74 ⁽⁰⁾ A maskil of Asaf:

⁽¹⁾ Why have you rejected us forever, God,
with your anger smoking against the sheep you once pastured?
² Remember your community, which you acquired long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your very own.
Remember Mount Tziyon, where you came to live.
³ Hurry your steps to these endless ruins,
to the sanctuary devastated by the enemy.

⁴ The roar of your foes filled your meeting-place;
they raised their own banners as a sign of their conquest.
⁵ The place seemed like a thicket of trees
when lumbermen hack away with their axes.
⁶ With hatchet and hammer they banged away,
smashing all the carved woodwork.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire,
tore down and profaned the abode of your name.
⁸ They said to themselves, “We will oppress them completely.”
They have burned down all God’s meeting-places in the land.

⁹ We see no signs, there is no prophet any more;
none of us knows how long it will last.
¹⁰ How much longer, God, will the foe jeer at us?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand?
Draw your right hand from your coat, and finish them off!

¹² God has been my king from earliest times,
acting to save throughout all the earth.
¹³ By your strength you split the sea in two,
in the water you smashed sea monsters’ heads,
¹⁴ you crushed the heads of Livyatan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ You cut channels for springs and streams,
you dried up rivers that had never failed.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and the night is yours;
it was you who established light and sun.
¹⁷ It was you who fixed all the limits of the earth,
you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy scoffs at Adonai,
how a brutish people insults your name.
¹⁹ Don’t hand over the soul of your dove to wild beasts,
don’t forget forever the life of your poor.

²⁰ Look to the covenant, for the land’s dark places
are full of the haunts of violence.
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed retreat in confusion;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, God, and defend your cause;
remember how brutish men insult you all day.
²³ Don’t forget what your foes are saying,
the ever-rising uproar of your adversaries.