John Calvin Commentary Psalms 74:22

"Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day." — Psalms 74:22 (ASV)

Arise, O God! plead your cause. The pious Jews again supplicate God to ascend into his judgment seat. He is then said to arise, when, after having long exercised forbearance, he shows, indeed, that he has not forgotten his office as judge. To induce him to undertake this cause more readily, they call upon him to maintain his own right.

Lord, as if they had said, since the matter at hand is what particularly concerns you, it is not time for you to remain inactive. They declare, at the same time, how this was, in a special sense, the cause of God. It was so because the foolish people daily cast reproaches on him. We may here again translate the word נבל, nabal, the worthless people, instead of the foolish people.

The wickedness charged against the persons spoken of is aggravated by the fact that, not content with reproaching God on one occasion, they continued their derision and mockery continuously. For this reason, the faithful conclude by calling on God not to forget such heaven-daring conduct in men who not only had the audacity to reproach his majesty, but who fiercely and outrageously poured forth their blasphemies against him. They seemed, it is true, to do this indirectly; but, as they despised God, it is asserted that they rose up against him with reckless and infatuated presumption, in the manner of the Giants of old, and that their haughtiness was carried to the greatest extreme.