Psalms 74
1 The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture?
Maschil of Asaph. Why, O God, hast Thou cast us off for ever? Why doth Thine anger smoke against the flock of Thy pasture?
2 Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.
Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast gotten of old, which Thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of Thine inheritance; and mount Zion, wherein Thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!
Lift up Thy steps because of the perpetual ruins, even all the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,
Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of Thy meeting-place; they have set up their own signs for signs.
5 as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,
It seemed as when men wield upwards axes in a thicket of trees.
6 they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.
And now all the carved work thereof together they strike down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.
They have set Thy sanctuary on fire; they have profaned the dwelling-place of Thy name even to the ground.
8 They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: “Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.
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 have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”
We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?
How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?
11 Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?
Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? Draw it out of Thy bosom and consume them.
12 But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.
Thou didst break the sea in pieces by Thy strength; Thou didst shatter the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.
Thou didst crush the heads of leviathan, Thou gavest him to be food to the folk inhabiting the wilderness.
15 You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.
Thou didst cleave fountain and brook; Thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.
Thine is the day, Thine also the night; Thou hast established luminary and sun.
17 You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.
Remember this, how the enemy hath reproached the LORD, and how a base people have blasphemed Thy name.
19 Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.
O deliver not the soul of Thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the life of Thy poor for ever.
20 Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.
Look upon the covenant; for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.
O let not the oppressed turn back in confusion; let the poor and needy praise Thy name.
22 Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.
Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause; remember Thy reproach all the day at the hand of the base man.
23 Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.
Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries, the tumult of those that rise up against Thee which ascendeth continually.
