Psalm 74:15

Psalm 74:15, in plain English

You are the God who controls water itself—You opened fountains, created floods, and dried up rivers as You pleased.

Why it's here

Water represents both blessing and destruction in Scripture. By reminding God that He controls it completely, the psalmist is saying: You command the very forces that threaten us. When the Babylonians came like a flood, they were just water in Your hands—You can stop them whenever You want.

Who's speaking

The community voice, still building the theological case for divine intervention by cataloging God's control over nature.

Where it sits in the story

This likely references the parting of the Red Sea again, but also God's control over natural forces generally. It's saying: the same God who stopped the sea can stop any invasion.

The scholarly reading

You opened the fountain and the flood, and dried up the ever-flowing rivers — another cosmic act showing dominion over water itself, both chaotic and life-sustaining.

Language and setting

The 'fountain and flood' (makor venahel) represents comprehensive dominion over hydrological systems — from subterranean springs to torrential deluge. The 'ever-flowing rivers' (naharei-etzem) likely reference the primordial waters that YHWH must contain within creation's boundaries. This verse synthesizes creation-theology with Exodus-theology: the same God who opened the sea for Israel's passage also commands the waters that sustain life. The drying of rivers echoes not merely Exodus but also Joshua's crossing of the Jordan, where waters 'heap up' (Joshua 3:13-16). The recurrence of water-imagery suggests the psalmist is working through a compressed cosmogony: God subdues chaos (sea-monsters), establishes cosmic order (water boundaries), and thereby creates conditions for history (Israel's deliverance).

Voice

Still the psalmist-reciter, now invoking the full scope of hydrological creation.

Significance

Later Christian typology would read the Red Sea crossing as baptismal prefigurement; the drying of waters becomes a sign of eschatological renewal. Augustine read these verses as prophetic of Christian sacramental deliverance.

13You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

14You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.

15You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.

16The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.

17You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.

Read all of Psalm 74 — The temple is destroyed. The enemy has set up their banners. How long, O God, will the foe mock?