1 | The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture? |
2 | Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt. |
3 | Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary! |
4 | And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof, |
5 | as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood, |
6 | they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down. |
7 | They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth. |
8 | They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: "Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land. |
9 | We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us." |
10 | How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end? |
11 | Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end? |
12 | But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth. |
13 | In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters. |
14 | You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians. |
15 | You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan. |
16 | Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun. |
17 | You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you. |
18 | Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name. |
19 | Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end. |
20 | Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses. |
21 | Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name. |
22 | Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long. |
23 | Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually. |