Psalm 74

Introduction

Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we’re going to look into a fascinating psalm, Psalm 74.

Now, Psalm 74 is the second in a series of 11 psalms composed by Asaph (אָסָף), who was a contemporary of King David. Asaph was a Levitical priest. He was a musician and singer. We’re also told over in 1 Chronicles that he was a seer and a prophet. And so he was quite an important person in David’s court and a personal friend of David’s.

And this particular psalm is a teaching psalm. We find that out in the heading for this psalm, which is a maskil (מַשְׂכִּיל) of Asaph. A maskil, if you recall, is a teaching psalm. So, it’s not a psalm of praise or a psalm of rejoicing or thanksgiving. It’s simply a teaching psalm framed as a complaint, as a psalm of grief, a psalm of loss, asking God, “Why? Why is this happening?” But the whole purpose is to teach us. What is it we need to learn from this psalm?

Lamah (לָמָה) – Why?

We all go through times when we ask why. And in Hebrew, the very first word of this psalm is lamah (לָמָה). Why? Lamah Elohim (לָמָה אֱלֹהִים). “Why, oh God, is this happening? Why aren’t you acting? Why aren’t you doing what a God of Israel is supposed to do? Why are you so silent? Why are you so still? Why aren’t you acting? Why are you allowing your enemies to rejoice over us and mock your name? Why?”

And there are times in my life and yours too, I’m sure, when you feel like God just isn’t on the job. He has taken some personal time off and kind of left us to our own devices. But we know this is never true. God never leaves us alone, no matter how much you may feel like he has. And so this psalm is for you and me when we go through times like this.

The 10th of Tevet

Now this particular psalm is traditionally prayed on the 10th of Tevet (טֵבֵת). Tevet is the month that comes after Kislev. The month in which Hanukkah is celebrated. In fact, as I record this psalm here in January of 2026, it is the month of Tevet.

Now, why is the 10th of Tevet significant? Well, this is the day that commemorates when Nebuchadnezzar came and began to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem. And this siege lasted for two and a half years. And two and a half years later on Tisha B’Av (תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב), the 9th of Av, the temple was destroyed.

Now you might be thinking, “Oh wait a minute, Grant. Asaph was a friend of David. David died when he was 70. Then his son Solomon became king and Solomon built the temple. The temple stood for 410 years until Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. How could Asaph who lived in the time of David be describing the destruction of the temple?”

And that is what this psalm is describing.

Well, if you recall, Asaph was a prophet, a seer, a musician, a Levitical priest. But as a prophet, he obviously is prophesying in this psalm something that still lay hundreds of years in the future. And it’s almost as if Asaph before the temple’s even built is grieving its loss. It’s an amazing, amazing psalm.

So without further ado, let’s just get right into the psalm and see what we can learn from it.

Psalm 74:1-2 – Cast Off Forever?

It begins with:

“Oh God, why” or lamah Elohim, “do you cast off forever, cast us off forever. Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?” (Psalm 74:1)

One of the commentators from centuries ago puts these words in God’s mouth. He has God saying, “I’m not the one who forgot them. They are the ones who left me.”

And there’s this really great analogy by Rivka Segal, who wrote a multi-volume commentary on the book of Psalms. It’s called “Living Tehillim.” It’s a wonderful set. And she has this analogy. Listen to what she says:

“We can analogize this to a woman who is invited to a family affair. She tries to interact with various family members, but no one takes any interest in her. Totally frustrated, she sees that staying is pointless, so she leaves. A few days later, her cousin calls and asks her why she didn’t come to the family celebration. She exclaims, ‘I didn’t come?! I said hello and tried to interact with so many people but everyone ignored me.’”

And so Rivka ends this way: “God constantly tries to say hello. We are constantly ignoring him.”

And that is exactly what occurred that led up to the destruction of the first temple and also of the second temple.

Netzach (נֶצַח) – Forever/Victory

So the questions ask, “Why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?”

“Remember your congregation which you have acquired of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.” (Psalm 74:2-3)

Now, you’ll notice I want to explain some Hebrew words here. First of all, the word “forever” is the word netzach (נֶצַח). And it occurs four times in this psalm. And that’s unusual to find this word occur this many times in such a short psalm.

Now there are different Hebrew words that are often translated or mistranslated as “forever” or “for eternity.” Olam (עוֹלָם) is one. Le’olam (לְעוֹלָם) or le’olam va’ed (לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד) and also netzach.

But netzach is a word that honestly I don’t understand very well. It’s a very unusual word. It’s equally translated “forever,” but also translated as “victory” or “triumph.”

What do these two have to do with each other? Triumph and forever. Well, I guess if you’re in a war, the side that wins kills the other side, and the side that wins endures, if not forever, for much longer than the side that got wiped out. So maybe that’s part of it.

Netzah (נֵצָה) vs. Netzach (נֶצַח)

But Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch has a very interesting take on this word. He starts with the word netzah (נֵצָה). Now netzah looks like netzach, but the last letter is different. Hey (ה) and Chet (ח) look almost identical, but they’re not the same letter. Hey is the fifth letter of the alphabet and Chet is the eighth.

But netzah and netzach have something to do with each other. And Rabbi Hirsch says this: netzah means “strife and struggle.” And we do find it a number of times in the scriptures. And he says when we finally get victory over strife and struggle and it resolves into a victory and a change in our lives, it changes from netzah to netzach and becomes this. It becomes victory, becomes something that endures.

And you know this study could end right here. And there’s a lesson that has really stuck with me. So many times the strife and the struggles I have in my life, if I endure through them, eventually I get netzach over my netzah. And the netzah becomes something victorious. I have victory over it but only after strife.

You know the question sometimes comes up, what is the key to having peace? And a lot of people say compromise. There may be some occasions where compromise will bring peace, but in my own life and in the spiritual realm I know that peace comes only through victory, through netzach. And I can endure only through victory, only through victory over the things I struggle with, victory over the things that would destroy me if I don’t wage war against them.

So the four times this word occurs, I have highlighted it in yellow in my notes. And sometimes it’s translated “forever,” sometimes it’s “perpetual,” but it’s the same word in Hebrew.

Edah (עֵדָה) – Congregation/Witness

And then as we go through here in verse two, we read, “Remember your congregation.”

Now there are two words that can be translated assembly or congregation or church if you will, and that’s the word kahal (קָהָל), and we’ve talked about that many times in past teachings. And the other is edah (עֵדָה) which comes from the root word ed (עֵד).

The first two letters of this word, ayin (ע) and dalet (ד), spell ed which means “testimony” or “witness.” So the edah, the congregation, when it uses the term edah for congregation, it means that people are called together to bear witness, to bear testimony. The thing that makes them one, the thing that makes them a congregation is that they share the same testimony, the same message to the world.

So we’re going to see this word a number of times in the psalm as well.

Ed (עֵד) and Mo’ed (מוֹעֵד)

Now this word ed which is the root of the word edah which means a congregation, people come together. It’s also the word that is the root for mo’ed (מוֹעֵד) which is an appointed time.

In Genesis 1, it says God made the lights in the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, to rule over the night, to rule over the day. He made them for signs and for mo’adim (מוֹעֲדִים), for seasons, for appointed times.

And the tabernacle was called the Ohel Mo’ed (אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד), the Tent of Meeting. All of these words, Tent of Meeting, the mo’adim, these are the appointed times when we meet with God. And the word edah, the congregation who comes together, they come together because there’s a testimony and a message, an ed, to be proclaimed. So, there’s a family of words built around these first two letters, the word ed, and a little something extra.

The Oversized Letters in the Shema

I should have put it in the notes, but if you’ve ever seen the Shema, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad” (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד), if you’ve ever seen that in Hebrew as it appears in most printed Hebrew Bibles or in a Torah scroll, the last letter of Shema and the last letter of Echad are written oversized.

Because the last letter of Shema here is an ayin (ע). The last letter of Echad is the letter dalet (ד). And ayin and dalet together spell the word ed (עֵד), testimony.

So the Shema, “Hear O Israel, Adonai our God, Adonai is one.” That is our testimony to the world. That’s our ed.

Psalm 74:2-6 – Violence and Destruction

Okay. Well, let’s move on. I’m going to go much quicker through the rest of this psalm. I promise.

So again in verse two, I know we’ve read this already, but let’s just go through it again:

“Remember your edah, your congregation, which you have acquired of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Lift up your feet to the netzach ruins.” (Psalm 74:2)

Remember netzach means victory. It means forever or for a long duration. And so these ruins are called the netzach ruins, the perpetual ruins.

Now we can’t say that netzach means eternity because these ruins didn’t last forever. Eventually the ruins were rebuilt again into a new temple. And even though that temple lies in ruins now, it won’t be forever. We know prophetically there’s going to be a new temple. So, whenever you see words that are translated forever or eternal in Hebrew, we need to take them with a grain of salt. There’s different shadings and flavorings to these words.

But moving on:

“The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place,” your mo’ed from the word ed. “They set up their own signs for signs.” (Psalm 74:3-4)

That’s an interesting phrase. “They have set up their own signs for signs.”

The commentators say that when people who do not follow God make a decision, they consult their own gods, their own occultic practices, their own omens or whatever it might be. And what will happen inevitably is whatever it is that they want, they will interpret their signs as being omens to say this is the way we should go. We have proof. But he says it’s just their own signs. They’ve set up their own signs for real signs and they’re not real signs.

“They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. All its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.” (Psalm 74:5-6)

You’ll notice the Hebrew here is very difficult and all of the translators agree that it is. You get like a hazy, out of focus picture of what’s being said, but there’s no way to precisely translate this in any way that makes sense.

And I think I know why it’s so hazy. It’s because it’s describing violence. And when there’s violence going on, like when you see a war scene in a movie and the horses and the guys with the swords, they’re all fighting. It’s just dust and motion. It’s a blur. And it’s just not something that you’d make a still life out of. It’s motion and action and chaos all mixed together.

And the Hebrew in this passage is the same way. It’s a blur, but we can still tell that there’s violence taking place. We know axes are involved. We know wood is involved. We know that destruction is involved.

And so, most translators will come down to something similar to what I have here. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. But they weren’t in a forest of trees. They were swinging axes against the cedar walls of the inside of the temple. And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

Psalm 74:7-9 – They Set Your Sanctuary on Fire

Moving on, verse 7:

“They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.” (Psalm 74:7)

Now remember, Asaph is writing this centuries before this took place. In fact, the temple may not have even been built yet. And yet, Asaph in the spirit is prophesying something that’s going to happen.

Verse eight:

“They said together in their hearts, ‘We will utterly subdue them.’ They burned all the mo’adim,” all the meeting places of God in the land. (Psalm 74:8)

All the meeting places, not just the temple but the synagogues and other places people would meet to pray, to study. They destroyed them all. They hated God.

The Root of Anti-Semitism

When you want to understand the root of anti-Semitism in the world today, why people in the world hate the Jews and hate Israel, it’s simple. They hate the God of Israel.

And you may say, “Well, I know Christians who are anti-Semitic.” Well, the God that they worship isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There’s something about them that doesn’t like the God of the Hebrew Bible. They don’t like the God of the Torah. Therefore, they don’t like the people of the Torah.

We have to understand that anti-Semitism is always demonic at heart. No exceptions.

And so when people came to destroy the temple, they wanted to destroy anything that reminded them of the God of Israel. And since people in the world cannot destroy the God of Israel, they do the next closest thing. Let’s destroy the people of the God of Israel. Let’s destroy the scriptures of the God of Israel.

The person who’s hated most in the universe today is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his scriptures.

So be very cautious when people speak negatively of God’s people, God’s land, and God’s scriptures.

Psalm 74:9-11 – We Do Not See Our Signs

Well, moving on, verse 9:

“We do not see our signs.” (Psalm 74:9a)

Remember how they set up their signs for signs, but Asaph is saying, “We do not see our signs.”

“There’s no longer any prophet. There is none among us who knows how long.” (Psalm 74:9b)

We don’t have a prophet among us. It’s like, what’s going on? We’re in confusion. We’re in chaos. We’re in distress.

Verse 10:

“How long, oh God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name netzach, forever?” Just ongoing. (Psalm 74:10)

And then the first word of the psalm was “why?” And here the first word of this section that ends this section. I divided the first 11 verses into section one. It begins with “why”:

“Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them.” (Psalm 74:11)

In other words, “God, we’re the sheep of your pasture. You’re our shepherd. And you see your flock being decimated, and you’re sitting there with your hands inside your cloak just kind of watching. Take your hands out, pick up your feet and move and do something.”

And he’s asking, “Why? Why? Why aren’t you acting?”

Psalm 74:12-17 – A Note of Hope

Well, the next verse gives us the answer. And I call this section, verses 12-17, “A Note of Hope.”

“Yet God, my king, is from of old working salvation. Working salvation in the midst of the earth.” (Psalm 74:12)

That’s the answer to the “why.” Why is God seeming to stand still, seeming to do nothing? He’s working salvation.

Let’s understand something about this destruction of the temple. God allowed Israel’s enemies to come and destroy the temple, the house of God, because the Israelites had drifted away from God. They had fallen into sin, to paganism, to idolatry, in some cases into legalism, into condemnation, and to gossip about one another. They had forgotten the righteous and holy standard of the Torah and forgotten the Torah and moved into religiosity and then into idolatry.

And because they were ceasing to be temples of God’s spirit themselves, God allowed their physical temple to go through the destruction.

A Personal Example – Losing My Phone

You know, I had an interesting experience lately where God uses physical things to teach us about spiritual realities. I never lose my phone. I just simply never lose my phone. I’ve never broken a phone. I’ve had a cell phone for decades.

And recently, I lost my phone. I lost it. It was just gone. I thought I left it in a restaurant. I went back to the restaurant, wasn’t there. They looked around, nobody found it, it wasn’t there. I thought, “Somebody stole it.”

And so here I am in my car driving home. And I’m asking like Asaph did, “Lamah? Why?”

And like that, God answered. He said, “Well, you haven’t been communicating with me the way you should. So, I took away your way of communicating with the rest of the world.”

And it’s like, I got it. I understand.

And I prayed. I asked him, “Forgive me.” I repented. I hadn’t spent time in prayer communicating with God the way I should. And I thanked him for letting me lose my phone.

And it’s like, God will do these physical things in our lives to drive home the spiritual reality of what’s going on.

And before you all start emailing me, “Did you find your phone?” Yes. In fact, after I prayed and repented and committed to return to a life of prayer with God, I found the phone instantly. It was just so silly where it was.

But anyways, the loss of the physical temple was a picture of how they had lost being temples for his spirit. They did not make their lives a home for God. So God left the physical home, the temple that they had built for him.

So why is all this happening? Answer: God is working salvation.

Why did I lose my phone? God was working salvation. He was in the process of bringing repair. So the problem was the solution.

Psalm 74:13-17 – The Big Picture

“Working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea.” (Psalm 74:12b-13a)

Now this is what I love about this. Asaph is doing what we all need to do when we focus in on a problem and our spiritual peripheral vision shrinks down to tunnel vision. He stretches the peripheral vision back out to look at the big picture and he says:

“You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.” (Psalm 74:13-14)

I have no idea what that phrase means.

“You split open springs and brooks. You dried up everflowing streams. Yours is the day. Yours also the night. You’ve established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth. You’ve made summer and winter.” (Psalm 74:15-17)

Bottom line: You run the world. You do it all. Got it? You’ve got it all figured out. I don’t know why you do things, maybe, but you know why you do things. And I trust you. And I know somehow through all of this, you are working salvation. You are bringing about repair. You’re bringing about restoration.

And we do know historically that after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and the people were taken captive to Babylon for 70 years, there was true repentance. True repentance.

And then the people got to return, rebuild their temple, rebuild their city, their streets, their walls. And under Nehemiah and Ezra, they really turned their hearts fully to follow God. It didn’t last, but it sure was beautiful while it did.

And now we see the temple in ruins again because Israel did basically the same thing, but God is still working salvation.

In fact, in the vacuum left by the destroyed temple, God is raising up a people among the Gentiles. It’s the time of the Gentiles and he’s finding a home for himself among so many Gentile believers, but he’s working salvation in the world, in the earth. And Jew and Gentile together will come together to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. God’s temple will be restored, rebuilt, and there will be a new kingdom on earth.

So all of this pain, all of this chaos is contributing according to God’s plan to bring about restoration in the world. We can’t lose with the kind of God we have. We simply can’t.

Psalm 74:18-23 – God’s Reputation

And then we come to the conclusion of the psalm, verses 18-23.

Asaph, I think at the beginning was thinking Israel’s reputation’s at stake. But here at the end he realizes, “God, this is your reputation. It’s your name that we must defend.”

And if we can always look at our lives not about “it’s about me,” but “it’s about him.” Instead of thinking about “what do people think about me,” instead to ask, “What am I doing in my life that influences people and how they think about my God? Am I bearing his image in this world in a way that brings pleasure to him? Or am I dragging his name through the mud?”

It’s all about God’s reputation, not mine.

So he says:

“Remember this, Adonai, how the enemy scoffs and a foolish people reviles your name. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beast. Do not forget the life of your poor netzach forever.” (Psalm 74:18-19)

“Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the crushed one turn back in shame. Let the poor and needy praise your name.” (Psalm 74:20-21)

So, you notice how he’s referring to the poor. He’s referring to the crushed. He’s referring to the poor and referring to the needy. These are the ones who are humble and small and crushed.

And he’s saying, “Lord, even though there’s been so much rebellion against you among your people, though your people have forgotten you, Lord, there are those of us who are crushed and needy and broken, and we remember you. So don’t forget us.”

So for the sake of those who’ve been humbled by these events, return, act, do what you’re going to do. Let not the crushed one turn back in shame. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

Fight Your Fight

Verse 22:

“Arise, oh God. Fight your fight.” (Psalm 74:22a)

That is such a key phrase. Too many times we want God to come fight our fight. He says, “No, I’m not going to do that.”

But when we pray, “God, fight your fight. You have victory for your name. You have victory for your kingdom. May your plans win out. Not mine, but yours. May your plans be fulfilled.” So fight your fight.

“Remember how the foolish insult you all the day. Do not forget the voice of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually.” (Psalm 74:22b-23)

Conclusion

It’s an amazing psalm, especially again if we recall that this is written hundreds of years before these events were fulfilled. But it shows that the principles of breaking and chaos and crushing and pain always are for the sake of bringing about salvation, bringing about humility, which allows God to return and embrace us and draw close.

God resists the proud. You want to drive God away? Be proud. You want to attract him? Be humble.

Because he draws near to the humble because God is a humble God. We learned that in Psalms. And he’s attracted to those who are humble and small, who are meek. And the meek will inherit the earth.

So if you’re going through pain, going through some crushing, just remember it’s all so that God can bring about salvation. So he can humble you and make you more like him. And as a result can draw closer to you than he ever did before.

So I hope you find some hope in this psalm that can otherwise be pretty depressing.

So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.

Teaching Material

All Scripture Passages

Psalm 74; 1 Chronicles 25:1-2; Genesis 1:14-16; Deuteronomy 6:4; Nehemiah 8; Ezra 3; Revelation 15:3-4; James 4:6; Matthew 5:5 (ESV)

Hebrew Text Resources

• Psalm 74 – Hebrew Text (Sefaria)
• 1 Chronicles 25 – Hebrew Text (Sefaria)
• Deuteronomy 6:4 (Shema) – Hebrew Text (Sefaria)

Hebrew Word Studies

• H4100 – Lamah (לָמָה) – “Why?”
• H5331 – Netzach (נֶצַח) – “Forever/victory/perpetual”
• H5327 – Netzah (נָצָה) – “Strife/struggle”
• H5712 – Edah (עֵדָה) – “Congregation/assembly”
• H5707 – Ed (עֵד) – “Witness/testimony”
• H4150 – Mo’ed (מוֹעֵד) – “Appointed time/meeting”
• H6951 – Kahal (קָהָל) – “Assembly/congregation”
• H4905 – Maskil (מַשְׂכִּיל) – “Teaching psalm/contemplative poem”
• H623 – Asaph (אָסָף) – “Gatherer”
• H5769 – Olam (עוֹלָם) – “Eternity/forever/ancient”

Jewish Calendar References

• 10th of Tevet (עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת) – Fast day commemorating Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem
• Tisha B’Av (תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב) – 9th of Av, commemorating destruction of both temples
• Kislev (כִּסְלֵו) – Month of Hanukkah

Additional References

• Torah Today Ministries
• Asaph – Jewish Encyclopedia
• 10th of Tevet – Chabad