Psalms
Psalms 74
For understanding, by Asaph.
1 Why did you reject us forever, God? Why did your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your gathering, which you acquired from the beginning. You ransomed the staff of your inheritance—Mount Zion, where you lived.
3 Raise your hands against their pride continually, against everything the enemy did wickedly in your holy places.
4 Those who hate you boasted in the middle of your festival. They set up their signs as signs and did not understand,
5 as though at an entrance above,
6 as in a forest of trees, when they cut down its doors together with axes and shattered them with hatchet and stonecutter.
7 They burned your sanctuary with fire and treated the dwelling of your name as common, razing it to the ground.
8 All their relatives said together in their hearts,
“Come, let us burn down all God’s festivals from the earth.”
9 We have not seen our signs. There is no longer a prophet, and God will no longer know us.
10 How long, God, will the enemy reproach? Will the enemy provoke your name forever?
11 Why do you turn away your hand, your right hand, from the midst of your chest forever?
12 But God has been our king from long ago; he accomplished rescue in the middle of the earth.
13 You established the sea by your power; you shattered the heads of the dragons in the water.
14 You shattered the heads of the dragon and gave him as food to the peoples of Cush.
15 You split open fountains and torrents; you dried up the rivers of Etham.
16 The day is yours, and the night is yours. You prepared light and the sun.
17 You made all the boundaries of the earth; you formed summer and spring.
18 Remember this: an enemy reproached the Lord, and a foolish people provoked your name.
19 Do not hand a soul that praises you over to wild animals; do not forget the souls of your poor forever.
20 Look upon your covenant, because the earth’s dark places are filled with homes of lawlessness.
21 May the afflicted and ashamed not be rejected; the poor and needy will praise your name.
22 Rise, God, and plead your case. Remember the reproaches that come from the fool all day long.
23 Do not forget the voice of your petitioners. The pride of those who hate you has continually risen before you.