Psalms 74
1 An Instructive Psalm. Asaph’s. Wherefore, O God, hast thou cast off utterly? Shall thine anger smoke against the flock of thine own pasturing?
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 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.
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 thy steps unto the places utterly unsafe, All the mischief!—the foe 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 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine appointed meeting, They have set their ensigns as tokens!
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 One used to be known according as he carried up high—into the thicket of trees—the axes;
as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,
6 But, now, the doors thereof all together, with axes and hammers, they batter down.
they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.
7 They have cast, into the fire, thy sanctuary, To the ground, have they profaned the habitation of thy Name.
They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.
8 They have said in their heart, Let us suppress them altogether, They have burned up all the meeting-places 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 Our own signs, have we not seen, —There is no longer a prophet, —Neither is there with us, one who knoweth—How long!
We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary, reproach? Shall the enemy revile thy Name perpetually?
How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?
11 Wherefore shouldst thou withdraw thy hand—thy right hand? [Bring it] out of the midst of thy bosom! (Selah)
Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?
12 But, God, hath been my king from aforetime, Working Deliverances in the midst of the earth.
But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 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;
In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.
14 Thou, didst crush the heads of the Sea-Monster, Thou didst give him to be food, for the people of the deserts;
You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.
15 Thou, didst cleave open fountain and torrent, Thou, didst dry up rivers of steady flow:
You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.
16 Thine, is the day, Yea, thine, the night, Thou, didst establish moon and sun;
Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.
17 Thou, didst set up all the bounds of the earth, As for summer and winter, thou, didst form them!
You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.
18 Remember this, An enemy, hath reproached Yahweh, Yea, an impious people, have reviled thy Name.
Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.
19 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.
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 thy covenant, For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.
21 May the crushed one not again be confounded, As for the oppressed and the needy, let them praise thy 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 thine own cause, Remember the reproach of thee, from the impious one, all the day:
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 Do not forget the voice of thine adversaries, The noise of thine assailants, ascending continually.
Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.
