Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.
Parallel translations
- WEB Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
- KJV Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
- NKJV Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord, And that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.
- NASB ¶Remember this, Lord, that the enemy has taunted You, And a foolish people has treated Your name disrespectfully.
- NLT See how these enemies insult you, Lord. A foolish nation has dishonored your name.
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
Asaph pleads with the LORD to remember how the enemy has mocked Him and foolish people have blasphemed His name.
Overview
Having rehearsed God's power, the psalmist turns to lament, calling on God to act for the honor of His own name. The enemy's mockery is not merely against Israel but against Yahweh Himself. The appeal rests on God's reputation, a fitting motive that finds its highest expression in the prayer that God's name be hallowed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 39:8Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.
- Rev 16:19The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
- Deut 32:6Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?
- Ps 74:22Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.
- Ps 41:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.
- Ps 137:7Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
- Ps 94:2–8Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud.
- Ps 89:50–51Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—
- Deut 32:27if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”
- Ezek 20:14But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
- Isa 37:23–24Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
- Isa 62:6–7On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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 74:18 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.