Psalms 74
1 A Maskil of Asaph. Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
An Instructive Psalm. Asaph’s. Wherefore, O God, hast thou cast off utterly? Shall thine anger smoke against the flock of thine own pasturing?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased long ago and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance— Mount Zion where You dwell.
Remember thine own assembly thou didst acquire aforetime, Thou didst redeem the tribe of thine own inheritance, Mount Zion, wherein thou didst take up thy habitation.
3 Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.
Lift up thy steps unto the places utterly unsafe, All the mischief!—the foe in the sanctuary!
4 Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs,
Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine appointed meeting, They have set their ensigns as tokens!
5 like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees
One used to be known according as he carried up high—into the thicket of trees—the axes;
6 and smashing all the carvings with hatchets and picks.
But, now, the doors thereof all together, with axes and hammers, they batter down.
7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
They have cast, into the fire, thy sanctuary, To the ground, have they profaned the habitation of thy Name.
8 They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely.” They burned down every place where God met us in the land.
They have said in their heart, Let us suppress them altogether, They have burned up all the meeting-places of GOD in the land.
9 There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.
Our own signs, have we not seen, —There is no longer a prophet, —Neither is there with us, one who knoweth—How long!
10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
How long, O God, shall the adversary, reproach? Shall the enemy revile thy Name perpetually?
11 Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!
Wherefore shouldst thou withdraw thy hand—thy right hand? [Bring it] out of the midst of thy bosom! (Selah)
12 Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.
But, God, hath been my king from aforetime, Working Deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
Thou, didst cleave asunder, in thy might, the sea, Thou didst break in pieces the heads of the Crocodiles, [till they floated] on the waters;
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.
Thou, didst crush the heads of the Sea-Monster, Thou didst give him to be food, for the people of the deserts;
15 You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
Thou, didst cleave open fountain and torrent, Thou, didst dry up rivers of steady flow:
16 The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.
Thine, is the day, Yea, thine, the night, Thou, didst establish moon and sun;
17 You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.
Thou, didst set up all the bounds of the earth, As for summer and winter, thou, didst form them!
18 Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.
Remember this, An enemy, hath reproached Yahweh, Yea, an impious people, have reviled thy Name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever.
Do not deliver up, to a wild beast, the life of thy turtle-dove, The living host of thine oppressed ones, do not forget perpetually.
20 Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
Have respect to thy covenant, For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name.
May the crushed one not again be confounded, As for the oppressed and the needy, let them praise thy Name.
22 Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.
Arise! O God, plead thine own cause, Remember the reproach of thee, from the impious one, all the day:
23 Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.
Do not forget the voice of thine adversaries, The noise of thine assailants, ascending continually.
