- 1
- Maschil of Asaph.
Why, O God, hast Thou cast us off for ever?
Why doth Thine anger smoke against the flock of Thy pasture?
- 2
- Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast gotten of old, which Thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of Thine inheritance;
and mount Zion, wherein Thou hast dwelt.
- 3
- Lift up Thy steps because of the perpetual ruins, even all the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
- 4
- Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of Thy meeting-place;
they have set up their own signs for signs.
- 5
- It seemed as when men wield upwards axes in a thicket of trees.
- 6
- And now all the carved work thereof together they strike down with hatchet and hammers.
- 7
- They have set Thy sanctuary on fire;
they have profaned the dwelling-place of Thy name even to the ground.
- 8
- They said in their heart: "Let us make havoc of them altogether";
they have burned up all the meeting-places of God in the land.
- 9
- We see not our signs;
there is no more any prophet;
neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
- 10
- How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?
- 11
- Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand?
Draw it out of Thy bosom and consume them.
- 12
- Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
- 13
- Thou didst break the sea in pieces by Thy strength;
Thou didst shatter the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
- 14
- Thou didst crush the heads of leviathan, Thou gavest him to be food to the folk inhabiting the wilderness.
- 15
- Thou didst cleave fountain and brook;
Thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
- 16
- Thine is the day, Thine also the night;
Thou hast established luminary and sun.
- 17
- Thou hast set all the borders of the earth;
Thou hast made summer and winter.
- 18
- Remember this, how the enemy hath reproached the LORD, and how a base people have blasphemed Thy name.
- 19
- O deliver not the soul of Thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast;
forget not the life of Thy poor for ever.
- 20
- Look upon the covenant;
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
- 21
- O let not the oppressed turn back in confusion;
let the poor and needy praise Thy name.
- 22
- Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause;
remember Thy reproach all the day at the hand of the base man.
- 23
- Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries, the tumult of those that rise up against Thee which ascendeth continually.
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