Maschil of Asaph.

8,6,8,6

^1O God, why hast thou cast us off?

is it for evermore?

Against thy pasture-sheep why doth

thine anger smoke so sore?

^2O call to thy rememberance

thy congregation,

Which thou hast purchased of old;

still think the same upon:

The rod of thine inheritance,

which thou redeemed hast,

This Sion hill, wherein thou hadst

thy dwelling in times past.

^3To these long desolations

thy feet lift, do not tarry;

For all the ills thy foes have done

within thy sanctuary.

^4Amidst thy congregations

thine enemies do roar:

Their ensigns they set up for signs

of triumph thee before.

^5A man was famous, and was had

in estimation,

According as he lifted up

his axe thick trees upon.

^6But all at once with axes now

and hammers they go to,

And down the carved work thereof

they break, and quite undo.

^7They fired have thy sanctuary,

and have defil'd the same,

By casting down unto the ground

the place where dwelt thy name.

^8Thus said they in their hearts, Let us

destroy them out of hand:

They burnt up all the synagogues

of God within the land.

^9Our signs we do not now behold;

there is not us among

A prophet more, nor any one

that knows the time how long.

^10How long, Lord, shall the enemy

thus in reproach exclaim?

And shall the adversary thus

always blaspheme thy name?

^11Thy hand, ev'n thy right hand of might,

why dost thou thus draw back?

O from thy bosom pluck it out

for our deliv'rance sake.

^12For certainly God is my King,

ev'n from the times of old,

Working in midst of all the earth

salvation manifold.

^13The sea, by thy great pow'r, to part

asunder thou didst make;

And thou the dragons' heads, O Lord,

within the waters brake.

^14The leviathan's head thou brak'st

in pieces, and didst give

Him to be meat unto the folk

in wilderness that live.

^15Thou clav'st the fountain and the flood,

which did with streams abound:

Thou dry'dst the mighty waters up

unto the very ground.

^16Thine only is the day, O Lord,

thine also is the night;

And thou alone prepared hast

the sun and shining light.

^17By thee the borders of the earth

were settled ev'ry where:

The summer and the winter both

by thee created were.

^18That th' enemy reproached hath,

O keep it in record;

And that the foolish people have

blasphem'd thy name, O Lord.

^19Unto the multitude do not

thy turtle's soul deliver:

The congregation of thy poor

do not forget for ever.

^20Unto thy cov'nant have respect;

for earth's dark places be

Full of the habitations

of horrid cruelty.

^21O let not those that be oppress'd

return again with shame:

Let those that poor and needy are

give praise unto thy name.

^22Do thou, O God, arise and plead

the cause that is thine own:

Remember how thou art reproach'd

still by the foolish one.

^23Do not forget the voice of those

that are thine enemies:

Of those the tumult ever grows

that do against thee rise.