Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

A Maskil74:0 Probably a musical or liturgical term of Asaph.

1O God, why do you cast us off for ever?

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

2Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!

Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

3Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;

they set up their own signs for signs.

5They were like those who swing axes

in a forest of trees.74:5 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

6And all its carved wood

they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

7They set your sanctuary on fire;

they profaned the dwelling place of your name,

bringing it down to the ground.

8They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

10How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile your name for ever?

11Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?

Take it from the fold of your garment74:11 Hebrew from your bosom and destroy them!

12Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13You divided the sea by your might;

you broke the heads of the sea monsters74:13 Or the great sea creatures on the waters.

14You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15You split open springs and brooks;

you dried up ever-flowing streams.

16Yours is the day, yours also the night;

you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

17You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;

you have made summer and winter.

18Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,

and a foolish people reviles your name.

19Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;

do not forget the life of your poor for ever.

20Have regard for the covenant,

for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;

let the poor and needy praise your name.

22Arise, O God, defend your cause;

remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

23Do not forget the clamour of your foes,

the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!