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Psalm 74

Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation

A Maskil of Asaph.
¹ O God, why do you cast us off for ever?
   Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember 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.
³ Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
   the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

⁴ Your foes have roared within your holy place;
   they set up their emblems there.
⁵ At the upper entrance they hacked
   the wooden trellis with axes.^*
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
   they smashed all its carved work.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;
   they desecrated the dwelling-place of your name,
   bringing it to the ground.
⁸ They said to themselves, ‘We will utterly subdue them’;
   they burned all the meeting-places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see our emblems;
   there is no longer any prophet,
   and there is no one among us who knows how long.
¹⁰ How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
   Is the enemy to revile your name for ever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand;
   why do you keep your hand in^* your bosom?

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,
   working salvation in the earth.
¹³ You divided the sea by your might;
   you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
   you gave him as food^* for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You cut openings for springs and torrents;
   you dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
   you established the luminaries^* and the sun.
¹⁷ You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
   you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
   and an impious people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
   do not forget the life of your poor for ever.

²⁰ Have regard for your^* covenant,
   for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
²¹ Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
   let the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
   remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
²³ Do not forget the clamour of your foes,
   the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.