Shared Word Translation
Psalm 74
Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your congregation, which you have purchased from of old,
the tribe of your inheritance, which you have redeemed—
Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
Turn your steps toward these perpetual ruins;
the enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they have set up their own signs for signs.
It is known as if someone raises
axes against a thicket of trees.
And now they carve all its carved work,
all at once, with hatchet and hammers.
They have set fire to your sanctuary;
they have defiled the dwelling place of your name to the ground.
They said in their hearts, “Let us oppress them altogether”;
they have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet among us,
and none of us knows how long.
How long, O God, shall the adversary taunt?
Will the enemy revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand,
even your right hand?
Take it from your bosom and destroy them!
Yet God is my King from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
You split open the sea by your strength;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
You opened the springs and torrents;
you dried up mighty rivers.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established light and the sun.
You set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
Remember this:
the enemy has mocked, O LORD,
and a foolish people have reviled your name.
Do not give the life of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of your afflicted forever.
Look to the covenant,
for the dark places of the earth are full of violence.
Do not let the crushed be turned away in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish reproach you all day.
Do not forget the voice of your adversaries,
the clamor of those rising against you, which ascends continually.