Psalms 74
Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?
A Maskil of Asaph.
1Remember Your congregation, which You purchased long ago and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance — Mount Zion, where You dwell.2Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.
3Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs,
4like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees
5and smashing all the carvings with hatchets and picks.
6They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
7They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely.” They burned down every place where God met us in the land.
8There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.
9How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
10Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!
11Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.
12You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
13You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.
14You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
15The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.
16You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.
17Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.
18Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever.
19Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
20Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name.
21Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.
22Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.