Psalm 74

Abraham Coles

2 Remember Thine own Israel,
Thy purchase long ago;
And this Mount Zion which has been
Thy Dwelling here below.

3 Lift up Thy feet, draw near and see
Perpetual ruins piled;
The ill Thy Sanctuary done,
How ravaged and defiled.

4 Thine adversaries mid the place
Of Thine assembly roared;
Their ensigns they set up for signs.
Who other gods adored.

5 They like to men with lifted axe
Among thick-growing trees,
6 With sledge and hatchet broke and hacked
The carvings of the frieze.

7 They set Thy Sacred House on fire,
Thy Dwelling-place profaned;
8 They burned up all God's synagogues
That in the Land remained.

9 No signs we see, there proof is none
Of gift of prophecy: —
No one among us knows how long
Before the end will be.

10 How long, Lord, shall the foe blaspheme?
Shall he forever stand?
11 Why from thy bosom dost Thou not
Pluck Thy destroying Hand?

12 Yet God's my King of old, who wrought
Salvation in the earth:
13 Thou by Thy strength the sea didst part,
And gav'st a nation birth:

Didst heads of huge sea-monsters crush;
14 Leviathan didst quell,
And gavest him for food to them,
That in the desert dwell:

15 Didst cleave the fountain and the flood,
Didst mighty rivers dry:
16 The day is Thine, the night is Thine,
The sun that climbs the sky.

17 Thou all the bounds of earth hast set,
Summer and winter made —
The frame of mighty nature formed,
And her foundations laid.

18 Remember this. Lord! how the foe
Blaspheme Thee and contemn —
19 A greedy herd, the turtle-dove
Surrender not to them.

20 Have to Thy covenant respect:
For earth's dark places are
Full of the homes of cruelty,
And everlasting jar.

22 Arise, O God! plead Thine own cause:
Make their reproaches end:
23 The tumults of Thine enemies,
Continually ascend.