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Psalm 74:3
Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
1A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
3Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
5They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
Notice
The “perpetual ruins” make this plea hard to soften: destruction has reached the sanctuary, and the prayer asks God to come to the wreckage.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do the words “perpetual ruins” suggest about the waiting behind this prayer?
Write on thisWhat would you want to name before God when praying for a ruined place of worship?
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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
Lamentations 1:10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you …Both passages name an enemy's violation of the sanctuary, the place where God's people gathered.
Daniel 9:17“Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the …Both prayers bring a devastated sanctuary before God and ask him to turn toward it.
Psalm 79:1A Psalm by Asaph. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.Both psalms name the enemy's destruction of God's dwelling place, with Psalm 79 describing the temple's defilement and Jerusalem's heaps.
Luke 21:24They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the …Both passages describe devastation inflicted by enemies, though Luke speaks of Jerusalem's trampling and captivity rather than damage inside the sanctuary.
Mark 11:17He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers!”Both passages condemn wrongdoing in God's house, though the psalm describes an enemy's destruction and Jesus condemns its misuse.
Isaiah 64:10–11Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.Both passages describe devastation in places associated with God's presence: the sanctuary in the psalm and the holy cities in Isaiah.
Psalm 7:6Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.Both prayers urge God to rise against an enemy's wrongdoing, using the language of bodily movement.
Nehemiah 2:3I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have …Both passages grieve ruined places central to a people's life: the sanctuary in Psalm 74 and the ancestral city in Nehemiah.
Revelation 11:2Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for …Both passages describe hostile intrusion into holy places, with Revelation naming the temple's outer court and the trampling of the holy city.
Psalm 44:23Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.Both prayers address God with urgent commands to move, speaking from distress that has not yet been resolved.
Micah 1:3For behold, the LORD comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.Both portray God through bodily movement: Psalm 74 asks him to lift his feet, while Micah declares that he will come down.
Daniel 9:27He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of …Both passages concern devastation touching worship, though Daniel describes sacrifice ceasing and desolation rather than the sanctuary's existing ruins.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. grief. feeling distant from God.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
There is room in prayer to name destruction without softening it. Here, the sanctuary remains in ruins, and the plea for God to come stands without an answer yet.
Now put it in your words.
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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).