Ps. 74.20 (covenant, hiding and evidence)

Consider the covenant
for the hiding places / of the land / are full
they are domains / of violence. 

These are strange lines at first glance. It would seem it would make more sense to say, “Consider the covenant and come to our aid”. The question is why the psalmist connects this ‘consideration of the covenant’ to the fact that there is no place to hide. The first thing to say is to understand this in relation to the previous verse: there, God was implored not to hand over his ‘dove’ to wild beasts. It is clearly a call to continued protection. Here, a similar note is struck—because there is no place to hide, the psalmist and his community of ‘doves’ are completely exposed. Further, not only is there ‘no place to hide’ but the violence that is seeking them (the ‘wild beasts’) have invaded even these areas that were previously havens. It has seeped into and filled every crevice and is, in other words, literally everywhere. The earth has become a ‘home to violence’ (“domain of violence”). Their exposure is not just great; it is absolute. The second aspect is that these “hiding places” are clearly places that previously would have been used for retreat. In the absence of deliverance, the people would flee. This begins to back into the answer to the question. When God has seemingly been ‘aloof’ before, there were still places to hide. Now, however, those places are full. With their exposure pushed to the absolute, the psalmist must implore God in a very particular fashion. And he reaches for ‘the covenant’. This is crucial to grasp: he has already asked God to ‘consider’ or ‘not forget’ his past ‘acquiring’ and ‘redemption’ (vs. 2), the ‘total ruin’ the foes have accomplished (vs. 3) and ‘the life’ of his dove and poor ones (vs. 19). If what we said yesterday was correct—that this psalm is a court-case—then here we have the binding obligation and oath (the covenant) that God swore he would adhere to. In other words, God would stand in breach of his covenant if he does not act now. There is no place to hide as before in such times. Here is the reason why the psalmist connects these two thoughts of covenant and lack of hiding: the ‘lack of hiding’ is his ‘making his case’ to God. It is his ‘evidence’ so to speak as to why the covenant power must be enacted now, because if God stands aloof of the covenant now, he will be in breach.