 4). Revelation tells of the day when “the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come” (Revelation 11:18). Until then God’s people stand “against the wiles of the devil”, in a struggle against spiritual powers (Ephesians 6:11–12).

The reproach of verse 18 fell most heavily on Jesus. He was condemned as a blasphemer (Mark 14:64), the crowd cried, “Crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:21), and at the cross they mocked, “He saved others; himself he cannot save” (Matthew 27:42). He came into the world he had made, “and the world knew him not” (John 1:10). Isaiah had said of him, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).

He took his place among the poor of verse 21, “for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He bore our shame when God made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). As the Lamb of God he takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and in his death God showed his own righteousness (Romans 3:25–26).

Then God answered the cry “Arise, O God”. He raised Jesus from the dead, “because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24), set him far above every name that is named (Ephesians 1:20–21), and gave him the name at which “every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–11). So God has pleaded his own cause, and the name that was mocked is now the name above every name. Christ has spoiled principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), and he intercedes for his people at God’s right hand (Romans 8:34).

The covenant of verse 20 comes to its fullness in him, “a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). The one who is the light of the world (John 8:12) shines into the dark places, and as the Good Shepherd he keeps his flock (John 10). The poor and needy will praise his name at last. The Lamb is praised as worthy by those he redeemed out of every nation (Revelation 5:9–10), God will wipe away all tears (Revelation 21:4), and his servants shall reign for ever and ever (Revelation 22:5).

These six verses give God’s people words for the darkest kind of day, when his name is mocked, his house lies in ruins and the enemy grows louder. They show that such a day may be brought straight to him, and that the strongest reasons to give him are his own: his name, his covenant, his poor. God has bound his honour to the people who are called by his name, so their shame touches him and their rescue becomes his praise. He calls the defenceless dove his own and counts the poor as his.

The psalm stops with the tumult still rising, and still it is a prayer, addressed to the King of old who works salvation in the midst of the earth. In Christ he has risen and pleaded his own cause, and the poor and needy have a name to praise.