Psalm 74

¹God, why have you rejected us forever?

Why does your anger smoulder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old,

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance:

Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins,

all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly.

They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes,

cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burnt your sanctuary to the ground.

They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.”

They have burnt up all the places in the land where God was worshipped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs.

There is no longer any prophet,

neither is there amongst us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach?

Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?

Take it from your chest and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old,

working salvation throughout the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength.

You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.

You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream.

You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours.

You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth.

You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD.

Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts.

Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honour your covenant,

for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed.

Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause.

Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries.

The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.