Psalm 74 

Maschil of Asaph.

1 O God, why hast thou cast [us] off for ever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,
Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance;
[And] mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins,
All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine
      assembly;
They have set up their ensigns for signs.
5 They seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
6 And now all the carved work thereof
They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire;
They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name [by casting
      it] to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them
      altogether:
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs:
There is no more any prophet;
Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand?
[Pluck it] out of thy bosom [and] consume [them].

12 Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the
      wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:
Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah,
And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
19 Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild
      beast:
Forget not the life of thy poor for ever.
2 0 Have respect unto the covenant;
For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of
      violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed:
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause:
Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries:
The tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth
      continually.