Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
- BSB Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!
- NKJV Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them.
- NASB Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Extend it from Your chest and destroy them!
- NLT Why do you hold back your strong right hand? Unleash your powerful fist and destroy them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He asks why God holds back his powerful right hand and pleads with him to act and destroy the enemy.
Overview
Asaph boldly urges God to no longer restrain his power but to intervene on behalf of his people. The prayer assumes God is fully able to deliver and only seems to delay. Such fervent appeal for God's mighty hand expresses faith that he will rise to judge and save, as he supremely does in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Lam 2:3He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
- Isa 64:12Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
- Ps 78:65–66Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
- Ps 44:23Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 74:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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