Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?
(Psalm 79:1–13; Jeremiah 52:1–11)

1The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture?

2Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.

3Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!

4And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,

5as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,

6they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.

7They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.

8They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: “Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.

9We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”

10How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?

11Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?

12But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

13In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.

14You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.

15You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.

16Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.

17You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.

18Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.

19Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.

20Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.

21Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.

22Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.

23Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.