You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
Parallel translations
- WEB You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
- KJV Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
- NKJV You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up mighty rivers.
- NASB You broke open springs and torrents; You dried up ever-flowing streams.
- NLT You caused the springs and streams to gush forth, and you dried up rivers that never run dry.
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
God opens springs and streams yet dries up mighty rivers, showing He controls both provision and the obstacles before His people.
Overview
This verse recalls God's provision of water from the rock and His drying of the Jordan and the Red Sea so Israel could pass. The Creator who gives life-giving water also removes barriers that block His people's path. Such sovereign control over creation grounds the psalmist's plea for present help.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Num 20:11Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
- Exod 17:5–6And the LORD said to Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take along in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
- Isa 48:21They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
- Ps 105:41He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
- Josh 3:13–17When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Josh 2:10For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.
- Isa 44:27who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Ps 78:15He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.
- Exod 14:21–22Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Isa 11:16There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
- Hab 3:9You brandished Your bow; You called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers.
- 2 Kgs 2:14Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.
- Rev 16:12And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.
- 2 Kgs 2:8And Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and to the left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 74:15 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.