1 An instruction: of Asaph. Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed to be the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed. 4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs for signs. 5 A man was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees; 6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers. 7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground. 8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all *God's places of assembly in the land. 9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever? 11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom: consume them2. 12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth. 13 *Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters: 14 *Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert. 15 *Thou* didst cleave fountain and torrent, *thou* driedst up ever-flowing rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; *thou* hast prepared the moon and the sun: 17 *Thou* hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter--*thou* didst form them. 18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name. 19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever. 20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence. 21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name. 22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day; 23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.