Psalm 74

Psalm 74

Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation

A Maskil of Asaph.

¹O God, why do you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?^*

²Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago,

which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.

Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.^*

³Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.^*

⁴Your foes have roared within your holy place;

they set up their emblems there.^*

⁵At the upper entrance they hacked

the wooden trellis with axes.^z*

⁶And then, with hatchets and hammers,

they smashed all its carved work.

⁷They set your sanctuary on fire;

they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,

bringing it to the ground.^*

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 emblems;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is no one among us who knows how long.^*

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

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?^*

¹¹Why do you hold back your hand;

why do you keep your hand in^a your bosom?^*

¹²Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the earth.^*

¹³You divided the sea by your might;

you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.^*

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food^b for the creatures of the wilderness.

¹⁵You cut openings for springs and torrents;

you dried up ever-flowing streams.^*

¹⁶Yours is the day, yours also the night;

you established the luminaries^c and the sun.^*

¹⁷You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;

you made summer and winter.^*

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

and an impious people reviles your name.^*

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;

do not forget the life of your poor forever.^*

²⁰Have regard for your^d covenant,

for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.^*

²¹Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;

let the poor and needy praise your name.^*

²²Rise up, O God, plead your cause;

remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.^*

²³Do not forget the clamor of your foes,

the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.^*