Psalms 74:1-8

¹A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoulder 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 middle 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 burnt 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 burnt up all the places in the land where God was worshipped.