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Psalm 74:11

Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!

9We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
10How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
11Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!
12Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth.
13You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
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← Psalm 74:10Psalm 74:12 →
Notice

The demand to consume the enemies comes amid a ruined sanctuary and unanswered waiting, making this a plea for God's judgment with no gentle edges.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What does the picture of God's withdrawn hand express about your own waiting?

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What troubles you about this plea for God to consume the enemies?

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How does the enemy's blasphemy in the preceding verse shape your reading of this demand?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Lamentations 2:3He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, …Both describe God drawing back his right hand while enemies threaten, though Lamentations names his fierce anger against Israel.
Psalm 3:7Arise, LORD! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.Both prayers ask God to act against enemies and speak of their defeat in stark, violent terms.
Exodus 15:6Your right hand, LORD, is glorious in power. Your right hand, LORD, dashes the enemy in pieces.God's right hand destroys enemies in Exodus; Psalm 74 asks why that hand remains withdrawn.
Psalm 44:3For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, …Both look to God's right hand for decisive help, with Psalm 44 recalling the deliverance Psalm 74 longs to see.
Psalm 60:5So that your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer us.Both appeal for God to act with his right hand, seeking intervention against a present threat.
Isaiah 64:12Will you hold yourself back for these things, LORD? Will you keep silent and punish us very severely?Both address God with urgent questions about his restraint while his people suffer.
Psalm 78:65–66Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.Both use bodily images for God's action: a hand withdrawn in Psalm 74 and an awakening in Psalm 78.
1 Samuel 4:3When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of the LORD’s …Both question God's action while enemies prevail, though Samuel records a plan involving the ark and the psalm addresses God.
Proverbs 19:24The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.The shared image is a hand left inactive; Proverbs describes human sloth, while the psalm questions God's restraint.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. waiting. feeling distant from God.

What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about patience →What the Bible says about doubt →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Bring one unresolved injustice to God in prayer

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Encouragement

Hard questions about God's delay have a place in prayer. This cry asks God to destroy the enemies; it gives the praying person no command to carry out that destruction.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 74:11. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 74 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).