Read
Psalm 74:16
The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
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.
18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
Notice
Day and night belong to God even within a psalm of devastation, where the sun’s steady presence has not ended the people’s distress.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes in your prayers when you name both day and night as God’s?
Write on thisWhat is hard to confess about God’s rule while the psalm’s plea remains unanswered?
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
Genesis 1:5God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.Both passages name day and night in relation to God: Genesis records his naming, and the psalm declares his ownership.
Psalm 19:2Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge.Day and night appear in both psalms, belonging to God in one and conveying speech and knowledge in the other.
Job 38:12“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,God’s authority over the day connects these passages: the psalm declares it, while Job hears a question about commanding dawn.
Genesis 1:16God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.Both passages credit God with making the lights that govern the rhythm of day and night.
Psalm 65:8They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy.Both psalms describe God’s authority over the daily cycle, naming day and night or morning and evening.
Genesis 1:3–5God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.Both passages trace light to God, who speaks it into existence in Genesis and prepares it in the psalm.
2 Corinthians 4:6seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face …Both texts identify God as the source of light; Paul also speaks of God illuminating hearts with knowledge of Christ.
Matthew 5:45that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.Both passages describe the sun as God’s, with Matthew naming his provision of sunlight for evil and good alike.
Psalm 136:7–9to him who made the great lights, for his loving kindness endures forever;Both psalms credit God with making the lights, while Psalm 136 joins that act to his enduring loving kindness.
Genesis 1:14–18God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;Both passages connect God’s provision of heavenly lights with day and night.
Psalm 104:19He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.Both psalms describe the sun within God’s ordering of creation, through its preparation or its appointed setting.
Joshua 10:12Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand …The sun appears in both passages: as God’s creation in the psalm and as the subject of Joshua’s appeal.
Where this verse fits
Fear for the future. feeling distant from God. praise and worship.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The psalm’s grief continues after this confession. Your prayer need not rush past trouble to acknowledge God’s rule: the day is God’s, and the night belongs to him too.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 74:16. 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).