¹ Why do you stay angry to the end, O God?
Why does your anger smoke against the flock in your pasture?
² Remember your community that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed to be your possession.
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.
³ March toward the perpetual ruins.
March against all the evil done by the enemy in the sanctuary.

⁴ Your foes roared in the middle of your appointed place.
They set up their battle standards as signs.
⁵ They looked like men swinging axes in a thicket of trees.
⁶ Yes, they even chopped up all the carved paneling
    with their hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They delivered your sanctuary to the fire.
They defiled the dwelling place for your Name
    by throwing it to the ground.
⁸ They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned all the appointed places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see any signs to guide us.
There is no longer a prophet,
and none of us knows how long this will go on.
¹⁰ How long will the foe scoff, O God?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it out of your pocket^[b] and finish them off!

¹² But you, O God, are my king from long ago,
the one who works salvation right here on earth.
¹³ It was you who shattered the sea by your power.
You broke the heads of the great sea monsters.
¹⁴ It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan.^[c]
You gave him as food to the people who live in the desert.
¹⁵ It was you who opened up a spring and a seasonal stream.
You dried up the rivers that flow year-round.
¹⁶ The day belongs to you, and the night is also yours.
You set the moon and sun in place.
¹⁷ It was you who laid out all the boundaries of the earth.
Summer and winter—you shaped them.

¹⁸ Remember this—the enemy scoffs, Lord,
and a foolish people has insulted your name.
¹⁹ Do not surrender the life of your turtledove to a wild animal.
Do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
²⁰ Pay attention to the covenant,
because dens of violence fill the dark places in the land.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed turn back in disgrace.
Let the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and prosecute your case.
Remember how the fools mocked you all day long.
²³ Do not forget the sound of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually.