The Psalms

Psalm 74

Maschil of Asaph.

 74:1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?

 Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

 74:2Remember 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.

 74:3Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins,

 All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.

 74:4Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly;

 They have set up their ensigns for signs.

 74:5They seemed as men that lifted up

 Axes upon a thicket of trees.

 74:6And now all the carved work thereof

 They break down with hatchet and hammers.

 74:7They have set thy sanctuary on fire;

 They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name by casting it to the ground.

 74:8They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether:

 They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

 74:9We see not our signs:

 There is no more any prophet;

 Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

 74:10How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?

 Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

 74:11Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand?

 Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them.

 74:12Yet God is my King of old,

 Working salvation in the midst of the earth.

 74:13Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:

 Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.

 74:14Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;

 Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

 74:15Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:

 Thou driedst up mighty rivers.

 74:16The day is thine, the night also is thine:

 Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

 74:17Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:

 Thou hast made summer and winter.

 74:18Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah,

 And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.

 74:19Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast:

 Forget not the life of thy poor for ever.

 74:20Have respect unto the covenant;

 For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

 74:21Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed:

 Let the poor and needy praise thy name.

 74:22Arise, O God, plead thine own cause:

 Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day.

 74:23Forget not the voice of thine adversaries:

 The tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.