Psalm 74 Shows Us How to Make an Argument to God

How to Argue with God

We often hear the psalms described as models for prayer and lament. They teach us how to offer God the praise he is due and how to express our thanksgiving for the many ways he provides and cares for his people. They show us how to pour out our hearts to God, bringing our sadness, worry, and distress to our loving heavenly Father in times of grief, uncertainty, and struggle.

They also teach us how to argue with God. At first glance, that probably doesn’t sound quite right. Wouldn’t it be irreverent to argue with God? Isn’t our job to follow his commands and accept his sovereign plans? It certainly could be irreverent to argue with God, depending on the posture of our hearts and the nature of our argument. And ultimately, yes, we submit to his lordship and walk in obedience.

But Psalm 74 shows us that there is an appropriate way to bring an argument to God that honors him and expresses our faith.

We often have a negative association with the word “argument.” It might bring to mind a child disrespectfully pushing back on a parent’s instruction or a heated exchange with a co-worker about the best direction for a project. But as we consider the idea of bringing an argument to God, it’s more helpful to think of a courtroom. Attorneys present an argument—a set of reasons—based on law and precedent, and they try to convince a judge to make a particular ruling on behalf of their client. Attorneys may present their arguments with passion and urgency so long as they maintain respect for the judge’s authority.

In Psalm 74, we find a similar scenario. Asaph is writing a corporate lament on behalf of God’s people who have suffered great losses at the hands of enemy invaders. While in many psalms of lament we find the psalmist asking God for comfort, in this psalm, Asaph is asking God for judgment and deliverance. He lays out his argument in 3 sections.

First, Asaph presents the problem to God with great passion and detail. “Oh God, why do you cast us off forever?” he asks in verse 1. “Remember your congregation . . . Remember Mount Zion,” he pleads (Ps. 74:2). God’s people feel forgotten. They have watched as an enemy destroyed the temple, breaking down its carved wood with hatchets and hammers (Ps. 74:6), setting the sanctuary on fire, “bringing it down to the ground” (Ps. 74:7), and “profan[ing] the dwelling place of [God’s] name” (Ps. 74:7).

“How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?” Asaph questions (Ps. 74:10). “Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?” (Ps. 74:11). Suffering often brings up hard questions about where God is and what he’s doing amidst our pain. And Asaph shows us what we can do with those questions—bring them to God.

But it’s important to note that Asaph isn’t bringing these questions to God with the air of a whiny child who isn’t getting his way. Instead, he seems to be making the argument that the enemy’s offense is ultimately against God, and therefore, God should respond. Notice that as he describes the destruction of the temple, Asaph emphasizes that it belongs to God—“your congregation” and “your heritage” (Ps. 74:2), “your foes” and “your meeting place” (Ps. 74:4), “your sanctuary” and “the dwelling place of your name” (Ps. 74:7).

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Thinking back to the courtroom analogy, in this first section of the psalm, Asaph is making an argument based on law. He’s making the case that the enemy has broken God’s law by profaning and dishonoring God’s temple and name.

Then secondly, Asaph makes an argument based on precedent, if you will. In Psalm 74:12–17 he points to the past works of the Lord. He says, “You divided the sea by your might” (Ps. 74:13), “crushed the heads of Leviathan” (Ps. 74:14), and “split open springs and brooks” (Ps. 74:15). He details past works of the Lord that display God’s power and might.

While in the previous section he argued that God should act because he has chiefly been offended, here Asaph is arguing that God has more than enough power and might to defeat this foe. Asaph is saying that God not only should act in this situation, but God can act. God “established the heavenly lights and the sun” (Ps. 74:16) and “fixed all the boundaries of the earth” (Ps. 74:17), so defeating this enemy is no problem for him.

Asaph then brings his final point of argument—the covenant. “Have regard for the covenant,” Asaph pleads in Psalm 74:20. Charles Spurgeon called this appeal to the covenant the “master-key” of the psalm. “Heaven’s gate must open to this,” he wrote. “God is not a man that he should lie; his covenant he will not break.”¹ Asaph’s argument ultimately rests here. God has made a promise to his people, and God does not break his promises.

Psalm 74 shows us that there is an appropriate way to bring an argument to God that honors him and expresses our faith.

As we walk through Psalm 74 and consider Asaph’s argument, we can see that it is far from being an irreverent complaint. Each aspect of his argument is an expression of faith. Asaph points out how the enemy has profaned God’s sanctuary and broken God’s law because he believes that God is just and holds lawbreakers to account. He details past works of the Lord that display God’s might because he has faith that God can and will act in power again, just as he has before. And he points to the covenant because he has faith that God is true to his Word and will fulfill his promises to his people.

But Psalm 74 isn’t recorded in Scripture so that we can admire Asaph for his faith and well-considered argument. In his commentary on this psalm, Dr. James Montgomery Boice encourages us to follow Asaph’s model. “Make a list of why God should answer your prayer and plead those reasons,” he writes. “Either God will answer, or you will find that your prayer is not a good one and you will pray for something better.”² Bringing an argument to God isn’t just about calling him to act, it’s about considering our own desires and motivations.

Psalm 74 gives us a model for making an argument to God that is based in his law, his character and works, and his promises. When we come to God in this way, we honor him with our faith and find hope as we’re reminded of his faithfulness.

Winfree Brisley is coauthor with Sharonda Cooper of Turn Your Eyes: A Bible Study on the Psalms.

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