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Psalm 74:15
You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
13You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
16The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
Notice
Spring and stream open while mighty rivers dry up, a striking contrast in a prayer that recalls God’s strength amid devastation.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What stands out to you about God both opening springs and drying up mighty rivers?
Write on thisWhat unresolved need would you name alongside this account of what God has done?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Proverbs 21:1The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.Both passages speak of God’s command over water, with Proverbs using watercourses to describe his rule over a king’s heart.
Numbers 20:11Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.Water comes forth in both passages: from spring and stream in the psalm, and from the rock Moses strikes in Numbers.
Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel languish. The flower of Lebanon languishes.Both passages describe God drying up rivers, with Nahum also naming the lands and flowers that languish.
Joshua 3:13–17It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of GOD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the …The psalm recalls mighty rivers dried up; Joshua announces that the Jordan’s flow will stop before the ark of God.
Isaiah 48:21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed …Both passages credit God with bringing forth water, and Isaiah specifies water flowing from rock for people in the desert.
Exodus 17:5–6The LORD said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and …The shared thread is limited: the psalm names God’s acts upon waters, while this Exodus excerpt recalls Moses striking the Nile.
Psalm 105:41He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.Both passages describe God opening a source of water, with Psalm 105 naming a rock and a river through dry places.
Psalm 114:3The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.Both portray waters withdrawing: mighty rivers dry up in Psalm 74, while the sea flees and the Jordan retreats in Psalm 114.
Psalm 18:15Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.Both portray God’s power over waters, through drying rivers in Psalm 74 and exposing water channels at his rebuke in Psalm 18.
Joshua 2:10For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who …Both recall God drying up waters, with Joshua naming the Red Sea and Israel’s departure from Egypt.
Isaiah 44:27who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers,’Both speak of God drying up rivers, one recalling his deeds and the other declaring what he will do.
Genesis 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, …Both describe water sources opening: spring and stream in the psalm, and the fountains of the great deep in Genesis.
Where this verse fits
Fear for the future. waiting. feeling distant from God.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Remembering God’s strength leaves room for an unfinished lament. This prayer recalls what he has done while distress remains: the springs and even mighty rivers are under his rule.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 74:15. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).