Psalm 74

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

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 acquired long ago,
which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.
Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
³ Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

⁴ Your foes have roared within your holy place;
they set up their emblems there.
⁵ At the upper entrance they hacked
the wooden trellis with axes. ₁
⁶ And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they smashed all its carved work.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it 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 emblems;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is no one 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;
why do you keep your hand in ₂ your bosom?

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the earth.
¹³ You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food ₃ for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries ₄ and the sun.
¹⁷ You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and an impious people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Have regard for your ₅ covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
²¹ Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.