1A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoke against the flock of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, the tribe of your inheritance, which you redeemed — Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
3Lift up your steps to the perpetual ruins, to all the evil the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4Your foes roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their signs as signs.
5It appeared like one bringing axes upward against a thicket of trees.
6And now its carved work, all together, they smash down with hatchet and hammers.
7They set your sanctuary on fire; to the ground they profaned the dwelling place of your name.
8They said in their heart, “Let us oppress them all together!” They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9We do not see our signs; there is no longer a prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10How long, O God, will the foe scoff? Will the enemy revile your name forever?
11Why do you withdraw your hand, even your right hand? From the midst of your bosom, destroy them!
12Yet God is my king from of old, working salvations in the midst of the earth.
13You divided the sea by your strength; you broke the heads of the sea monsters upon the waters.
14You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food to the people, to the desert-dwellers.
15You split open spring and stream; you dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminary and the sun.
17You set all the boundaries of the earth; summer and winter — you formed them.
18Remember this: the enemy has scoffed, O Yahweh, and a foolish people has reviled your name.
19Do not give the life of your dove to the wild beast; do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
20Look to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21Let not the oppressed turn back in shame; let the afflicted and the needy praise your name.
22Arise, O God, plead your case; remember how the fool scoffs at you all day long.
23Do not forget the voice of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, going up continually.
Open in the interactive reader →Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.