Psalms 73:1-23

¹(74) A Psalm of instruction for Asaph. Therefore have you rejected us, O God, for ever? therefore is your wrath kindled against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation which you have purchased from the beginning; you did ransom the rod of your inheritance; this mount Sion wherein you have lived.

³Lift up your hands against their pride continually; because of all that the enemy has done wickedly in your holy places.

⁴And they that hate you have boasted in the midst of your feast; they have set up their standards for signs,

⁵ignorantly as it were in the entrance above;

⁶they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter.

⁷They have burnt your sanctuary with fire to the ground; they have profaned the habitation of your name.

⁸They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.

⁹We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us any more.

¹⁰How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke your name forever?

¹¹Therefore turn you away your hand, and your right hand from the midst of your bosom for ever?

¹²But God is our King of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You did establish the sea, in your might, you did break to pieces the heads of the dragons in the water.

¹⁴You did break to pieces the heads of the dragon; you did give him for meat to the Ethiopian nations.

¹⁵You did cleave fountains and torrents; you dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is your, and the night is your; you have prepared the sun and the moon.

¹⁷You have made all the borders of the earth; you have made summer and spring.

¹⁸Remember this your creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked your name.

¹⁹Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to you: forget not for ever the souls of your poor.

²⁰Look upon your covenant: for the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity.

²¹let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected: the poor and needy shall praise your name.

²²Arise, O God, plead your cause: remember your reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day.

²³Forget not the voice of your suppliants: let the pride of them that hate you continually ascend before you.