Psalm 74

¹O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever?

Why does thy anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

²Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,

which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thy heritage!

Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt.

³Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

⁴Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place;

they set up their own signs for signs.

⁵At the upper entrance they hacked

the wooden trellis with axes.

⁶And then all its carved wood

they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

⁷They set thy sanctuary on fire;

to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.

⁸They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile thy name for ever?

¹¹Why dost thou hold back thy hand,

why dost thou keep thy right hand in thy bosom?

¹²Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;

thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the waters.

¹⁴Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,

thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

¹⁵Thou didst cleave open springs and brooks;

thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.

¹⁶Thine is the day, thine also the night;

thou hast established the luminaries and the sun.

¹⁷Thou hast fixed all the bounds of the earth;

thou hast made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,

and an impious people reviles thy name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of thy dove to the wild beasts;

do not forget the life of thy poor for ever.

²⁰Have regard for thy covenant;

for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

²¹Let not the downtrodden be put to shame;

let the poor and needy praise thy name.

²²Arise, O God, plead thy cause;

remember how the impious scoff at thee all the day!

²³Do not forget the clamor of thy foes,

the uproar of thy adversaries which goes up continually!