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Psalm 74
Ut quid, Deus?
1
O God, why have you utterly cast us off?
why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?
2
Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance, and Mount Zion where you dwell.
3
Turn your steps toward the endless ruins;
the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.
4
Your adversaries roared in your holy place;
they set up their banners as tokens of victory.
5
They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees;
they broke down all your carved work with hatchets and hammers.
6
They set fire to your holy place;
they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name and razed it to the ground.
7
They said to themselves, "Let us destroy them altogether."
They burned down all the meeting-places of God in the land.
8
There are no signs for us to see; there is no prophet left;
there is not one among us who knows how long.
9
How long, O God, will the adversary scoff?
will the enemy blaspheme your Name for ever?
10
Why do you draw back your hand?
why is your right hand hidden in your bosom?
11
Yet God is my King from ancient times,
victorious in the midst of the earth.
12
You divided the sea by your might
and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;
13
You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him to the people of the desert for food.
14
You split open spring and torrent;
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.
15
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the moon and the sun.
16
You fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter.
17
Remember, O LORD , how the enemy scoffed,
how a foolish people despised your Name.
18
Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
never forget the lives of your poor.
19
Look upon your covenant;
the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.
20
Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed;
let the poor and needy praise your Name.
21
Arise, O God, maintain your cause;
remember how fools revile you all day long.
22
Forget not the clamor of your adversaries,
the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.