Psalm Chapter 74

Psalm 74: The Silence Where the Prophets Were

There are psalms of praise and psalms of trust and psalms of quiet confidence, and then there is Psalm 74, which smells of smoke. The sanctuary has been violated — axes and hammers have done their work on the carved wood, fire has gutted the holy place, and the ensigns of the enemy stand where the signs of God once were. But the most devastating line is not about the destruction itself. It is this: "We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long." To lose the temple is terrible; to lose the voice of God in the midst of losing the temple is something worse. Yet Asaph does an extraordinary thing with his silence. He fills it with memory. "Thou didst divide the sea. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan. The day is thine, the night also is thine." He cannot hear God speaking in the present, so he rehearses what God has said in the past — and discovers that the past is not past at all. It is the very ground he is standing on, even in the ruins.

00:00 Why Hast Thou Cast Us Off
01:00 Axes in the Sanctuary
02:00 Thou Didst Divide the Sea
03:00 Arise, O God, Plead Thine Own Cause