74

A contemplation by Asaph.

1God, why have you rejected us forever?

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

2Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old,

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance:

Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

3Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins,

all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly.

They have set up their standards as signs.

5They behaved like men wielding axes,

cutting through a thicket of trees.

6Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

7They have burned your sanctuary to the ground.

They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

8They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.”

They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

9We see no miraculous signs.

There is no longer any prophet,

neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

10How long, God, shall the adversary reproach?

Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

11Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?

Take it from your chest and consume them!

12Yet God is my King of old,

working salvation throughout the earth.

13You divided the sea by your strength.

You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

14You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.

You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

15You opened up spring and stream.

You dried up mighty rivers.

16The day is yours, the night is also yours.

You have prepared the light and the sun.

17You have set all the boundaries of the earth.

You have made summer and winter.

18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh.

Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts.

Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

20Honor your covenant,

for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed.

Let the poor and needy praise your name.

22Arise, God! Plead your own cause.

Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries.

The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

75

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

1We give thanks to you, God.

We give thanks, for your Name is near.

Men tell about your wondrous works.

2When I choose the appointed time,

I will judge blamelessly.

3The earth and all its inhabitants quake.

I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.

4I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!”

I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.

5Don’t lift up your horn on high.

Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”

6For neither from the east, nor from the west,

nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

7But God is the judge.

He puts down one, and lifts up another.

8For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup,

full of foaming wine mixed with spices.

He pours it out.

Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

9But I will declare this forever:

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

76

For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

1In Judah, God is known.

His name is great in Israel.

2His tabernacle is also in Salem.

His dwelling place in Zion.

3There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow,

the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.

4Glorious are you, and excellent,

more than mountains of game.

5Valiant men lie plundered,

they have slept their last sleep.

None of the men of war can lift their hands.

6At your rebuke, God of Jacob,

both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

7You, even you, are to be feared.

Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?

8You pronounced judgment from heaven.

The earth feared, and was silent,

9when God arose to judgment,

to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.

10Surely the wrath of man praises you.

The survivors of your wrath are restrained.

11Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them!

Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.

12He will cut off the spirit of princes.

He is feared by the kings of the earth.

77

For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph.

1My cry goes to God!

Indeed, I cry to God for help,

and for him to listen to me.

2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.

My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired.

My soul refused to be comforted.

3I remember God, and I groan.

I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

4You hold my eyelids open.

I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

5I have considered the days of old,

the years of ancient times.

6I remember my song in the night.

I consider in my own heart;

my spirit diligently inquires:

7“Will the Lord reject us forever?

Will he be favorable no more?

8Has his loving kindness vanished forever?

Does his promise fail for generations?

9Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

10Then I thought, “I will appeal to this:

the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

11I will remember Yah’s deeds;

for I will remember your wonders of old.

12I will also meditate on all your work,

and consider your doings.

13Your way, God, is in the sanctuary.

What god is great like God?

14You are the God who does wonders.

You have made your strength known among the peoples.

15You have redeemed your people with your arm,

the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

16The waters saw you, God.

The waters saw you, and they writhed.

The depths also convulsed.

17The clouds poured out water.

The skies resounded with thunder.

Your arrows also flashed around.

18The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind.

The lightnings lit up the world.

The earth trembled and shook.

19Your way was through the sea,

your paths through the great waters.

Your footsteps were not known.

20You led your people like a flock,

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

78

A contemplation by Asaph.

1Hear my teaching, my people.

Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old,

3which we have heard and known,

and our fathers have told us.

4We will not hide them from their children,

telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,

his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

5For he established a covenant in Jacob,

and appointed a teaching in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers,

that they should make them known to their children;

6that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;

who should arise and tell their children,

7that they might set their hope in God,

and not forget God’s deeds,

but keep his commandments,

8and might not be as their fathers—

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,

whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,

turned back in the day of battle.

10They didn’t keep God’s covenant,

and refused to walk in his law.

11They forgot his doings,

his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.

12He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.

He made the waters stand as a heap.

14In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,

and all night with a light of fire.

15He split rocks in the wilderness,

and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

16He brought streams also out of the rock,

and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17Yet they still went on to sin against him,

to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18They tempted God in their heart

by asking food according to their desire.

19Yes, they spoke against God.

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,

and streams overflowed.

Can he give bread also?

Will he provide meat for his people?”

21Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry.

A fire was kindled against Jacob,

anger also went up against Israel,

22because they didn’t believe in God,

and didn’t trust in his salvation.

23Yet he commanded the skies above,

and opened the doors of heaven.

24He rained down manna on them to eat,

and gave them food from the sky.

25Man ate the bread of angels.

He sent them food to the full.

26He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.

By his power he guided the south wind.

27He also rained meat on them as the dust,

winged birds as the sand of the seas.

28He let them fall in the middle of their camp,

around their habitations.

29So they ate, and were well filled.

He gave them their own desire.

30They didn’t turn from their cravings.

Their food was yet in their mouths,

31when the anger of God went up against them,

killed some of their strongest,

and struck down the young men of Israel.

32For all this they still sinned,

and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

33Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,

and their years in terror.

34When he killed them, then they inquired after him.

They returned and sought God earnestly.

35They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God, their redeemer.

36But they flattered him with their mouth,

and lied to him with their tongue.

37For their heart was not right with him,

neither were they faithful in his covenant.

38But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.

Yes, many times he turned his anger away,

and didn’t stir up all his wrath.

39He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,

and grieved him in the desert!

41They turned again and tempted God,

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42They didn’t remember his hand,

nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

43how he set his signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the field of Zoan,

44he turned their rivers into blood,

and their streams, so that they could not drink.

45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;

and frogs, which destroyed them.

46He also gave their increase to the caterpillar,

and their labor to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail,

their sycamore fig trees with frost.

48He also gave over their livestock to the hail,

and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,

wrath, indignation, and trouble,

and a band of angels of evil.

50He made a path for his anger.

He didn’t spare their soul from death,

but gave their life over to the pestilence,

51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52But he led out his own people like sheep,

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,

to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

55He also drove out the nations before them,

allotted them for an inheritance by line,

and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,

and didn’t keep his testimonies,

57but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.

They were twisted like a deceitful bow.

58For they provoked him to anger with their high places,

and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

59When God heard this, he was angry,

and greatly abhorred Israel,

60so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh,

the tent which he placed among men,

61and delivered his strength into captivity,

his glory into the adversary’s hand.

62He also gave his people over to the sword,

and was angry with his inheritance.

63Fire devoured their young men.

Their virgins had no wedding song.

64Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows couldn’t weep.

65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,

like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

66He struck his adversaries backward.

He put them to a perpetual reproach.

67Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,

and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion which he loved.

69He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth which he has established forever.

70He also chose David his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds;

71from following the ewes that have their young,

he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and Israel, his inheritance.

72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,

and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.