Psalm 74

A Lament in Time of National Defeat

74A maskil of Asaph.^a

¹Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?

Why does your anger smoke

against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation that you bought long ago,

when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance.

Remember Mount Zion^b where you have dwelt.

³Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins,

to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary.

⁴Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place;

they have set up their signs for signs.

⁵They are^c known to be like those who wield^d

axes in a thicket of trees.

⁶And now^e its^f carved works altogether

they have smashed with axe and hammer.

⁷They have set fire to your sanctuary.

They have defiled to the ground,

the dwelling place for your name.

⁸They have said in their heart,

“We will completely^g oppress them.”

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

⁹We do not see our signs,

and there is no longer a prophet.

No one with us knows how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the adversary taunt?

Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?

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

Take it from your bosom;^h destroy them!

¹²But God has been my king from long ago,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You split open the sea by your strength;

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

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food to the desert dwelling creatures.

¹⁵You split open spring and wadi.ⁱ

You dried up ever-flowing rivers.

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

You established light and the sun.

¹⁷You defined^j all the boundaries of the earth;

Summer and winter—you formed them.

¹⁸O Yahweh, remember this: the enemy taunts,

and foolish people treat your name with contempt.

¹⁹Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;

do not ever forget the life of your afflicted ones.

²⁰Have regard for the covenant,

because the dark places of the land are full of

the haunts of violence.

²¹Do not let the oppressed turn back humiliated;

let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Rise up, O God, plead your cause;

remember the reproaching of you by the foolish all day long.^k

²³Do not forget the sound of your adversaries,

the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.