| 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.
|
