Psalm 74
Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
A Maskil of Asaph.
[1] O God, why do you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
[2] Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,
which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
[3] Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
[4] Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they set up their own signs for signs.
[5] They were like those who swing axes
in a forest of trees.
[6] And all its carved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
[7] They set your sanctuary on fire;
they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down 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 signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
[10] How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
[11] Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!
[12] Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
[13] You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
[14] You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
[15] You split open springs and brooks;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
[16] Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
[17] You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.
[18] Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
and a foolish people reviles your name.
[19] Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.
[20] Have regard for the covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
[21] Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
[22] Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
[23] Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually! (ESV)
