Psalm 74

A Psalm of ¹instruction for Asaph.

¹ Wherefore hast thou rejected us, O God, for ever? wherefore is thy wrath kindled against the sheep of thy pasture? ² Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased from the beginning; thou didst ransom the rod of thine inheritance; this mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt. ³ Lift up thine hands against their pride continually; because of all that the enemy has done wickedly in thy holy places.

⁴ And they that hate thee have boasted in the midst of thy feast; they have set up their standards for signs, ⁵ ignorantly as it were in the entrance above; ⁶ they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter. ⁷ They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire to the ground;

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they have profaned the ²habitation of thy name. ⁸ They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth. ⁹ We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us any more.

¹⁰ How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke thy name forever? ¹¹ Wherefore turnest thou away thine hand, and thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom for ever? ¹² But God is our King ³of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth. ¹³ Thou didst establish the sea, in thy might, thou didst break to pieces the heads of the ⁴dragons in the water. ¹⁴ Thou didst break to pieces the heads of the dragon; thou didst give him for meat to the Ethiopian nations. ¹⁵ Thou didst cleave fountains and torrents; thou driedst up ⁵mighty rivers. ¹⁶ The day is thine, and the night is thine; thou hast prepared the sun and the moon. ¹⁷ Thou hast made all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and spring.

¹⁸ Remember this thy creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked thy name. ¹⁹ Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to thee: forget not for ever the souls of thy poor. ²⁰ Look upon thy covenant: for the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity. ²¹ let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected: the poor and needy shall praise thy name. ²² Arise, O God, plead thy cause: remember thy reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day. ²³ Forget not the voice of thy suppliants: let the pride of them that hate thee continually ascend before thee.