Psalms 73

1A Psalm of instruction for Asaph.

Wherefore hast thou rejected us, O God, forever?

Wherefore is thy wrath kindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

2Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased from the beginning;

Thou didst ransom the rod of thine inheritance;

This Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt.

3Lift up thy hands against their pride continually;

Because of all that the enemy has done wickedly in thy holy places.

4And they that hate thee have boasted in the midst of thy feast;

They have set up their standards for signs,

5Ignorantly as it were in the entrance above;

6They cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees;

They have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter.

7They have burned thy sanctuary with fire to the ground;

They have profaned the habitation of thy name.

8They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together,

Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.

9We have not seen our signs;

There is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us anymore.

10How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach?

Shall the enemy provoke thy name forever?

11Wherefore turnest thou away thy hand,

And thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom forever?

12But God is our King of old;

He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

13Thou didst establish the sea, in thy might,

Thou didst break to pieces the heads of the dragons in the water.

14Thou didst break to pieces the heads of the dragon;

Thou didst give him for meat to the Ethiopian nations.

15Thou didst cleave fountains and torrents;

Thou driedst up mighty rivers.

16The day is thine, and the night is thine;

Thou hast prepared the sun and the moon.

17Thou hast made all the borders of the earth;

Thou hast made summer and spring.

18Remember this thy creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord,

And a foolish people has provoked thy name.

19Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to thee:

Forget not forever the souls of thy poor.

20Look upon thy covenant:

For the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity.

21Let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected:

The poor and needy shall praise thy name.

22Arise, O God, plead thy cause:

Remember thy reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day.

23Forget not the voice of thy suppliants:

Let the pride of them that hate thee continually ascend before thee.