< Psalms 74 >

1 [A Psalm] of instruction for Asaph. Therefore have you rejected [us], O God, for ever? [therefore] is your wrath kindled against the sheep of your pasture?
A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, have you spurned us forever? Why smokes your wrath against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation which you have purchased from the beginning; you did ransom the rod of your inheritance; this mount Sion wherein you have lived.
Remember the community you purchased of old to become by redemption the tribe of your heritage, Zion, the mountain you made your home.
3 Lift up your hands against their pride continually; [because of] all that the enemy has done wickedly in your holy places.
Rouse yourself, visit its ruins complete. In the temple the foe has made havoc of all things.
4 And they that hate you have boasted in the midst of your feast; they have set up their standards for signs,
Like lions your enemies roared through your house, replacing our symbols by signs of their own,
5 ignorantly as it were in the entrance above;
hacking, like woodsmen who lift axes on thickets of trees,
6 they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter.
smashing with hatchets and hammers all of its carved work together.
7 They have burnt your sanctuary with fire to the ground; they have profaned the habitation of your name.
They have set your temple on fire, to the very ground they have outraged the place where lives your name.
8 They have said in their heart, [even] all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.
They have said in their heart, “Let us utterly crush them.” They have burned all the houses of God in the land.
9 We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and [God] will not know us any more.
No symbol of ours do we see any more: no prophet is there any more, none is with us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke your name forever?
How long, O God, is the foe to insult? Shall the enemy spurn your name forever?
11 Therefore turn you away your hand, and your right hand from the midst of your bosom for ever?
Why, O Lord, do you hold back your hand, why keep your right hand in the folds of your robe?
12 But God is our King of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
Yet God is our king from the ancient days, in the midst of the earth working deeds of salvation.
13 You did establish the sea, in your might, you did break to pieces the heads of the dragons in the water.
It was you who did cleave the sea by your might, and shatter the heads of the ocean monsters.
14 You did break to pieces the heads of the dragon; you did give him [for] meat to the Ethiopian nations.
It was you who did crush many-headed Leviathan, and give him as food to the beasts of the wilderness.
15 You did cleave fountains and torrents; you dried up mighty rivers.
It was you who did cleave the fountains and torrents; it was you who did dry the perennial streams.
16 The day is your, and the night is your; you have prepared the sun and the moon.
Yours is the day; yours, too, is the night, it was you who did establish the sun and the star.
17 You have made all the borders of the earth; you have made summer and spring.
It was you who did fix all the borders of earth: summer and winter it’s you who have made them.
18 Remember this your creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked your name.
Yet, for all this, the foe has insulted you, Lord, and a nation of fools has reviled your name.
19 Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to you: forget not for ever the souls of your poor.
Do not give your dove to the beasts, do not forget your afflicted forever.
20 Look upon your covenant: for the dark [places] of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity.
Look to the sleek ones – how full they are: the dark places of earth are the dwellings of violence.
21 let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected: the poor and needy shall praise your name.
O let not the downtrodden turn back ashamed: let the poor and the needy sing praise to your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead your cause: remember your reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day.
Arise, God, and defend your cause: remember how fools all the day insult you.
23 Forget not the voice of your suppliants: let the pride of them that hate you continually ascend before you.
Do not forget the uproar of your enemies, the din of your foes that ascends evermore.

< Psalms 74 >