1A Maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, have you rejected forever? Why does your anger smoke against the flock of your pasturing?2Remember your congregation, which you acquired of old, which you redeemed—the tribe of your inheritance—this Mount Zion where you have dwelt.3Raise your feet to the perpetual desolations, all the evil the enemy has done in the sanctuary.4Your adversaries have roared within your appointed meeting place; they have set up their signs as signs.5It became known when they brought axes on high into the thicket of the wood.6And now they strike its engravings all together with axe and axes; they smite.7They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned to the ground the dwelling place of your name.8They said in their hearts, 'Let us oppress them together,' and they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.9We see no signs of ours; there is no longer a prophet, and none among us knows how long.10How long, O God, will the adversary taunt? Will the enemy revile your name forever?11Why do you return your hand, your right hand, from within your bosom? Bring it to an end.12Yet God my King is from of old, working salvations in the midst of the land.13You split the sea by your strength; you broke the heads of dragons upon the waters.14You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food to the people, to the wild beasts.15You opened up springs and torrents; you dried up the mighty rivers.16Yours is the day, and yours also is the night; you established the light and the sun.17You set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.18Remember this, O the LORD: the enemy has mocked you, and a foolish people has reviled your name.19Do not give the soul of your turtledove to the living thing; do not forget forever the community of your afflicted ones.20Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are filled with haunts of violence.21Do not let the crushed and humiliated return; let the afflicted and needy praise your name.22Arise, O God, plead your cause; remember your reproach from the fool all the day.23Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of those who rise against you, which rises continually.