Psalms 73

¹Understanding to Asaph. Why hast thou, o God, repelled for ever: is thy fury wrath upon the sheep of thy pasture?

²Be mindful of thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. Thou hast redeemed the rod of thine inheritance: mount Sion, in which thou hast dwelt.

³Lift up thy hands upon their prides for ever: how great things hath the enemy done malignantly in the holy place?

⁴And they that hate thee have gloried: in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set their signs, for signs:

⁵and have not known, as in the issue on high. As in a wood of trees they have with axes

⁶cut out the gates thereof together: in hatchet and chip-axe they have cast it down.

⁷They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire: they have polluted the tabernacle of thy name in the earth.

⁸Their kindred together have said in their heart: Let us make all the festival days of God to cease from the earth.

⁹Our signs we have not seen, there is now no Prophet: and he will know us no more.

¹⁰How long, o God, shall the enemy upbraid: the adversary provoke thy name for ever?

¹¹Why doest thou turn away thy hand, and thy right hand, out of the midst of thy bosom for ever?

¹²But God our King before the worlds: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³Thou in thy strength hast confirmed the sea: thou hast crushed the head of Dragons in the waters.

¹⁴Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him for meat to the peoples of the Æthiopians.

¹⁵Thou hast broken up fountains, and torrents, thou hast dried the rivers of Ethan.

¹⁶The day is thine, and the night is thine: thou hast made the morning and the sun.

¹⁷Thou hast made all the coasts of the earth: the summer and the spring thou hast formed them.

¹⁸Be mindful of this, the enemy hath upbraided our Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.

¹⁹Deliver not to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and the souls of the poor forget not for ever.

²⁰Have respect unto thy testament: because they that are obscure of the earth, are filled with houses of iniquities.

²¹Let not the humble be turned away being confounded: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.

²²Arise God, judge thy cause: be mindful of those thy reproaches, that are from the foolish man all the day.

²³Forget not the voices of thine enemies: the pride of them that hate thee, hath ascended always.