Psalm 74 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 74 (1928 BCP) is a communal lament in the Psalter of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It gives the Church words for praying when a sanctuary has been violated, public worship has been silenced, and God seems slow to act. The prayer does not evade devastation; it appeals to God's past acts as Creator and Redeemer, to his covenant, and to the honour of his Name.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
In the 1928 Psalter Psalm 74, Ut quid, Deus?, follows Psalm 73 under the Book III Evening Prayer heading and immediately precedes the Fifteenth Day Morning Prayer heading. The text is therefore part of the Prayer Book's ordered, public recitation of Scripture, rather than a private selection made only in a crisis. The first movement names both divine absence and the destruction of God's holy place:
O GOD, wherefore art thou absent from us so long? * why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 O think upon thy congregation, * whom thou hast purchased, and redeemed of old.
3 Think upon the tribe of thine inheritance, * and Mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
4 Lift up thy feet, that thou mayest utterly destroy every enemy, * which hath done evil in thy sanctuary.
5 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy congregations, * and set up their banners for tokens.
6 He that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees, * was known to bring it to an excellent work.
7 But now they break down all the carved work thereof * with axes and hammers.
8 They have set fire upon thy holy places, * and have defiled the dwelling-place of thy Name, even unto the ground.
The petitioner calls Israel both God's “congregation” and his purchased inheritance. The argument is covenantal: the ruin of the sanctuary is not only a human loss, but an affront to the God whose Name had been associated with it. The Psalm neither identifies a particular invading army nor supplies a date. It makes the congregation's prayer available without turning an uncertain historical reconstruction into the ground of faith.
The middle of the Psalm turns from ruined carvings and absent signs to God's kingship and his works in creation:
9 Yea, they said in their hearts, Let us make havoc of them altogether: * thus have they burnt up all the houses of God in the land.
10 We see not our tokens; there is not one prophet more; * no, not one is there among us, that understandeth any more.
11 O God, how long shall the adversary do this dishonour? * shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever?
12 Why withdrawest thou thy hand? * why pluckest thou not thy right hand out of thy bosom to consume the enemy?
13 For God is my King of old; * the help that is done upon earth, he doeth it himself.
14 Thou didst divide the sea through thy power; * thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
15 Thou smotest the heads of leviathan in pieces, * and gavest him to be meat for the people of the wilderness.
16 Thou broughtest out fountains and waters out of the hard rocks; * thou driedst up mighty waters.
17 The day is thine, and the night is thine; * thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
18 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; * thou hast made summer and winter.
Verses 13–18 are not an interruption that denies the lament. They are its appeal: the God addressed as King “of old” rules sea, daylight, seasons, and the boundaries of the earth. The language of divided waters and waters from rock also recalls the exodus and wilderness provision (Exodus 14:21–22; 17:6). The Prayer Book wording allows the worshipper to hold present desolation and God's remembered acts in the same prayer.
The final petition returns to the vulnerable congregation, asking not simply for its comfort but for God's covenant and cause:
19 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy hath rebuked; * and how the foolish people hath blasphemed thy Name.
20 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the enemies; * and forget not the congregation of the poor for ever.
21 Look upon the covenant; * for all the earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations.
22 O let not the simple go away ashamed; * but let the poor and needy give praise unto thy Name.
23 Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause; * remember how the foolish man blasphemeth thee daily.
24 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: * the presumption of them that hate thee increaseth ever more and more.
Lament, memory, and worship
The Psalm's “How long?” is a faithful complaint addressed to God, not a declaration that he has ceased to be God. Its prayer is related to the Church's continuing confidence that worshippers may approach God through Christ:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
Hebrews does not erase the historical grief of Psalm 74 or authorize Christians to claim Israel's calamities as a simple allegory. It does, however, locate Christian access to God in Christ rather than in the survival of a particular earthly sanctuary. Thus Christians may pray Psalm 74's honest appeal for God's Name, covenant mercy, and protection of the poor while refusing both despair and triumphalism.
Richard W. Engle's close study observes that the Psalm does not make the usual quick transition from complaint to praise:
The opening mood of the psalmist's objection to God's prolonged anger persisted to the end. The psalmist's response climaxed with the unusual charge that God was remiss in keeping covenant commitments. The psalm closes with an inference that God must now rise to His own defense, an idea unique to Psalm 74.
That unresolved character is liturgically significant. The Daily Office does not wait for a resolution before allowing this prayer to be said; it gives a wounded congregation truthful language in God's presence.
A Christian reading
Christian readers have received the Psalm in relation to Christ and the Church, but such readings must remain identified as theological interpretation rather than as a replacement for the Psalm's own voice. Augustine reads the congregation of verse 2 through the promises to Abraham and the faith of those gathered into Christ:
Remember Your congregation which You have possessed from the beginning. Can this by any means be the voice of the Gentiles? Hath He possessed the Gentiles from the beginning? Nay, but He has possessed the seed of Abraham, the people of Israel even according to the flesh, born of the Patriarchs our fathers: of whom we have become the sons, not by coming out of their flesh, but by imitating their faith.
His interpretation depends on a particular Christian reading of the relation of Israel and the nations; it should not be used to erase the Psalm's concrete grief for Israel or to foster contempt. Its devotional point is that God's people plead not a private entitlement but the mercy of the God who has called and redeemed them.
Augustine also hears the covenant petition as directing desire beyond temporary security:
Have regard unto Your Testament, not that old one: not for the sake of the land of Canaan I ask, not for the sake of the temporal subduing of enemies, not for the sake of carnal fruitfulness of sons, not for the sake of earthly riches, not for the sake of temporal welfare: Have regard unto Your Testament, wherein You have promised the kingdom of Heaven.
For Anglican use, this distinction is helpful. Psalm 74 teaches the Church to name real devastation, to ask God to remember his covenant, and to praise him as Creator and King. Christian prayer makes that appeal through Christ, while the Psalm preserves the discipline of waiting for God rather than pretending that every “How long?” has already been answered.
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 74, Ut quid, Deus?, verses 1–8; compare the local 1928 transcription at Society of Archbishop Justus, “Psalms 51–100”.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 74, verses 9–18, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 74, verses 19–24, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (Cambridge: University Press, 1769), Hebrews 10:19–22, Bible Gateway text.
- ↑ Richard W. Engle, Psalm 74: Studies in Content, Structure, Context, and Meaning, Th.D. dissertation, Grace Theological Seminary, May 1987, pp. 319–320, digitized by Ted Hildebrandt, Gordon College, PDF. Engle provides a historical-literary interpretation of the Psalm's structure and unresolved ending.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 74, §4, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised by Kevin Knight, New Advent. Augustine here offers a patristic Christian interpretation of Psalm 74:2.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 74, §20, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (1888), New Advent. This is Augustine's theological reading of Psalm 74:20, not a claim about the Psalm's original historical setting.