Psalm 74 appears to be a desperate prayer for help; for God to rise up and defend his people, his name, and his cause of righteousness in the world that he created for his own glory. A descendant of Asaph – David’s worship leader – wrote this Psalm on the front edge of the Babylonian invasion and the subsequent enslavement and exile of God’s people shortly after king Nebuchadnezzar utterly destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.2

The author of this Psalm seems to be literally standing in the ashes of the destruction of his beloved city and the temple as his own people are being carted off to a foreign land, in slavery, among some of the world’s most evil population at the time. It is a quite devastating and discouraging picture of what must have felt like absolute helplessness and hopelessness.

I assume we have all experienced something like this in our time on this earth. The friend’s marriage implodes, the child wrecks their life, the doctor gives us the terrible news, the nation we love and live in, erodes even further. We do not have to look far and wide to remember a season of helplessness and hopelessness where we wonder if God has forgotten us and if he will ever remember us.

A Maskil of Asaph.

1O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? 2Remember 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

3Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! 4Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs. 5They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. 6And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. 7They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. 8They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

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

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

18Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name. 19Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever. 20Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. 21Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name. 22Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! 23Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

#1: HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN US? (VV. 1 – 2)

That sense of forgottenness is actually the emotional sense of where our Psalmist is at in the opening two verses of our text. In verse one, our Psalmist actually wonders if God will abandon or “cast us off forever” as he imagines God’s anger like “smoke” overwhelming “the sheep” of his pasture. He knows that Israel belongs to God, but he wonders how long this devastation will last; how long God will allow this to go on. I am sure we have all asked this question: How long will you allow this to go on Lord?

In verse two, he even begs God to “remember” his work in the past – presumably during the Exodus when God redeemed his people from Egypt – when he says, “Remember your”people whom “you have purchased of old, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!” and please do not forget “Mount Zion” where the temple was “where you have dwelt” among us when we were walking in faithfulness with you.

Our Psalmist knows that the rebellion of Israel has brought them to this point of devastation as the Lord withdrew his hand of protection over them, but the devastation is more than he expected, and though he knows that Israel belongs to God, he is fearful of how long the Lord will keep them at arm’s length as they suffer.

Have you ever acknowledged that some of your suffering may no doubt be the consequence of your own rebellion against the Lord? Ever sat in the ash heap of a broken life – due to your own stupidity – and wondered if the Lord will return to you and restore your life? This is exactly where our Psalmist is at today as he surveys the destruction that has been unleashed by God’s enemies.

#2: YOUR ENEMIES ARE WINNING (VV. 3 – 8)

Speaking of God’s enemies, in verses 3 – 8, our Psalmist invites God to take a walk with him through the rubble of the devastation so that he can see how it seems like God’s enemies are winning and that there is no end in sight for Israel’s suffering.3

The main object that our Psalmist wants to draw God’s attention to, is the destruction of the temple. The “sanctuary” is destroyed (v. 3). The enemy has desecrated the temple with demonic and barbaric symbols (v. 4). They have chopped the temple to pieces like a lumberjack in a forest (v. 5). They destroyed all the beautiful woodwork “with hatchets and hammers” (v. 6). They burned God’s home to the ground (v. 7). They have declared complete annihilation for God’s people everywhere (v. 8).

Everything that Israel and her Psalmist had held dear to them – the temple, the city, the land, the culture, the families – they are all being utterly destroyed by a ruthless enemy that is hell bent on wiping God’s people and God’s name off the face of the earth. The suffering here is so excruciating it seems like all hope is lost and that God’s enemies are winning so much that it seems like they will never be defeated – like this will not end before complete annihilation, or complete destruction.

How desperate God’s people must have felt in this moment. How desperate we feel in moments like these – where there seems to be no end in sight to our suffering – when it seems like God is completely absent or silently standing by and observing, our suffering with his hands in his pockets!4

#3: I AM DESPERATE (VV. 9 – 11)

This sense of desperation is exactly what our Psalmist describes in verses 9 – 11 when he says that there is no sign of God, there is no prophetic voice declaring how long this will last or if the enemy will mock them and “revile your [God’s] name forever”, or how long God will withhold his “right hand” as though it is stuck in his pocket – in “the fold of your garment”.

How devastating, how discouraging, and how desperate it feels when it seems like God has gone silent and that He is merely standing off to the side observing our pain and suffering. Keep in mind that all of this is happening because of Israel’s rebellion. This is not always the case for us, but sometimes it is the case that God is using suffering to discipline us and make us rely upon him in prayer and worship again.

#4: YOU ARE A MIGHTY KING (VV. 12 – 17)

This renewed sense of reliance, of turning back to God – although repentance is not altogether obvious in the language of this Psalm – a renewed sense of reliance is evident in how the Psalmist turns his eyes away from his circumstances and back to the faithfulness of our Mighty King in verses 12 – 17. In these verses, the Psalmist has stopped complaining and has begun to worship our Mighty King in prayer.

He remembers in verse 12 that God has worked salvation in mighty ways in the past. He remembers in verses 13 – 15 how God split the sea (maybe the Red Sea during the Exodus) and that he smashed “the heads of the sea monsters” and offered them up as food for varmints (maybe as the Egyptians became fish-food as Israel escaped) and that God had no problem drying up the ground for Israel’s salvation.

Not only has God redeemed and saved Israel in the past, but in verses 16 – 17 he is also the God of Creation who owns the day and the night and has “established the heavenly lights and the sun” on top of developing the edges of the earth and controlling the seasons, since He “made summer and winter”.

The bottom line here is that no matter how dismal your present circumstances are and no matter how scary and dark the future seems, God is still the Mighty King who works salvation for those who belong to him, because he is the Creator, the Director, the Establisher, and the Controller of every single detail of the physical and spiritual world. He is not unable to respond to our suffering. More often than not, he sovereignly orchestrates our suffering for our growth and for his own glory as he works in and through us.

#5: REMEMBER & RISE UP (VV. 18 – 23)

This reminder of God, who has always been our Mighty King, moves our Psalmist to a final prayer in verses 18 – 23 that every Christian can pray during seasons of suffering and loss.5 Sometimes it is hard to know what to pray when we suffer, when we feel desperate, and when we cannot see the end in sight for our suffering.

But in this Psalm, you can see how the Psalmist has moved from devastation in the ash heap, to fear-filled descriptions of the enemy’s victories, to desperation at God’s seeming abandonment, to a declaration of God’s mighty works in the past and now he settles into a determined, faith-filled prayer for rescue and relief. The Psalmist has simply moved from devastation, to desperation, to declaration, to dependence upon the God who never changes, despite our everchanging circumstances!

This movement for our Psalmist – from his eyes being locked on the suffering that this world and our sin often brings into our lives, to now being locked on the heavenly eternal truths of God’s unchanging character – now enables the Psalmist to pray in faith for salvation. He asks God to remember that his name is being reviled by the enemy (v. 18). In verses 19 and 21, he asks God to extend mercy to those who belong to him and especially to “the poor and needy” and “downtrodden”.

He also asks God to restore his people to rightful worship (v. 21). In verse 20, he asks God to remember his covenant to save his people and to make them his own. And finally, in verses 22 – 23, he asks God to “defend your cause” or to come to the defense of his people and to rise up and annihilate those who bring dishonor against his name.

All in all, this prayer is a prayer that is founded on God’s honor, God’s mercy, God’s promises, God’s praise, and God’s purpose to fill the earth with the proclamation of his gospel; it is a prayer that all of us can pray in our own seasons of suffering.6

KEY TAKE AWAYS…

So that is Psalm 74! It is a desperate cry for help and for restoration from a Psalmist who is standing in the ash heaps of God’s disciplinary judgement against his own people for their rebellion. As I thought and prayed my way through this text, I found a couple of key take aways that I think are important to apply to our lives.

#1: SUFFERING IS NOT RANDOM

In our passage, the suffering we see is on purpose. Nothing is random in a world that is held by the hand of our Sovereign, Creator God. Our Psalmist knows that the suffering Israel is experiencing is the disciplinary actions of our loving and all-present God.

The writer of the book of Hebrews makes it clear that all discipline (in the form of suffering) is from the Lord and it has its place and its time, it is designed to remind us that if there was no discipline, then we should fear that we do not belong to God, and it is also meant to correct us and make us more like God (Heb. 12:7 – 17).

We must remember too, when discipline in the form of suffering comes into our lives, that Jesus suffered the ultimate penalty of our sins at the cross of Calvary and that “this light momentary affliction” of this world is designed to conform us into the image of Christ in all his perfection and to make us long for the presence of God even more (2 Cor. 4:16 – 18).

#2: GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU

In our Psalm, our Psalmist struggles with wondering if God has forgotten his people. It is natural to feel this way during intense seasons of suffering; it is natural to feel alone and to think that the one Being in all Creation who could end our suffering, is somehow absent in our suffering.

Jesus felt this way at the cross of Calvary when he cried out “Father, why have you forsaken me?”. If Jesus felt this way too, then we are in good company when we feel this way. We must remember that feelings are fickle, and even though our feelings help us understand what is truly going on inside our emotions and our physical bodies, they do not represent ultimate eternal truth.

While our emotions are true feelings, they do not represent eternity. Our Psalmist was able to pull himself up out of the pit of despair and loneliness when he remembered that God is our Mighty King, that he has accomplished great works of salvation in the past, and that he will do it again (vv. 12 – 17). Our Psalmist knew that he ultimately was not alone.

Who can forget Jesus at the cross of Calvary feeling alone? While Jesus felt alone at that cross, we know that he was never alone for our Father has promised to never leave us or forsake us in our hour of need – he may not rescue us immediately from our suffering, but he will be with us through our suffering – which enables us to proclaim, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:5 – 6).

#3: JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED

Just as our Psalmist trusts and ultimately prays for justice against God’s enemies who are the cause of Israel’s suffering, we too can rest assured that one day, justice will prevail when God takes his righteous right hand out of his pocket and breaks the teeth of the wicked with his rod of iron.

Our enemies are living on borrowed time until the purposes of God are completed on this earth. We endure suffering knowing that justice will be served when Satan, Sin, and Death get choke slammed into hell one final time in the judgment during Christ’s return in glory.

CONCLUSION…

So in conclusion, like the Psalmist, we can move from desperation to complete dependence upon God in the midst of our suffering by holding fast to the truths that God has an eternal  purpose for our suffering, that God has not forgotten us in our suffering, and that God will execute complete justice against His and our enemies once and for all when Christ returns.

The bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promised return of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior, these are the foundation of our, not only enduring suffering and discipline, but also of our holding fast to the eternal promises of God when it seems like everything is falling apart. The terrifying things we see and experience on this earth are only momentary, in light of the promise of eternity from our King who beat Satan, Sin, and Death when he left that cross and that tomb empty!

So, when the marriage feels unrepairable, when the child rebels, when the doctor gives us that terrible news, when the nation we love seems hell-bent on destruction, when it seems like evil is prevailing, hold fast to our Mighty King, because he has a purpose in our suffering, he never leaves us in our suffering, and he will ultimately prevail over evil once and for all when he returns. – Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 Richard, Philips, Psalms 73 – 106, Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2020), 14.

3 Ibid., 15.

4 Ibid., 18.

5 Ibid., 20 – 23.

6 Ibid.