Psalm 74:22

EXPOSITION

Verse 12-23. See Psalms on "Psalms 74:22" for further information.

Verse 22. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause. Answer thou the taunts of the profane by arguments which shall annihilate both the blasphemy and the blasphemer. God's judgments are awful replies to the defiance of his foes. When he makes empires crumble, and smites persecutors to the heart, his cause is pleaded by himself as none other could have advocated it. O that the Lord himself would come into the battle field. Long has the fight been trembling in the balance; one glance of his eyes, one word from his lip, and the banners of victory shall be borne on the breeze.

Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. The Lord is begged to remember that he is himself reproached, and that by a mere man -- that man a fool, and he is also reminded that these foul reproaches are incessant and repeated with every revolving day. It is bravely done when faith can pluck pleas out of the dragon's mouth and out of the blasphemies of fools find arguments with God.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

None.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 22. God pleading his own cause in providential visitations of nations and individuals, as also in remarkable conversions and awakenings.

Verse 22.

1. The glory of our cause: it is the Lord's own.
   
2. The hope of our cause: he will plead it himself.
   
3. The hope thus derivable from the violence of man: it
   will move the Lord to arise.