¹An Instructive Psalm of Asaph.

Why, O God, have you utterly rejected us?

Why does your anger fume over the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation,

Which you acquired in ancient time.

You redeemed the sceptre of your inheritance

– Mount Zion in which you dwelt.

³Speed up your strides towards the complete ruins

– All the harm the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries roar in the midst of your assembly;

They have set up their ensigns as portents.

⁵A man used to be known

By how he could wield axes in a thick wood,

⁶But now it is wholly its engravings

That they hack at with hatchets and mallets.

⁷They have set your sanctuary on fire;

They have desecrated your renowned tabernacle,

Bringing it down to the ground.

⁸They have resolved and said,

“Let us ravage them completely.”

They have burnt all the places of assembly of God

Down to the ground.

⁹We have not seen our signs;

There is no prophet any more,

And no-one among us knows for how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the adversary reproach us?

How long will the enemy utterly despise your name?

¹¹Why do you withdraw your hand

– Indeed your right hand –

From the midst of your bosom so completely?

¹²But God is my king,

Being from ancient time,

Carrying out acts of salvation

In the midst of the land.

¹³You split the sea in your strength;

You broke the heads of crocodiles in the waters.

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

You gave it as food for the inhabitants of the desert.

¹⁵You carved out fount and brook;

You dried up powerful rivers.

¹⁶Yours is the day;

Yours is the night also.

You prepared the night luminary

And the sun.

¹⁷You set all the boundaries of the earth.

As for summer and winter,

You fashioned them.

¹⁸Remember this:

An enemy has reproached the Lord,

And a foolish people have despised your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the life of your turtle-dove

To the wild animals.

Do not completely forget

Your poor population.

²⁰Observe the covenant,

For the dark places of the earth

Are full of nests of violence.

²¹Do not let the ill-treated return ashamed;

May the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, O God,

And contend your case;

Remember the reproach on you

From the fool all day long.

²³Do not forget the noise of your adversaries;

The tumult of those who rise up against you

Ascends continually.