- 1God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
- 2Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
- 3Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
- 4Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
- 5They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
- 6Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
- 7They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
- 8They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
- 9We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
- 10How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
- 11Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
- 12Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
- 13You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- 14You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
- 15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
- 16The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
- 17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
- 18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, the Lord. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
- 19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
- 20Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
- 21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
- 22Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
- 23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.