Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?

(Psalm 79:1–13; Jeremiah 52:1–11)

¹A Maskil^a of Asaph.

Why have You rejected us forever, O God?

Why does Your anger smolder

against the sheep of Your pasture?

²Remember Your congregation,

which You purchased long ago

and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance —

Mount Zion, where You dwell.

³Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins,

to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.

⁴Your foes have roared within Your meeting place;

they have unfurled their banners as signs,

⁵like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

⁶and smashing all the carvings with hatchets and picks.

⁷They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;

they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.

⁸They said in their hearts,

“We will crush them completely.”

They burned down every place

where God met us in the land.

⁹There are no signs for us to see.

There is no longer any prophet.

And none of us knows how long this will last.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You?

Will the foe revile Your name forever?

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand?

Stretch it out to destroy them!^b

¹²Yet God is my King from ancient times,

working salvation on the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by Your strength;

You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

You fed him to the creatures of the desert.

¹⁵You broke open the fountain and the flood;

You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.

¹⁶The day is Yours, and also the night;

You established the moon^c and the sun.

¹⁷You set all the boundaries of the earth;

You made the summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD,

how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts;

do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever.

²⁰Consider Your covenant,

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

²¹Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame;

may the poor and needy praise Your name.

²²Rise up, O God; defend Your cause!

Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.

²³Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries,

the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.