Psalm 74
1O God, why have you utterly cast us off?
why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance,
and Mount Zion where you dwell.
3Turn your steps toward the endless ruins;
the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.
4Your adversaries roared in your holy place;
they set up their banners as tokens of victory.
5They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees;
they broke down all your carved work with hatchets
and hammers.
6They set fire to your holy place;
they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name
and razed it to the ground.
7They said to themselves, "Let us destroy them altogether."
They burned down all the meeting-places of God
in the land.
8There are no signs for us to see;
there is no prophet left;
there is not one among us who knows how long.
9How long, O God, will the adversary scoff?
will the enemy blaspheme your Name for ever?
10Why do you draw back your hand?
why is your right hand hidden in your bosom?
11Yet God is my King from ancient times,
victorious in the midst of the earth.
12You divided the sea by your might
and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;
13You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him to the people of the desert for food.
14You split open spring and torrent;
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.
15Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the moon and the sun.
16You fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
17Remember, O LORD, how the enemy scoffed,
how a foolish people despised your Name.
18Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
never forget the lives of your poor.
19Look upon your covenant;
the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.
20Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed;
let the poor and needy praise your Name.
21Arise, O God, maintain your cause;
remember how fools revile you all day long.
22Forget not the clamor of your adversaries,
the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.