74 Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke
against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember your congregation that you bought long ago,
when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance.
Remember Mount Zion^[b] where you have dwelt.
³ Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins,
to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary.
⁴ Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they have set up their signs for signs.
⁵ They are^[c] known to be like those who wield^[d]
axes in a thicket of trees.
⁶ And now^[e] its^[f] carved works altogether
they have smashed with axe and hammer.
⁷ They have set fire to your sanctuary.
They have defiled to the ground,
the dwelling place for your name.
⁸ They have said in their heart,
“We will completely^[g] oppress them.”
They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
⁹ We do not see our signs,
and there is no longer a prophet.
No one with us knows how long.
¹⁰ How long, O God, will the adversary taunt?
Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?
¹¹ Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it from your bosom;^[h] destroy them!
¹² But God has been my king from long ago,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ You split open the sea by your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food to the desert dwelling creatures.
¹⁵ You split open spring and wadi.^[i]
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours is the night also.
You established light and the sun.
¹⁷ You defined^[j] all the boundaries of the earth;
Summer and winter—you formed them.
¹⁸ O Yahweh, remember this: the enemy taunts,
and foolish people treat your name with contempt.
¹⁹ Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;
do not ever forget the life of your afflicted ones.
²⁰ Have regard for the covenant,
because the dark places of the land are full of
the haunts of violence.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed turn back humiliated;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember the reproaching of you by the foolish all day long.^[k]
23 Do not forget the sound of your adversaries,
the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.