1. A maskil of Asaph.Why, God, have you cast us off forever?Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?
2. Remember your people, whom you acquired of old,the tribe you redeemed as your own heritage,Mount Zion where you dwell.
3. Direct your steps toward the utter destruction,everything the enemy laid waste in the sanctuary.
4. Your foes roared triumphantly in the place of your assembly;they set up their own tokens of victory.
5. They hacked away like a forester gathering boughs,swinging his ax in a thicket of trees.
6. They smashed all its engraved work,struck it with ax and pick.
7. They set your sanctuary on fire,profaned your name’s abode by razing it to the ground.
8. They said in their hearts, “We will destroy them all!Burn all the assembly-places of God in the land!”
9. Even so we have seen no signs for us,there is no prophet any more,no one among us who knows for how long.
10. How long, O God, will the enemy jeer?Will the enemy revile your name forever?
11. Why draw back your hand,why hold back your right hand within your bosom?