Psalms 74

1 O God, why have thou cast off forever? Why does thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 Remember thy congregation, which thou have gotten of old, which thou have redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance, and mount Zion, at which thou have dwelt.

3 Lift up thy feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly. They have set up their ensigns for signs.

5 They seemed as men who lifted up axes upon a thicket of trees.

6 And now they break down all the carved work of it with hatchet and hammers.

7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire. They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground.

8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether. They have burned up all the meeting-places of God in the land.

9 We do not see our signs. There is no more any prophet, nor is there among us he who knows how long.

10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?

11 Why do thou draw back thy hand, even thy right hand? Remove it from the midst of thy bosom.

12 Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 Thou divided the sea by thy strength. Thou break the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.

14 Thou break the heads of leviathan in pieces. Thou gave him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

15 Thou split fountain and flood. Thou dried up mighty rivers.

16 The day is thine; the night is also thine. Thou have prepared the light and the sun.

17 Thou have set all the borders of the earth. Thou have made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Jehovah, and that a foolish people has blasphemed thy name.

19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove to the wild beast. Forget not the life of thy poor forever.

20 Have respect to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

21 O let not he who is oppressed return ashamed. Let a poor and needy man praise thy name.

22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause. Remember how the foolish man reproaches thee all the day.

23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against thee ascends continually.