Ps. 74.12 (the face of the king)

O God / my king / from long ago
Salvation-Worker / in the midst / of the earth. 

We have already noted how the questions of verse 10 and 11a are, in content, very similar to the opening question of verse 1. With that resemblance established we can now also note that the appeal to God to “remember” in verse 2 is also somewhat similar to this verse. In verse, the remembrance is focused on congregation “acquired of old”. Here, it is “my king from long ago”. There, the focus was on the ‘redemption’ of his patrimony. Here, it focuses on “my king” as the “salvation-worker”. This resemblance will continue in the following verses as well. Verse 3 speaks of the foes destruction of the Temple, while verses 13 and following speak of God’s “putting down” of the Sea/Sea-Monsters/Leviathon/etc… The point here is that these verses should be read together, and that today’s verse should be seen as a type of recapitulation of verse 2. With that said, the appeal to “my king” accomplishes two things: 1) God is now intimately associated with the psalmist; the “how long” is attempting to be resolved in and through the bond of kingship; 2) this is the first time in the psalm that God has been referred to as “king”. With the change of emphasis in what follows (to conquering power) the shift in tone emphasis God’s regal authority and power over his enemies. In large part, it may be that designating him as king in the first section would have ill fit the tenor of destruction by foes. In other words, now the “face-of-the-king” is emerging at the point where the psalmist is imploring God to exercise is regal authority and destroy his enemies. We are moving from the ‘implied-petition’ of the first section into the open petition of the second. This sense of the intimate kingly bond is deepened by the reference to this being “from long ago”. Looking to verse 2, it is likely that this refers to the “acquiring of old” your congregation. In other words, God’s becoming King of the psalmist/congregation was when he ‘acquired’ and ‘redeemed’ them. It was, therefore, the exodus, when he removed them from the kingship of Pharaoh and kin-like ‘redeemed’ and ‘acquired’ them for his own. The final act of this ‘acquiring-redemption’ was the establishment of Zion (not Sinai interestingly). This was, in a way, the final ‘enthronement’, the conquering act of God whereby he established his throne and Temple in Israel; they were acquired for Zion. All of this is why he is then referred to as “salvation-worker”. For the psalmist, the “kingship” of God is paralleled to his act of salvation, acquiring redemption. It is, therefore, his militaristic conquering of those forces opposed to his reigning authority over his people. Finally, we must note the parallel lines of his salvation being worked “in the midst of the earth” with the immediately preceding verse which called upon God to ‘resurrect’ his right hand “from the midst of the earth”. Just as God ‘drew forth’ Israel from the midst of the Sheol of Egypt, so now is he to ‘draw forth’ his conquering right hand ‘from the midst of the earth’. The one emphasizes the ‘resurrection power of God’, while the other focuses on the kingly power of God. The act called for will exemplify both: God’s own redemption of his shame and his acting on behalf of his people.