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?
“A psalm of Asaph.” O God! why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the flock of thy 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.
Remember the people which thou didst purchase of old; Thine own inheritance, which thou didst redeem; That Mount Zion, where thou once didst dwell!
3 Lift up thy steps unto the places utterly unsafe, All the mischief!—the foe in the sanctuary!
Hasten thy steps to those utter desolations! Every thing in the sanctuary hath the enemy abused!
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine appointed meeting, They have set their ensigns as tokens!
Thine enemies roar in the place of thine assemblies; Their own symbols have they set up for signs.
5 One used to be known according as he carried up high—into the thicket of trees—the axes;
They appear like those who raise the axe against a thicket;
6 But, now, the doors thereof all together, with axes and hammers, they batter down.
They have broken down the carved work of thy temple with axes and hammers;
7 They have cast, into the fire, thy sanctuary, To the ground, have they profaned the habitation of thy Name.
They have cast fire into thy sanctuary; They have profaned, and cast to the ground, the dwelling-place of thy name.
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 said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them all together!” They have burned all God's places of assembly in 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 no longer see our signs; There is no prophet among us, Nor any one that knoweth how long this desolation shall endure.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary, reproach? Shall the enemy revile thy Name perpetually?
How long, O God! shall the adversary revile? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Wherefore shouldst thou withdraw thy hand—thy right hand? [Bring it] out of the midst of thy bosom! (Selah)
Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Take it from thy bosom, and destroy!
12 But, God, hath been my king from aforetime, Working Deliverances in the midst of the earth.
Yet God was our king of old, Working 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;
Thou didst divide the sea by thy power; Thou didst crush the heads of the sea-monsters 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;
Thou didst break in pieces the head of the crocodile; Thou gavest him for food to the inhabitants of the desert.
15 Thou, didst cleave open fountain and torrent, Thou, didst dry up rivers of steady flow:
Thou didst cleave forth the fountain and the stream; Thou didst dry up perennial rivers.
16 Thine, is the day, Yea, thine, the night, Thou, didst establish moon and sun;
Thine is the day, and thine the night; Thou didst prepare the light and the sun.
17 Thou, didst set up all the bounds of the earth, As for summer and winter, thou, didst form them!
Thou didst establish all the boundaries of the earth; Thou didst make summer and winter.
18 Remember this, An enemy, hath reproached Yahweh, Yea, an impious people, have reviled thy Name.
O remember that the enemy hath reviled Jehovah; That an impious people hath blasphemed thy 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.
Give not up the life of thy turtle-dove to the wild beast; Forget not for ever thine afflicted people!
20 Have respect to thy covenant, For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
Have regard to thy covenant! For all the dark places of the land are full of the abodes of cruelty.
21 May the crushed one not again be confounded, As for the oppressed and the needy, let them praise thy Name.
O let not the afflicted go away ashamed! Let the poor and needy praise thy name!
22 Arise! O God, plead thine own cause, Remember the reproach of thee, from the impious one, all the day:
Arise, O God! maintain thy cause! Remember how the impious revileth thee daily!
23 Do not forget the voice of thine adversaries, The noise of thine assailants, ascending continually.
Forget not the clamor of thine adversaries, —The noise of thine enemies, which continually increaseth!
