Psalm 74: O God, why hast thou cast us off?
Maschil of Asaph.
Meter: C.M. (8,6,8,6)
1 O God, why hast thou cast us off? is it for evermore? Against thy pasture-sheep why doth thine anger smoke so sore?
2 O call to thy rememberance thy congregation, Which thou hast purchased of old; still think the same upon:
The rod of thine inheritance, which thou redeemed hast, This Sion hill, wherein thou hadst thy dwelling in times past.
3 To these long desolations thy feet lift, do not tarry; For all the ills thy foes have done within thy sanctuary.
4 Amidst thy congregations thine enemies do roar: Their ensigns they set up for signs of triumph thee before.
5 A man was famous, and was had in estimation, According as he lifted up his axe thick trees upon.
6 But all at once with axes now and hammers they go to, And down the carved work thereof they break, and quite undo.
7 They fired have thy sanctuary, and have defil’d the same, By casting down unto the ground the place where dwelt thy name.
8 Thus said they in their hearts, Let us destroy them out of hand: They burnt up all the synagogues of God within the land.
9 Our signs we do not now behold; there is not us among A prophet more, nor any one that knows the time how long.
10 How long, Lord, shall the enemy thus in reproach exclaim? And shall the adversary thus always blaspheme thy name?
11 Thy hand, ev’n thy right hand of might, why dost thou thus draw back? O from thy bosom pluck it out for our deliv’rance sake.
12 For certainly God is my King, ev’n from the times of old, Working in midst of all the earth salvation manifold.
13 The sea, by thy great pow’r, to part asunder thou didst make; And thou the dragons’ heads, O Lord, within the waters brake.
14 The leviathan’s head thou brak’st in pieces, and didst give Him to be meat unto the folk in wilderness that live.
15 Thou clav’st the fountain and the flood, which did with streams abound: Thou dry’dst the mighty waters up unto the very ground.
16 Thine only is the day, O Lord, thine also is the night; And thou alone prepared hast the sun and shining light.
17 By thee the borders of the earth were settled ev’ry where: The summer and the winter both by thee created were.
18 That th’ enemy reproached hath, O keep it in record; And that the foolish people have blasphem’d thy name, O Lord.
19 Unto the multitude do not thy turtle’s soul deliver: The congregation of thy poor do not forget for ever.
20 Unto thy cov’nant have respect; for earth’s dark places be Full of the habitations of horrid cruelty.
21 O let not those that be oppress’d return again with shame: Let those that poor and needy are give praise unto thy name.
22 Do thou, O God, arise and plead the cause that is thine own: Remember how thou art reproach’d still by the foolish one.
23 Do not forget the voice of those that are thine enemies: Of those the tumult ever grows that do against thee rise.