Psalms 74
1 Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy 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 thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.
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 thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
Rouse yourself, visit its ruins complete. In the temple the foe has made havoc of all things.
4 And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,
Like lions your enemies roared through your house, replacing our symbols by signs of their own,
5 And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,
hacking, like woodsmen who lift axes on thickets of trees,
6 They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.
smashing with hatchets and hammers all of its carved work together.
7 They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.
They have set your temple on fire, to the very ground they have outraged the place where lives your name.
8 They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.
They have said in their heart, ‘Let us utterly crush them.’ They have burned all the houses of God in the land.
9 Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no 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: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?
How long, O God, is the foe to insult? Shall the enemy spurn your name forever?
11 Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the midst of thy 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 before ages: he hath 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 Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.
It was you who did cleave the sea by your might, and shatter the heads of the ocean monsters.
14 Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him to be meat for the people of the Ethiopians.
It was you who did crush many-headed Leviathan, and give him as food to the beasts of the wilderness.
15 Thou hast broken up the fountains and the torrents: thou hast dried up the Ethan rivers.
It was you who did cleave the fountains and torrents; it was you who did dry the perennial streams.
16 Thine is the day, and thine is the night: thou hast made the morning light and the sun.
Yours is the day; yours, too, is the night, it was you who did establish the sun and the star.
17 Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.
It was you who did fix all the borders of earth: summer and winter it’s you who have made them.
18 Remember this, the enemy hath reproached the Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.
Yet, for all this, the foe has insulted you, Lord, and a nation of fools has reviled your name.
19 Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.
Do not give your dove to the beasts, do not forget your afflicted forever.
20 Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings 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 humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.
O let not the downtrodden turn back ashamed: let the poor and the needy sing praise to your name.
22 Arise, O God, judge thy own cause: remember thy reproaches with which the foolish man hath reproached thee all the day.
Arise, God, and defend your cause: remember how fools all the day insult you.
23 Forget not the voices of thy enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually.
Do not forget the uproar of your enemies, the din of your foes that ascends evermore.
