See how these enemies insult you, Lord. A foolish nation has dishonored 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.
- BSB Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your 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.
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. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
- Rev 16:19The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
- Deut 32:6Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.
- Ps 74:22Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
- Ps 41:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.
- Ps 137:7Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”
- Ps 94:2–8Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.
- Ps 89:50–51Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,
- Deut 32:27were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.’”
- Ezek 20:14But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
- Isa 37:23–24Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
- Isa 62:6–7I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
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.