Psalm 74

International Standard Version

² Remember your community,
whom you purchased long ago,
the tribe whom you redeemed
    for your possession.
Remember^[b] Mount Zion,
    where you live.
³         Hurry! Look at the permanent ruins—
    every calamity the enemy brought upon the Holy Place.

⁴ Those who are opposing you roar
    where we were meeting with you;
        they unfurl their war banners as signs.
⁵ As one blazes a trail
    through a forest with an ax,
⁶ now they’re tearing down all its carved work
    with hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They burned your sanctuary to the ground,
    desecrating your dwelling place.
⁸ They say to themselves,
    “We’ll crush them completely;”
        They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹ We see no signs for us;
    there is no longer a prophet,
        and no one among us knows the future.^[c]
10 God, how long will the adversary scorn
    while the enemy despises your name endlessly?
¹¹ Why do you not withdraw your hand—
    your right hand—from your bosom
        and destroy them?^[d]

¹² But God is my king from ancient times,
    who brings acts of deliverance throughout the earth.
¹³ You split the sea by your own power.
    You shattered the heads of sea monsters in the water.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan.
    You set it as food for desert creatures.^[e]
15 You opened both the spring and the river;
    you dried up flowing rivers.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, and yours is the night;
    you established the moon and the sun.
¹⁷ You set all the boundaries of the earth;
    you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this: The enemy scorns the Lord
    and a foolish people despises your name.
¹⁹ Don’t hand over the life of your dove to beasts;
    do not continuously forget your afflicted ones.

²⁰ Pay attention to your covenant,
    for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed return in humiliation.
    The poor and needy will praise your name.

²² Get up, God, and prosecute your case—
    remember that you’re being scorned
        by fools all day long.
²³ Don’t ignore the shout of those opposing you,
    The uproar of those who rebel against you continuously.