Psalm - The Old Testament

¹ [Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?

² Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.

³ Come up to these endless ruins! The enemy have sacked everything in the sanctuary;

⁴ your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems

⁵ never known before. Their axes deep in the wood,

⁶ hacking at the panels, they battered them down with axe and pick;

⁷ they set fire to your sanctuary, profanely rased to the ground the dwelling-place of your name.

⁸ They said to themselves, 'Let us crush them at one stroke!' They burned down every sacred shrine in the land.

⁹ We see no signs, no prophet any more, and none of us knows how long it will last.

¹⁰ How much longer, God, will the enemy blaspheme? Is the enemy to insult your name for ever?

¹¹ Why hold back your hand, keep your right hand hidden in the folds of your robe?

¹² Yet, God, my king from the first, author of saving acts throughout the earth,

¹³ by your power you split the sea in two, and smashed the heads of the monsters on the waters.

¹⁴ You crushed Leviathan's heads, gave him as food to the wild animals.

¹⁵ You released the springs and brooks, and turned primordial rivers into dry land.

¹⁶ Yours is the day and yours the night, you caused sun and light to exist,

¹⁷ you fixed all the boundaries of the earth, you created summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember, Yahweh, the enemy's blasphemy, a foolish people insults your name.

¹⁹ Do not surrender your turtledove to the beast; do not forget for ever the life of your oppressed people.

²⁰ Look to the covenant! All the hiding-places of the land are full, haunts of violence.

²¹ Do not let the downtrodden retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.

²² Arise, God, champion your own cause, remember how fools blaspheme you all day long!

²³ Do not forget the shouting of your enemies, the ever-mounting uproar of your adversaries.