Psalms 74:17-23: a reflection

17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter. 18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD. Foolish people have blasphemed your name. 19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever. 20Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth. 21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name. 22Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. 23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

The psalmist, watching enemies mock God and desecrate what is holy, brings the offense directly to God and asks him to act. Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD; foolish people have blasphemed your name. Arise, God; plead your own cause; remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. He is troubled not merely by his own suffering but by the dishonoring of God's name, and he asks God to arise and defend his own honor, to plead his own cause.

Notice the psalmist's concern and his response. He is grieved that God's name is mocked, that the wicked seem to blaspheme unchallenged, that God's honor is trampled. And his response is not to take vengeance himself, nor to despair, but to turn to God and ask him to act: arise, plead your own cause, remember. He commits the defense of God's honor to God himself, trusting that God will not let his name be mocked forever.

That is a fitting response when we see God dishonored in the world around us. We may grieve, as the psalmist did, to see God's name mocked, holy things treated with contempt, evil seeming to go unchallenged. The temptation is either to despair or to lash out. The psalm shows a better way: to bring the offense to God, to ask him to arise and plead his own cause, trusting that he will defend his own honor in his own time. When you see God dishonored, do not despair or take matters violently into your own hands. Pray as the psalmist did: arise, God, plead your own cause. Commit his honor to him, and trust that he will act.

Lord, the psalmist, grieved to see your name mocked and blasphemed, did not despair or take vengeance but turned to you: arise, God, plead your own cause. When I see you dishonored in the world, your name mocked, holy things treated with contempt, evil seeming to go unchallenged, keep me from both despair and lashing out. Help me bring the offense to you, and to ask you to arise and defend your own honor in your own time. I commit your cause to you, trusting that you will not let your name be mocked forever. Plead your own cause, Lord.