Psalms 74

1 O God, why have you cast us off for ever? why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

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?

2 Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein you have dwelled.

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.

3 Lift up your feet to the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the sanctuary.

Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!

4 Your enemies roar in the middle of your congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,

5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes on the thick trees.

as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,

6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.

7 They have cast fire into your sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of your name to the ground.

They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.

8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

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.

9 We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long.

We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”

10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?

How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?

11 Why withdraw you your hand, even your right hand? pluck it out of your bosom.

Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?

12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the middle of the earth.

But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 You did divide the sea by your strength: you brake the heads of the dragons in the waters.

In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.

14 You brake the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.

15 You did split the fountain and the flood: you dried up mighty rivers.

You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.

16 The day is yours, the night also is yours: you have prepared the light and the sun.

Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.

17 You have set all the borders of the earth: you have made summer and winter.

You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.

18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name.

Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.

19 O deliver not the soul of your turtledove to the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of your poor for ever.

Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.

20 Have respect to the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.

21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise your name.

Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.

22 Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily.

Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.

23 Forget not the voice of your enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against you increases continually.

Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.